Keeping the lights on has been a real struggle through these powerful storms.
More than 100,000 PG&E customers didn’t have power Tuesday after torrential downpours and powerful winds pushed trees onto power lines throughout Northern California.
PG&E said the South Bay was hit especially hard. One neighborhood in South San Jose had been without power since early Tuesday morning after a tree went down into a power line.
The power went out early, and stayed out all day, in wide areas of Los Gatos and surrounding communities.
Drivers were forced to navigate busy intersections with no traffic lights and most of the shops and restaurants on Santa Cruz Avenue closed early or never opened.
“The post office is closed, but Pizza My Heart is still open. That’s just how we do things,” said Conner Auburn of Pizza My Heart.
He said the restaurant learned from previous experiences that it can keep its doors open and its pizza ovens fired up when the power goes out.
“Yeah, a few times. The weather in the Bay can be unpredictable,” said Auburn.
Using battery-powered headlamps, lanterns, and a gas over, it was almost business as usual. But with a dimly-lit power outage ambiance.
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“We adapt,” said Auburn. “People tell us what they want, and we can do cash orders still – and gas ovens luckily – so we’re able to hold it together.”
Trees have been the biggest challenge according to PG&E.
A huge tree fell in San Jose’s Willow Glenn neighborhood, knocking out a large transmission tower, and when it fell it took down three power poles, lines and transformers, knocking out power to more than 1,000 customers.
“Lightning strikes, gusts of 70 miles per hour, it has really been unprecedented – the series of storms is unlike anything we’ve seen,” said Tamar Sarkissian, PG&E spokesperson.
With trees coming down everywhere and knocking out power to tens of thousands of homes and businesses across the Bay Area, PG&E says more than 6,500 people are now in the field working to restore power.
Late Tuesday evening, most of the customers affected were in the Bay Area and Central Coast.
“We’re doing everything we can to get all of our customers turned back on as safely and as quickly as possible,” said Sarkissian.
PG&E said it has pre-positioned material yards with power poles, transformers and other items that are in high demand whenever there’s widespread outages.
It also said it keeps crews strategically placed and ready to jump into action when the forecasts predict high winds, heavy rains or other events that can cause those outages.
PG&E also reminded people, if you come across a situation like this with a downed power line, stay away from it and assume it is hot, and phone it in as soon as possible.
