(San Francisco) The power cut which affected up to 130,000 customers on Saturday evening in San Francisco now only affects 90,000 of them and power should be restored “overnight” for the remaining 40,000, announced the main electricity company of the Californian city.
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Power was restored at 9 p.m. Saturday (Sunday 12 a.m. Eastern Time) to 90,000 homes, Pacific Gas & Electric Company said in a statement.
“The remaining 40,000 customers must be replenished overnight,” added the company, which previously reported on X working “on an outage in San Francisco that affects approximately 130,000 customers.”
According to the city’s mayor, Daniel Lurie, the outage was caused by a fire in an electrical substation.
Much of this west coast tech hub, home to more than 800,000 residents, was plunged into darkness, disrupting public transport, before power began to be restored.
Parts of the city were covered in fog and many businesses were forced to close amid the Christmas shopping period, the newspaper reported. The San Francisco Chronicle.
“I know it’s been a tough day,” Daniel Lurie said in a video posted to X from the city’s emergency operations center. The municipality had previously asked residents to stay at home.
“It’s progress (restoring power) but for those of you who don’t have power, we want to make sure you’re safe, check on your neighbors,” he added.
Police, firefighters and other city officials were dispatched to the scene, asking residents to stay home if possible, Lurie said.
The outage rendered many traffic lights inoperable and police officers were deployed at intersections. The autonomous transportation service Waymo has also suspended the operation of its vehicles, the mayor further explained.
The sudden drop in the number of customers a few days before Christmas was “devastating” for businesses, said a manager at the Black & Gold household goods store. San Francisco Chronicle.
