Sweeping power outages across large areas of San Francisco have left thousands of residents without power on Saturday, December 20. While PG&E’s Outage Center initially said 24,842 customers were affected, it told NBC Bay area minutes later that the number had increased to 39,520 households, according to The Mirror.
According to the outage map, The Presidio, Seacliff, Outer and Inner Richmond, Golden Gate Park, the Panhandle, Inner and Outer Sunset, and part of West of Twin Peaks were affected. PG&E’s website stated just before 3 pm that about 30% of the city was without power.
Meanwhile, BART said the Powell Street and the Civic Center stations were closed because of the outage.
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The San Francisco Department of Emergency Management revealed that traffic lights may be impacted by the outage. It urged drivers to treat the intersections as four-way stops.
{{/usCountry}}The San Francisco Department of Emergency Management revealed that traffic lights may be impacted by the outage. It urged drivers to treat the intersections as four-way stops.
{{/usCountry}}PG&E’s outage center stated that more than 100,000 customers in San Francisco were without power. The website said power restoration was estimated to be around 3:45 for some areas. For other areas, it remains undetermined.
Meanwhile, San Francisco Department of Emergency Management said in an X post, “A large power outage is impacting San Francisco - only call 9-1-1 for life safety emergencies, avoid non-essential travel, treat down traffic signals as four way stops, keep refrigerator and freezer doors closed, and turn off major appliances to prevent surges. Never use gas stoves, grills, or generators indoors due to carbon monoxide risks. More safety tips at http://sf.gov/power-outages and updates from PG&E at http://pgealerts.alerts.pge.com”.
What was the cause for the outages?
PG&E has not confirmed a cause for the massive outages, but the San Francisco Fire Department said that there is an ongoing fire at a PG&E substation at 8th and Mission Streets. SFFD received a call about the fire at 2:16 pm on Saturday, SFFD Lieutenant Mariano Elias said, as reported by The San Francisco Standard. The fire is 80% contained, with no injuries or structural damage reported.
“I’m sure [the fire] has a contributing factor as to why the power is out in the city,” Elias said.
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One-third of San Francisco residents were without power as of 3:20 pm, according to The San Francisco Standard. 125,016, or 30.2%, of Pacific Gas and Electric customers were without power.
The outage prompted SFMTA to shut down some of its Metro stops throughout the day. The Muni underground was bypassing the Powell, Civic Center, and Van Ness stations due to the outages, per a statement from the agency.