SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) — After rising to around 83,867 earlier Thursday, the number of customers now without power is 66,441, according to PG&E officials. This represents a significant drop from just before 11 p.m. Wednesday, when over 100,000 customers were without power.
PG&E says it has crews in place to help restore power as quickly as possible for this week’s storms. On Thursday, the utility issued an advisory on Twitter, saying that “flooding, downed trees and road closures may impact timely restoration,” adding, “customers are strongly urged to prepare for potential extended outages.”
Wednesday’s largest outages were in Daly City, with approximately 14,000 PG&E customers left without power in the early evening. In Berkeley, an outage knocked out power for more than 5,000 people.
Bay Area power outages as of 2 p.m.:
- San Francisco: 2,203
- Peninsula: 17,190
- North Bay: 24,127
- East Bay: 15,334
- South Bay: 7,587
- Bay Area total: 66,441
In anticipation of the brunt of the storm arriving Wednesday afternoon and evening, the utility said it has mobilized more than 3,000 personnel to respond to outages.
“Crews ready, trucks line up, equipment in place to respond to strong storms arriving today,” said PG&E Spokesperson Mayra Tostado in a tweet.
This week’s effort follows the restoration of power to nearly 500,000 customers who lost power during New Year’s Eve’s powerful storm. The 3,000 personnel poised to respond include 360 four-person electric crews, 397 troublemen, distribution line technicians and system inspectors who serve as the utility’s first responders and another 800 personnel who will monitor electric incidents, according to a PG&E press release.
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This week’s powerful storm has already resulted in flooding, downed trees, mudslides and other disruptions that have the potential to create further power outages.
“This weather system by itself would present widespread challenges, and we have to factor in that many parts of our service area remain saturated after last weekend’s storm. Our crews have been working tirelessly to ensure we minimize any impacts this storm may have on our customers and hometowns. We encourage customers to prepare for the storm now – have an emergency plan in case you lose power and update your contact information on PG&E’s website so we can provide you with real-time updates on outages in your neighborhood,” said Angie Gibson, vice president, PG&E Emergency Preparedness & Response.
Bay City News contributed to this report.
