Blackout hits Berkeley BART, businesses

Traffic backed up at darkened signals, people sat stranded in elevators, a BART station was temporarily shut down, and hundreds of hungry Berkeley High students roamed Shattuck Avenue in search of lunch after a major power failure hit Berkeley and surrounding cities Monday morning.

The blackout cut power to tens of thousands of homes and businesses, causing minor havoc and moderate inconvenience for about 3½ hours before electricity was restored in the early afternoon, officials said.

Pacific Gas and Electric Co. spokeswoman Abby Figueroa said an estimated 43,000 customers in Berkeley, Albany, El Cerrito, Richmond and San Pablo lost power at 9:35 a.m. By 12:52 p.m., the company said, PG&E had restored power to all of those customers.

The cause of the blackout was under investigation, but crews were looking into an equipment failure that caused a small fire at the El Cerrito substation — a blaze the El Cerrito Fire Department quickly extinguished.

The blackout knocked out power not only to businesses but to many traffic signals, which either went dark or defaulted to flashing red lights. Traffic backed up on many thoroughfares, and at Ninth Street and University, the lack of working lights apparently contributed to a collision between two cars.

One of the biggest impacts was to BART, which shut down its Downtown Berkeley Station because the lack of power left the station dark and the ticket machines and fare gates inoperable. AC Transit buses shuttled riders to downtown Berkeley from the Ashby and North Berkeley stations. By 11:45 a.m., the station was reopened after BART brought in a portable generator and parked it along Shattuck Avenue outside the station.

UC Berkeley and five Berkeley city schools were impacted by the blackout, PG&E said. Just after noon, Berkeley High students converged on Shattuck Avenue in a futile search for businesses serving lunch. They roamed in large groups, finding few open businesses.

“I just want to eat,” one student said as he strolled past yet another closed restaurant. “I’m so hungry.”

Others found themselves stranded by the blackout. Albert Buchanan, a UPS delivery worker, said he was stuck in an elevator at an office building in Berkeley for an hour and a half during the blackout, from 9:20 to 10:50 a.m., before firefighters helped get him out.

“You have to be patient,” he said as he scurried to catch up on his deliveries. “You just have to wait. What else can you do?”