San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
Thousands lose power in ferocious winds
Thousands of people throughout the Bay Area lost power heading into the weekend, thanks to anticipated high winds that reached nearly 100 mph in parts of the North Bay. Although many households and businesses were restored by midday Saturday, including shops and restaurants at San Francisco’s popular Ferry Building, thousands remained without power well into Saturday evening, according to Pacific Gas and Electric Co. maps.
In Oakland alone, the Fire Department announced in a tweet that 10,000 customers still had no power by late afternoon. A resident on El Centro Avenue responded that PG&E had sent an email saying the power wouldn’t come on again until 3 p.m. Sunday. “Looks like sports bar for watching 49ers,” the person tweeted.
Areas still waiting for power included parts of every Bay Area county, from Gilroy in the south up to Healdsburg in northern Sonoma County. Overnight gusts there reached 96 mph, according to the National Weather Service, which called the winds “impressive.”
At the Hog Island Oyster Co. restaurant in San Francisco’s
Ferry Building, general manager Ethan Thompson sent his morning crew home when the lights went out.
“We couldn’t cook anything,” he said, aware of the irony for a restaurant specializing in raw shellfish. “We’re just not equipped to function without power,” he clarified, about 10 minutes after the power flickered back to life at 1:30 p.m.
The most concentrated blackouts were in Alameda County.
There, parts of Piedmont, Berkeley and Oakland were hardest hit amid reports of downed trees across the area. The weather service said winds hit 71 mph atop Mount Diablo in Contra Costa County.
“Our crews have been out all night and all day dealing with damaged trees and damaged wires and roadways,” said Brian Protheroe, a firefighter medic with the Piedmont Fire Department.
PG&E has also been out trying to get the lights back on. Nearly 30,000 customers lost power overnight Friday, according to unconfirmed estimates.
Some places, such as Oakland Heights Nursing and Rehabilitation on East 29th Street, have kept going with their own generator while waiting for PG&E to restore power. But not every business was so equipped.
“We’re completely closed right now,” Murad Nasher, owner of the Munchrite Market at 1839 96th Ave. in Oakland, said around midday Saturday. He arrived at work in the morning to find the power out and the ice cream melting.
“Customers are coming, but we just have to tell them we’re closed,” Nasher said. “We just had winds — there’s nothing I can really do. It just happened.”
Across town, the howling winds awakened Lis and Mason McKinley just before 4 a.m.,— and they did try to do something about it. Remembering the wobbly fence alongside their house in Maxwell Park, Mason McKinley went out to check, then called to his wife: “Lis! I need your help!”
She found him in the neighbor’s driveway preparing to nail planks to the fence in hopes of keeping it upright. Shaking her head, she went back to bed, certain that predawn carpentry would bug the neighbors more than a downed fence on their driveway.
Instead of pounding nails, her husband propped the planks against the fence and crossed his fingers. By morning, the fence still stood.