5,000 in Oakland hills wake up without power
Lack of morning coffee top gripe during PG& E shutoffs
Thousands of people living and working in the Oakland hills found themselves without electricity Thursday as Pacific Gas and Electric Co. shut off power to prevent gusting dry winds from damaging lines and sparking wildfires.
At sunrise, the hills usually spring to life with commuters hitting the winding roads, heading to morning fitness classes or grabbing a quick breakfast and cup of coffee. But on Thursday, the streets were mostly empty, even in usually busy Montclair Village and the roads to Highway 13. Stoplights were out and temporary stop signs were mounted on barricades at intersections, turning them into fourway stops.
PG& E started shutting off electricity late Wednesday night to 32,000 customers in 24 counties, including about 5,300 in the Oakland hills. Preemptive shutoffs also hit pockets of Contra Costa County near Mount Diablo, the North Bay mountains near St. Helena, elevated areas near the Calaveras Reservoir east of Milpitas and the Santa Cruz Mountains, including parts of San Mateo and Santa Cruz counties, according to a PG& E statement Wednesday night.
PG& E spokeswoman Tamar Sarkissian said planned shutoffs for about 9,000 customers were averted by switching transmission lines. An additional 4,000 customers in seven counties outside the Bay Area were scheduled to have power switched off later Thursday, she said.
Power was to be restored by 10 p. m. Thursday in the Oakland hills and Contra Costa, Santa Clara, San Mateo and Santa Cruz counties, PG& E said. Another bout of gusty
winds was expected to hit the hills Thursday night into Friday morning and a National Weather Service red flag warning is in effect through 11 a. m. Friday for the North Bay mountains, East Bay hills and Santa Cruz Mountains. In the North Bay, electricity was expected to remain out until 10 p. m. Friday.
Mark Quinlan, a PG& E incident commander, said weather models showed potential risks that could lead to shutoffs in areas in Alameda County where power already had been restored.
“We do have a close eye on the East Bay, specifically the Diablo foothills and the Oakland hills,” he said. “We’re monitoring that. We feel pretty comfortable that once they’re restored, they’ll stay on.”
Power restored in the South Bay should stay on, he said.
PG& E did not immediately provide a damage assessment, but Quinlan said he “fully anticipates” reports of damage once impacted zones are assessed.
About 2,000 more customers were expected to have power restored by the end of Thursday, he said. The remaining should be restored by the end of Friday.
The shutoffs led to outages for Comcast. The internet provider said that nearly 4,000 homes and businesses across the Bay Area were without service Thursday afternoon, most of them in Oakland, but also in San Jose, St. Helena, Sonoma, Walnut Creek and Woodside.
Comcast said it would restore service after the power comes back on. Some people who did not lose power may still have lost Comcast service because Comcast’s equipment may be in an area that lost power.
For many in the Oakland hills early Thursday, the biggest concern was not the lack of power but a lack of morning coffee.
Gusty winds whipped through the area overnight, as expected, particularly in the hills and canyons. Breezes, strong and warm at times, swept through lower levels but turned into strong gusts at higher elevations.
Most of Montclair Village was included in the planned power shutoff, but 854 customers just north of the area had their power knocked out at about 2: 30 a. m. when a tree fell and struck an electrical line, according to PG& E crews. Neighbors said it caused a transformer to explode and was terrifying given its proximity to a hillside covered in dry vegetation. Those customers’ power was expected to be restored at about 4 p. m., according to PG& E.
The village is usually bustling in the morning with folks flowing into the area’s eight or so coffee and tea shops for their morning wakemeup.
But on Thursday morning, they were all closed — even chains like Peet’s and Starbucks, which still had a “We’re Open” banner in its front window.
In the shutoff zone, the small Thornhill business district was without power as well. That meant the coffee urns were empty at Thornhill Coffee House and the espresso machines and lights were out. Outside, some blackshrouded goblins — Halloween decorations — danced wildly in the breeze.
Atop the hill at The Hills Swim & Tennis Club, the winds shook the tops of trees, sent leaves rattling down the street, and caused poolside canopies to billow. The closure caught Jana, a fitness instructor, by surprise. She showed up shortly after 7 a. m. to prepare for her cycling class but found the doors closed and a sign reading, “No power due to outage. The club is temporarily closed until power is restored.”
“I can’t believe nobody told me,” she said, declining to give her last name. “I didn’t know about the power outage. I drove all the way from San Leandro.”
Aside from Lucky and Safeway, which had generators and operated as usual, nearly every store in Montclair Village was closed at 8: 30 a. m. The exception was Colonial Donuts, which was still selling doughnuts, for cash only.
Juan Perez, who stops by every morning, walked out with a couple of doughnuts — but nothing to drink.
“You can get doughnuts, but no coffee,” he said. “What good are doughnuts without coffee?”
Brad Spychalski, who lives nearby in the hills, was searching for coffee at Starbucks, which was closed, after grabbing milk for his kids next door at Safeway.
Power went out at Spychalski’s house Wednesday night and winds shook the trees but none toppled.
“It was super windy,” he said. “We hope it gets better today.”
Spychalski prepared for the winds by making sure the electric garage door could open so he could make the morning journey for milk — and perhaps coffee — but he made no other preparations. His family would have to figure out how to work and attend classes remotely without power or WiFi. And they would have to deal with forecasted sweltering temperatures.
Despite the challenges, he said his family would weather the power shutoff and was more concerned about the hot, dry winds sparking fires or toppling trees.
“We’ll be fine,” he said. Just uncaffeinated.