12/08 11:44 Widespread power outage hits San Francisco, suburbs

SAN FRANCISCO, Dec 8 (Reuters) - A widespread power outage hit the San Francisco area on Tuesday morning, cutting service to thousands of electricity customers and snarling traffic at the height of morning rush-hour traffic.

Pacific Gas and Electric Co., a unit of PG&E Corp., said it appeared power was out to at least 36,000 customers in and around San Francisco. A spokesman said the company was still investigating the cause of the outage.

-- Anonymous, December 08, 1998

Answers

At least 250,000 without power.

One of my guys just phoned to say that he can't make it in to work because the electric garage door can't be opened.

It's the simple things that really bite, eh?

--AJ

Widespread power outage hits San Francisco

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- Traffic lights went blank, elevators stopped moving and trains quit running today when a power outage left a quarter-million people in the dark.

Apparently the problem was concentrated in the 49 square mile area of San Francisco, but there were reports of power outages from as far away as Stonestown, six miles south of San Francisco.

``There is a problem in the electrical distribution system. We're working to pinpoint it now,'' said Len Anderson, a spokesman for Pacific Gas & Electric.

``At the moment, we have about 174,000 customers without electricity in San Francisco and on the peninsula approximately 92,000 without electricity,'' he said.

All of the traffic lights in downtown San Francisco were out, callers told KGO Radio, which also had reports of outages across the Bay in San Ramon.

Flights headed into San Francisco International Airport were being diverted to San Jose or Oakland, said Western Region Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Mitch Barker in Seattle.

``The security checkpoints at San Francisco were shut down as well,'' Barker said of the power outage at the airport.

At The Associated Press office, there appeared to be a power surge shortly after 8 a.m., then the power went out completely.

The power outage crippled the city's transportation system and left pedestrians dodging cars and stalled public transit.

Muni buses and trolley cars were stalled in the streets because they rely on overhead power lines.

The outage knocked out 17 of the 57 Bay Area Rapid Transit trains operating at the time. Those trains were able, with limited power, to get to stations and no trains were stuck in subway tunnels, including one under the bay.

BART spokesman Mike Healy said those trains and stations were lighted by emergency battery power. The line through San Francisco was affected; the East Bay trains continued to operate.

Most other calls made from Los Angeles to transportation services, utilities and home phones went unanswered.

The power surge was experienced as far north as Napa and across the bay in Hayward, dimming lights, making TVs goes fuzzy and knocking computers off line. But power in most of those areas was restored within the hour, callers told KGO.

At the downtown Fairmont Hotel, a secretary to the general manager said: ``We have a generator, and there is light in the hallways. Our security director is making an announcement to guests to remain calm, that everything is under control.''

Employees would not comment on whether there was any problem with elevators in the hotel.

``We're operating on emergency power,'' said Bill Griffin, rooms director at the Hyatt Fishermans' Wharf. ``All of our elevators are operating on emergency power, and we have electricity fed to our meeting rooms.''

-- Anonymous, December 08, 1998

Here's a link to an AP story that relates the SF power outage to Y2k concerns:

http://dailynews.yahoo.com/headlines/wr/story.html?s=v/nm/19981208/wr/ power_1.html

-- Anonymous, December 08, 1998