PG&E crews toiled Wednesday night to restore power to tens of thousands of the utility’s customers in the Bay Area after ferocious winds whipped through the region this week.
As of 6 p.m. Wednesday, approximately 35,400 PG&E customers in the Bay Area remained without power, the utility reported.
The lack of power — and the ability to run heating systems in the affected residences — materialized just ahead of a freeze warning that was expected to begin early Thursday morning and last throughout the day.
Here’s how many PG&E customers were without power in the utility’s Bay Area districts:
- Peninsula, about 25,500 customers
- South Bay, 8,100
- North Bay, 1,500
- East Bay, 200
- San Francisco, 80
Early Wednesday afternoon, about 42,700 were without power in the Bay Area, including at least 32,000 on the Peninsula and 6,200 in the South Bay, PG&E reported.
Wednesday morning, PG&E reported that more than 64,000 were without power in the Bay Area.
A map on one of PG&E’s web pages showed that the hardest hit locations for power outages in the Bay Area as of 10 p.m. were in southern San Mateo County, along the State Route 35 summit road where State Route 35 intersects State Route 17, and in the Ben Lomond area along and near State Route 9.
The National Weather Service issued a freeze warning that was scheduled to go into effect at midnight on Wednesday, then last until 9 a.m. on Thursday.
Throughout the Bay Area, temperatures were expected to dip into the 30s, according to the National Weather Service office in the region.
The Weather Service issued a winter storm warning — the first for the Bay Area since 2011 — for much of the region. Snow flurries were expected to appear in at least some parts of the Bay Area, according to the forecasts.
Snow was expected to fall to as low as 1,500 feet in the chilliest regions and during the coldest hours in the Bay Area, official forecasters said. Some snow fell during the evening in the Santa Cruz Mountains, a motorist-recorded video showed.
Snow showers were deemed to be likely after midnight in the Santa Cruz Mountains, the Weather Service predicted.
Santa Clara County officials opened warming centers to help people deal with the cold weather. The county said people could find more information at the link the county created to provide more details about the warming centers. The web link also offers a list of warming centers, which includes numerous libraries.
Source: www.mercurynews.com