Storm Knocks Out Power to 30,000 in the Bay Area

Update: More than 13,000 PG&E customers across the Bay Area remained without power this morning after a night of rain and heavy wind, a utility spokesman said.

About 980 East Bay customers and 100 in San Francisco remained without power this morning. Most of the remaining outages were in the North Bay, where about 8,500 homes and businesses were without power as of 8 a.m., PG&E spokesman J.D. Guidi said. About 2,040 Peninsula PG&E customers were experiencing outages, along with 1,440 in the South Bay. As many as 30,000 customers across the region lost power overnight.

Saturday night's storm brought high winds, thunder and lightning, and an onslaught of heavy rain into early Sunday morning, causing a mass power outage across the Bay Area.

As of 2:50am Sunday, more than 30,000 people were in the dark because of power outages triggered by the stormy weather, a PG&E spokesman said.

About 14,000 customers in the North Bay and 12,800 customers in the East Bay are without power, PG&E spokesman J.D. Guidi said.

Weather-related outages are also affecting 4,000 customers in the South Bay, Guidi said. Along the Peninsula, there are 3,300 customers without power, he said. There are also 120 San Francisco customers without service, Guidi said. 

The current power outages follow a similar episode on Friday night, when roughly 5,600 people were left in the dark. Almost 4,000 people in El Cerrito, Kensington and Berkeley experienced an outage that started at 7:45 p.m. Power was restored early Saturday morning.

Because of the large number of current outages, there are no estimates for when power will be restored to PG&E customers, Guidi said.

The current high winds and heavy rain add to the difficulty in restoring service, he said. "We will be working around the clock to restore power," Guidi said. 

Although the storm has subsided and sunny breaks are expected in the East Bay Sunday, there is  still a chance of rain showers and isolated thunder storms. Winds from 5 to 15 mph are expected. Rain and possible thunderstorms are also projected to continue through Monday, with highs in the 50s.

Bay City News, Inc. contributed to this report.