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A power outage hit San Francisco on Saturday, leaving 130,000 residents without electricity for several hours at its peak, with the city’s main provider stating that all services would return overnight.
Pacific Gas & Electric Company stated in a press release on X (formerly Twitter) that power had been restored to approximately 90,000 households by 9 pm on Saturday, with the remaining 40,000 customers expected to be restored overnight.
“I know this was a rough day,” San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie said in a video posted on X (formerly Twitter) from the city’s emergency operations centre.
“That is progress (on restoration of power), but for those of you who do not have power, we want to make sure you stay safe and check on your neighbours,” he said.
Lurie added that a fire at a substation caused the widespread power outage, prompting the deployment of police, firefighters and other city officials.
The blackout knocked out traffic signals across the city, forcing traffic police to manually control intersections, while self-driving ride-hailing service Waymo suspended operations.
Large areas of the city, home to more than 800,000 people, were plunged into darkness, disrupting public transportation and leaving many traffic lights inoperable during a busy Christmas shopping weekend before power was gradually restored.
Dense fog compounded the disruption, and many businesses were forced to close at the height of the holiday shopping period, the San Francisco Chronicle reported, leaving usually crowded commercial districts eerily quiet.
One retailer described the sudden drop in shoppers just days before Christmas as “devastating.”
