Widespread power outage hits San Francisco
Posted at 12:10 a.m. EST Tuesday, December 8, 1998
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.''
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