Thousands Without Power As High Winds Rock Bay Area

BAY AREA, CA — Strong, gusty winds are continuing to wreak havoc on the Bay Area power grid and other services Sunday afternoon, with large electrical outages reported across the region.

A total of 61,936 PG&E customers have been affected across the Bay Area, NBC reported, with the East Bay suffering some of the most severe outages. A wind advisory initially issued for the North and East Bay Hills has been expanded to the entire Bay Area as well as the Santa Cruz coast, the National Weather Service said.

Widespread outages

In northern Alameda County, more than 5,000 customers appeared to be without power in Dublin, more than 5,000 in Livermore and several hundred in Pleasanton, according to PG&E maps.

Elsewhere in the county, more than 4,000 outages were reported in San Leandro, more than 2,200 in Berkeley, more than 4,000 in Hayward and more than 1,800 in Fremont.

In Santa Cruz County, more than 8,600 customers reportedly lost power in Capitola-Soquel, as well as several thousand in Santa Cruz.

In San Mateo County, more than 3,400 customers were without power around San Mateo and Burlingame, and hundreds more in Redwood City, San Carlos and South San Francisco.

In Contra Costa County, more than 2,600 were without power around Pinole, and more than 1,400 in El Cerrito.

The Santa Rosa Fire Department said at 9 a.m. that more than 6,600 customers were without power and that any trees that have come down onto power lines should be reported by calling 911.

An outage in the Fairfield/Suisun City area of Solano County darkened more than 5,000 customers, while power was out to more than 2,300 in Vacaville and several hundred in Benicia. In Sonoma, more than 3,000 customers were reportedly without power. An outage in Napa affected more than 2,700 customers.

In Santa Clara County, thousands of customers in San Jose lost power, as well as more than 4,500 customers near Cupertino and nearly 1,200 in Los Gatos. Power was also out to some 200 customers in Gilroy, and over 500 in Milpitas.

Delays and cancellations

Beyond the outages, Sunday's windstorm has caused other disruptions. A power pole reportedly fell onto a car on Interstate 880 in San Leandro, causing delays. In San Francisco, winds blew out a window from the Millennium Tower, causing glass to fall to the ground.

All ferry service was canceled by Golden Gate Ferry due to the high winds. Bus service was available between the Larkspur and San Francisco ferry terminals.

Bay City News contributed to this report.