Power At San Jose Airport Restored; I-880 Reopened
SAN JOSE (CBS SF) – Power was fully restored at Mineta San Jose International Airport and all lanes of I-880 have reopened after a Friday morning filled with outages and downed power lines plagued the South Bay.
The outage affected the entire airport for almost two hours, according to airport officials.
Airport spokeswoman Rosemary Barnes said the power went out at 9:55 a.m. with the backup generators coming online.
She said flight and passenger operations were continuing, but there may be some flight delays. Passengers have been asked to check flight status with their airlines before heading to the airport.
Barnes said wind gusts of up to 45 mph have been measured at the airport.
Toppled trees taking down multiple power lines in the area were the cause of the issues at both the airport and on 880.
Southbound lanes on Interstate Highway 880 reopened to traffic at around 12:15 p.m. after downed power lines on the highway had blocked all lanes in both directions near Bascom Avenue in San Jose.
According to CHP in San Jose, PG&E crews were able to remove the power lines , allowing southbound traffic is open. Northbound traffic was merging into the far left lane south of First Street as crews continued working to remove the fallen tree in the two right lanes.
The right and center lanes of northbound I-880 finally reopened at about 2:48, according to CHP.
So this literally just happened. Not even any cops on site yet pic.twitter.com/iOiGrRzUvh
— Toby (@303SnowWolf) February 17, 2017
As of 10:45 a.m., northbound Interstate 880 was backed up into Highway 17 near Campbell, while southbound 880 was backed up past the Highway 101 interchange.
Officials initially said the freeway was not expected to reopen until 5 p.m., but it appeared that northbound traffic would likely reopen early once the tree was removed.
Winds also toppled an old oak tree on north 17th Street in San Jose, sending it through the roof where people were asleep inside.
"All of a sudden I heard a crash, came outside and found the tree sitting on the house," said tenant Mark Rodriguez.
San Jose fire fighters say it made for a dangerous situation on the streets.
"There's lots of places where we have trees and poles and wires down," said San Jose Fire Capt. Mitch Matlow. "There's lots of places where the power is out. If you approach an intersection where the power is out, treat it like a four-way stop."
Heavy winds and falling tree limbs has downed numerous power poles in Santa Clara, Santa Cruz and Monterey counties Friday morning, leaving tens of thousands of PG&E customers without power, according to PG&E officials.
Two transmission poles on the Central Coast were brought down and a PG&E substation in Salinas, where 25,971 people are currently experiencing an outage, was also affected.
Winds as fast as 69 mph were reported at the Salinas airport starting at 5:30 a.m., PG&E spokeswoman Mayra Tostado said. Some 10,276 Monterey residents are still without power this afternoon.
PG&E crews from other services areas are responding to the South Bay and Central Coast to help restore power, but in many cases downed vegetation is making it difficult for crews to access sites and complete repairs.
In Santa Cruz, 5,361 customers are still experiencing an outage.
Officials expect more outages to crop up throughout the day as heavy winds continue to blow in the area, Tostado said.
Residents who come across downed lines or power poles should stay away and call 911 immediately.
"We are facing very dangerous situations," Tostado said.
Tens of thousands of Santa Clara County residents are experiencing outages as of 12:30 p.m., including 18,742 in San Jose, 6,635 in Gilroy and 3,621 in Morgan Hill.
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