More Than 20K PG&E Customers Lose Power In Bay Area Due To Powerful Wind Storm
(CBS SF) -- Around 24,000 customers have lost power in the Bay Area Tuesday due to high winds, PG&E officials said.
Around 16,000 of those customers had their power restored as of about 12:30 p.m., leaving about 8,000 still without power.
The majority of those are in the East Bay, where around 6,350 customers remain without power this afternoon, and in the North Bay where 940 customers are affected.
PG&E has about 1,500 personnel out working to clear downed vegetation and lines and restore service.
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"We are still seeing windy weather and I think we'll be seeing that all day," utility spokeswoman Brittany McKannay said. "We're going to continue to see outages today and we're going to be continuing to restore them into the evening."
The high winds are also causing problems with BART, with trains running at reduced speeds due to reports of wind-blown debris on the tracks systemwide and service halted altogether in part of San Francisco due to downed trees.
National Weather Service officials said the strongest winds would be felt in the Bay Area from around noon today through noon Wednesday and could reach speeds of up to 45 mph.
Wind gusts could reach up to 55 mph in the North and East Bay areas.
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