Water Damage to Underground Electrical Vaults Leads To Power Outages In San Francisco
SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) – Water from storms earlier this week damaged an underground electrical vault in San Francisco, causing power outages in the city's financial district Friday morning that lasted until that evening.
PG&E officials said they first received reports of the power outage in San Francisco's Financial District at around 6:24 a.m. Initially 2,100 customers lost power.
While investigating the outage, crews discovered weather-related damage to an underground electric vault on Mission Street, caused by heavy rainfall earlier, which had collected in the vault. According to officials, utility workers often have to empty water from the vaults to access the equipment inside, especially after periods of rain.
As of 3:38 p.m., crews were still repairing the water-damaged equipment. Around 850 PG&E customers in the area still didn't have power.
"PG&E crews had to pump the water at several locations to access damaged equipment, and are actively working to restore power via switching while crews assess the damage," PG&E officials wrote in a press release. "Additional outage activity has been reported since this morning due to other electric equipment being damaged as a result of this incident."
The exact cause of the power outage was still under investigation but PG&E spokesperson Mayra Tostado said that the damaged equipment had been identified and that additional crews were brought in to help.
"We apologize for the inconvenience and thank our customers for their patience and understanding while we work to restore power safely and as quickly as possible," Tostado wrote.
This story will be updated.