9,500 Hit By Power Outages In San Jose, Campbell Due To Heat
SAN JOSE (CBS SF) -- About 9,500 Pacific Gas & Electric customers were without power in the South Bay late Tuesday afternoon in a series of outages caused mainly by the increased use of air conditioners in the summer heat, PG&E officials said.
About 1,400 customers had their power restored as of about 5:15 p.m.
The latest outage was reported at 4:45 p.m. affecting about 5,400 people in San Jose, which added to the 4,100 people without power elsewhere in San Jose and Campbell this afternoon, Liebelt said.
PG&E believes most of the outages can be traced to air conditioning units being turned up as residents try to stay cool.
"We're in a heat wave," Liebelt said.
Outages like these can be expected when people get home from work between 4 p.m. and 6 p.m. and turn on their air conditioners, Liebelt said.
The National Weather Service, which reported a high temperature of 91 degrees in San Jose Tuesday, extended an excessive heat warning for the San Francisco Bay Area through Thursday.
The weather service warned of "dangerously hot" temperatures in the 90s to 110 degrees in inland areas through the period.
PG&E is "back feeding" or rerouting power to all customers who are experiencing outages late Tuesday afternoon, Liebelt said.
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