North Bay residents frustrated with lingering outages days after damaging storm
More than 12,000 Pacific Gas and Electric customers in the Bay Area woke up Thursday without electricity for the fifth day following the damaging storm that battered the region on Sunday.
PG&E said the storm was the most damaging single storm in nearly 30 years, causing customer outages that affected more than 1.4 million customers across California.
In the Bay Area, most of the outages lingered in the North Bay. While the heavy rain and wind have calmed for now, the effects of the storm continue to impact residents.
In San Rafael, 81-year-old Mike Van Horn is one of them. As his neighborhood remained without power for days, he decided to seek refuge at his local Starbucks to get by for now.
"I'm charging up everything. Watch, phone, laptop, iPad," he said.
Uprooted trees and excessive debris are the main causes of the outages, forcing people like Van Horn to find resourceful ways to stay connected.
Meanwhile, PG&E continues to assess the damage.
"We saw winds in excess of 90 and in one case 100 miles an hour sustained over the course of Sunday into Monday morning," said
Dave Canny, PG&E North Coast Region vice president.
Van Horn, who is a full-time author, felt a sense of urgency to complete a project near and dear to his heart.
"My wife is also a writer, and she passed away last fall," he said.
So he is finishing up what she started.
"I'm sitting here to compose the final couple of chapters."
And while he works away, PG&E continues to work away, getting people not just internet access, but other critical necessities like heat.
Van Horn says he's grateful local businesses stayed open to keep warm.
"It was a blessing to have this," said Van Horn. 'I almost always start off the day with a mug of hot coffee while still in bed."
This time, Starbucks will have to do. He says he's just doing his best to stay positive.
"Oh keep your sense of humor, we are so tired of this."
