|
|
|
Uploaded: Thursday, December 20, 2012, 10:07 PM
Updated: Thursday, December 20, 2012, 11:38 PM
Power back on in Menlo Park
|
Pacific Gas & Electric says that power has been restored to parts of Menlo Park west of El Camino Real, according to a spokesperson at the PG&E outage office.
Power went off abruptly at about 7:30 p.m. Thursday in the Allied Arts neighborhood and parts of downtown south of Santa Cruz Avenue.
At the northwest corner of Middle Avenue and University Drive, a police officer from the Menlo Park Police Department pointed out a power pole on the northwest corner of the intersection where an electrical line had separated.
A look at the southwest corner revealed a long length of white wire lying there in unorganized coils on the short stretch of sidewalk that runs along University Drive.
Firefighters from the Menlo Park Fire Protection District blocked University Drive into the Allied Arts neighborhood for about 45 minutes. Firefighters departed after the PG&E workers left, apparently to attend to various other areas experiencing outages.
Firefighters and police laughed at the timing of the outage: a few hours ahead of Dec. 21, the supposed day of apocalyptic destruction of the planet reportedly predicted by an ancient Mayan calender.
Power returned to the streetlights along the north side of Middle Ave at about 8:30 p.m.
One resident after another, many in vehicles and some on foot with flashlights, stopped by the intersection and asked police and firefighters what had happened and when power would be restored.
PG&E returned to the scene at about 8:45 p.m. and began wrapping up the downed and de-energized wire, at which point the police officer also left.
A resident who said she lives near the corner said she heard a loud noise and saw a bright flash flood the room with blue light through a window.
Another resident who lives nearby said he was driving up Middle Avenue at about 7:25 p.m. and saw bright flashing in the area of the upper region of the affected power pole.
Upon arriving at home, he immediately built a fire in his fireplace in anticipation of an outage, which came about three minutes later, he said.
— Dave Boyce Are you receiving Express, our free daily e-mail edition? See a sample and sign-up for Express.
|
|
| Comments
|
Posted by Christin, a resident of the Menlo Park: Downtown neighborhood, on Dec 20, 2012 at 11:45 pm At Kepler's Books, we had several people in the bookstore doing their holiday shopping when the lights went out once and then twice.
Luckily, everyone was in a good mood. Customers were very sweet and lingered under the romantic glow of the emergency lights. Several people used their phones as flashlights and browsed the shelves in the dark! And, we were able to ring customers out on the wireless terminals. A twist on holiday shopping fun!
|
|
Posted by B, a resident of the Menlo Park: Downtown neighborhood, on Dec 21, 2012 at 2:07 am Power still out at Roble / University - 2:04am Friday Dec 21, 2012. Power first went out around Thurs Dec 20th at 7:45pm.
|
|
Posted by E, a resident of the Menlo Park: Allied Arts/Stanford Park neighborhood, on Dec 21, 2012 at 11:00 am University/Middle power was out until ~4AM. Thanks to the firefighters and police for their help!
|
|
Posted by No apocalypse after all?, a resident of the Menlo Park: Downtown neighborhood, on Dec 21, 2012 at 11:13 am No apocalypse after all? Just another PG&E screw up?
|
|
Posted by Gary, a resident of the Menlo Park: Downtown neighborhood, on Dec 21, 2012 at 11:38 am I live by Live Oak and Crane in downtown. I received an automated call from PG&E at 7:32p last night about a power outage, however, I still had power so it seemed strange. THEN my power went out a few minutes later. It was restored at around 3:30 a.m. As the article mentions, impeccable timing. Happy Mayan Long Count Calendar New Epoch's Day everybody!
|
|
Posted by Burton, a resident of the Menlo Park: Allied Arts/Stanford Park neighborhood, on Dec 21, 2012 at 11:51 am Ditto the thanks to the first responders: PGE linemen, police and fire.
Good organized, hardworking men, all!
PGE corporate needs to quit cutting costs year round, and do more preventative maintenance during the rest of the year, such as tree trimming, more pole maintenance, etc..., imo. Too much cost cutting leads to outages in the most minor storms. Unacceptable.
|
|
|
| |
|
Send this story
Print this story
