A widespread power failure cast large swathes of San Francisco into darkness on Saturday, severely disrupting the final weekend before Christmas. The blackout, which at its peak left nearly a third of the city's electricity customers without power, brought public transport to a halt, forced business closures, and upended daily life before electricity was slowly restored late in the evening.
Scale and Impact of the Blackout
According to the Associated Press, the outage impacted approximately 130,000 out of the city's 414,000 electricity customers at its height. The situation improved significantly by around 9:30 pm, with the number of affected customers dropping to roughly 40,000 as reported by PowerOutage.com. The northern half of the city bore the brunt of the blackout, with several neighbourhoods losing power.
The affected areas included:
- The Richmond and Sunset districts
- Areas surrounding Golden Gate Park
- Haight-Ashbury
- Parts of downtown San Francisco
The iconic dome of City Hall went dark, and residents resorted to using phone flashlights to navigate streets. Some restaurants adapted by serving meals in candlelight, creating an unusual atmosphere amidst the disruption.
Transport Halted and Events Cancelled
The consequences of the outage were immediate and far-reaching. Mass transit systems faced major operational challenges. BART closed its Powell Street and Civic Center stations, while the Muni light-rail system was forced to curtail services after its computer systems were impacted. In a sign of the times, Waymo made the decision to temporarily suspend its driverless taxi services in the city.
Cultural events were not spared either. The San Francisco Ballet had to cancel a scheduled performance of the holiday classic, The Nutcracker, disappointing many attendees on a busy pre-Christmas weekend. Shops were forced to close, dealing a blow to businesses counting on last-minute holiday shoppers.
"No power, no business," said gas station attendant Kevin Lee, succinctly capturing the frustration of many merchants, as quoted by The New York Times.
Cause and Response
The origin of the massive outage was traced to a fire at a Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) substation located at Eighth and Mission streets. Firefighters battled the blaze, which was reported around 2 pm. Initially, officials described the fire as a "contributing factor," noting it was unclear if it was the sole cause. However, Mayor Daniel Lurie later stated that the substation fire had indeed caused the blackout, according to an AFP report.
City officials urged residents to stay home if possible and to treat all non-functioning traffic signals as four-way stops to ensure safety. PG&E announced that it had stabilised the electrical grid and did not anticipate further outages, promising that power would be fully restored overnight.
The incident serves as a stark reminder of the vulnerabilities in urban infrastructure, especially during peak holiday seasons, and highlights the cascading effects a single point of failure can have on a major metropolitan city.
