Storm causes power outages across San Mateo County

PG&E has been working to address the outages, particularly in the hot spot areas, and resolved a majority of the outages in the north county area the same morning, spokesperson Tamar Sarkissian said. As of 3 p.m. Thursday, six Pacifica customers, 101 South San Francisco customers and 124 San Bruno customers still did not have power. In Belmont, 153 customers remained impacted.

“We are working to restore power safely and as quickly as possible,” Sarkissian said in a statement. “It’s all hands on deck, with our emergency operation center open around the clock.”

Sarkissian did not immediately respond to comment on when the remaining 1,438 San Mateo customers who still did not have power as of Thursday afternoon would regain it.

The outages have been largely caused by wind gusts, she said, which has brought down vegetation that toppled power lines in some cases and downed the lines themselves in others.

Wind gusts were at their highest Thursday morning, National Weather Service meteorologist Rachel Kennedy said, with 30 to 45 mph winds near the coastal and bayside areas and gusts of up to 50 to 60 mph in the Santa Cruz Mountains.

Along the coast, where outages are historically prominent, PG&E prepared personnel equipment and crews on-site in Half Moon Bay to address power issues that may arise, Sarkissian said.

“We have everything we need for that area,” she said. “If there are outages, everything is right there — we don’t have to go to a different part of the Peninsula to bring in crews or equipment.”

Since Sunday, Redwood City received 3.3 inches of rain, the San Francisco International Airport received 2.9 inches of rain, and Pacifica received 3 1/2 inches of rain, Kennedy said. The Santa Cruz Mountains have been hit the hardest, with rain measurements coming in above 6 inches in some areas.

San Mateo County can expect a fairly dry Friday, with rain picking back up overnight on Saturday from a new storm front, Kennedy said.

That storm should be warmer, producing less rainfall than the previous week, with the heaviest downpours next Monday and Tuesday, she said. Because soil is saturated from this week’s storm, she cautioned drivers to be careful of roads, underpasses and low-lying areas that might be more susceptible to flooding.

“While we haven’t had much flooding yet so far, we are expecting soil to be fairly saturated after the rain,” Kennedy said. “The additional rain we had this week may be more likely to produce nascent flooding.”

Next week, the San Mateo County bayside should see around an inch of rain, and the coastside should see around 1 1/2 to 2 inches, she said.