>I see on the news bulletins that San Francisco is experiencing a massive
and
>mysterious power blackout. Could this be an early symptom? Maybe a systems
>test that didn't work?
>>
>Tom Walker
The following makes it sound all very mysterious!
Ed Weick
Massive blackout hits San Francisco, Peninsula
By Larry D. Hatfield
OF THE EXAMINER STAFF
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A massive power failure brought San Francisco to a darkened standstill at
the height of the morning rush hour Tuesday, stranding hundreds of people in
high-rise elevators and dark tunnels, freezing traffic, knocking thousands
of computers off-line and paralyzing business operations and otherwise
creating havoc.
The blackout, which rolled neighborhood to neighborhood as far north as
Fairfield and into other parts of the Bay Area after a Pacific Gas &
Electric plant in San Mateo shut down, began at 8:17 a.m. and still had much
of the region blacked out hours later.
By late morning, power had been restored to various areas but much of the
region was still without electricity. PG&E spokesman Corey Warren said power
was returning station by station, with manual switching required to restore
electricity city block by city block. Mayor Brown said he was told by PG&E
officials that the blackout was caused by human error, but offered no
details.
"San Francisco has been magnificent,'' Brown said. "People have been
respectful of each other. The City is essentially functioning as it
previously has, a little bit slower but it's functioning."
By late morning, some 350,000 PG&E customers were still without power; about
30,000 had their power restored.
Of major concern were reports from the San Francisco Fire Department that as
many as 10 percent of the elevators in 500 high-rise buildings San Francisco
were having problems. There were no major medical emergencies reported. Fire
DepartmentInspector Kaan Chin said the biggest problem was panic.
"The fire department has been anticipating a situation like this since the
1989 earthquake,'' he said, adding that it took about a half hour for each
elevator to free trapped people.
Although some people were temporarily City department heads were already in
their regular Tuesday meeting with Brown, then convened within minutes of
the blackout at The City's emergency services headquarters at 1003A Turk
St., according to Rachel O'Hara, an official in the city administrator's
office.
After returning from a briefing, Dr. Mitchell Katz, director of the
department of public health, predicted that all power would be back to the
entire city by noon. He said power already was restored by 11 a.m. in the
Embarcadero and Bayview-Hunter's Point areas.
"So far, it's gone remarkably smoothly," Katz said. He said there were no
unusual police incidents and no health emergencies. All hospitals
immediately switched to auxiliary power and all emergency rooms remained
open. But elective surgeries and routine appointments were cancelled, Katz
said.
The biggest health problem was people trapped in elevators, he said.
According to PG&E spokeswoman Mary Rodrigues, the center of the problem was
a PG&E substation in San Mateo. The substation takes high-voltage power from
transmission lines and lowers it to a voltage that can be used by consumers.
She said an unexplained problem still under investigation caused the
substation to go off-line. At that point, automatic switches were triggered
to isolate the area supplied with electricity by the substation.
Without the switches, power to all of Northern California could have gone
out, called by the utility an "underfrequency.''
PG&E spokesman Bill Roche said it would take 2 to 5 hours to repair the
substation and bring the others back on line.
An unknown number of persons were evacuated from Muni tunnels. There
apparently were no trains in the trans-Bay BART tunnel, according to a BART
police spokesman.
At San Francisco International Airport, one of the world's busiest airports,
flight operations continued on separate power but some flights were diverted
to Oakland and San Jose to ease traffic. Officials said if the blackout
continued, arriving and departing flights would be delayed.
Emergency power lit the terminals but computers were down, making it
impossible to check in passengers, said airport spokesman Ron Wilson.
Airport personnel used bullhorns to alert travelers to flight delays.
A PG&E spokesman said more than 372,000 customers were left without service.
Traffic lights at intersections throughout The City were off and some Muni
electric buses were stuck in the intersections, blocking traffic. Police and
parking control officers directed traffic at others.
Mayor Brown, who was driving around The City to check on problems, urged
calm. He also expressed concern about the operation of hospitals, although
there were no early reports of problems as hospitals switched to auxiliary
power.
Brown spokesman Ron Vinson urged people to go home. Downtown streets were
crowded with displaced commuters and others.
San Francisco Police Department spokesman Sherman Ackerson said there was no
looting or other problems. Police asked people not to use 911 except for
real emergencies.
San Francisco General Hospital canceled elective surgeries and was operating
on auxiliary power.
At Macy's on Union Square, security guard Dennis Avant said he used a
crowbar to rescue people from elevators on the first and seventh floors.
People were still stuck at mid-morning on some floors, he said.
At Nordstrom's at Fifth and Mission streets, Kelly Mouton and Dian
Dai-Kwong, employees of the department store, were waiting outside for the
store to open as scheduled at 9:20 a.m. Mouton said every register is
equipped with flashlights and calculators.
The Pacific Stock Exchange closed down trading as computers failed. The
exchange, the largest on the West Coast, had auxiliary power but no outside
source for it.
There were reports of explosions involving PG&E substations, particularly
one at 23rd and Illinois streets on Potrero Hill, but a PG&E spokesman said
that when a substation drops off, it can make a loud noise because of big
release of steam. One witness compared the noise to a rocket exploding. "My
whole house was shaking the same as last Friday's earthquake,'' he said.
Muni passenger Janette Stevenson, a secretary who works downtown, said she
was on an M-Oceanview train when it suddenly slowed to a stop between the
Castro and Church stations.
"It really scared me," Stevenson said. "All of a sudden we stopped and the
lights go out. Then I have to walk through that creepy tunnel? I don't think
so."
Roman Ng, store manager at Walgreen's Drugstore on Market and Fourth
streets, said : "When it happened we asked all customers to leave. We can't
ring up anything since we're computerized.
"That's a letdown, since we're in the middle of Christmas," Ng said. He
added that 30 to 40 people were in the store when the power went down and it
took a few minutes to evacuate them. "It's sometimes difficult for customers
to understand that we can't even open the registers. I think they're angrier
than I am."
He said some customers left money and said they'll be back for change later.
About $2,000 an hour would be lost, he estimated.
At the Hotel Nikko, at Mason and Taylor streets, General Manager John Hutar,
said, "The guests are pretty chipper considering the situation."
He said at around 8:15 a.m., all the power flickered and the hotel switched
to auxiliary power from two diesel engines on the roof, which can power
basic functions for about a week, he said. The hotel was 70 percent booked
and had hundreds of guests. Hutar said they immediately checked on the
disabled guests and asked most of them to leave because the rooms were dark.
The entire lobby has been lit with glo-sticks.
At the San Francisco Hilton Towers, Manager Prajanj Singh, said, "We're
losing lots of business." People were leaving the hotel, he said. The lobby
at this hotel, too, was lit by glo-sticks.
