Storm leaves over 6,000 people in San Francisco without power
SAN FRANCISCO (NBC, KYMA) - In San Francisco Saturday, yet another power outage left more than 6,000 homes and businesses in the dark.
It's now been one week since a widespread outage left around 130,000 customers without power.
Frustration with Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E) continues to build as do calls for change to stop service failures in the city.
In the Richmond District, seven large generators have been humming loudly since Monday. PG&E brought them in as a temporary fix for San Franciscans in that area who went two days without power.
Neighbors say they appreciate having the lights and heat back on, but the noise makes it tough to sleep.
Nearby in the Sunset District, PG&E says more than 6,000 homes and businesses lost power for about three hours Saturday.
The utility is still investigating the cause, but the newly appointed supervisor for the area, Alan Wong, is quick to point out that this is the fifth power outage in the Sunset District this month.
"The Sunset District is sick and tired of all these outages. Can PG&E just get its act together?" Wong expressed.
Wong has called for a public hearing with PG&E, and is asking the city what can be done to increase accountability when it comes to delivering electricity.
"My priorities will be number one, being able to get answers for what happened, why have we faced so many outages? It's ridiculous. Number 2, how can we prevent this going forward into he future?" Wong shared.
This is part of the mounting criticism of PG&E in the wake of last week's outage that cut power to around 130,000 San Francisco customers.
Some leaders have been calling for the city to break up with PG&E and form a publicly owned utility instead.
Over in downtown Saturday, a few dozen people protested, calling for PG&E to be turned into a public utility statewide.
"We're saying that there's no reason for this anymore. When PG&E makes so much money that they should invest in their equipment and make sure that we're all safe," said Ramsey Robinson, organizer for the Take Over PG&E Rally.
Sunset District residents, like Maxwell Eberitzsch, who have lost power say they want to see change.
"It was frustrating, a huge inconvenience, especially with how high the rates are," Eberitzsch remarked.
They say the outages add insult to injury with PG&E's recent rate increases.
