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Redwood City residents Cooky and Robert Wall spent the night in the cold.
Without power, the couple had no heat and no way to cook their food. By noon on Wednesday, nearly one day since the power had gone out in their home, the Walls, who are seniors, were in the dark as to when they should expect the lights to come back on.
“We only heard from (Pacific, Gas and Electric Company) when the outage occurred yesterday about 1:00 p.m.,” Cooky Wall said. “We have not had even one update, and it’s 26 hours later. We are signed up for ‘real-time’ updates.”
They weren’t alone.
Nearly 35,000 PG&E customers in the Bay Area remain without power on Wednesday evening. As of 5 p.m., the largest concentration of outages is on the Peninsula, where 28,370 are affected, PG&E spokesperson Tamar Sarkissian said.
In the South Bay, 4,182 customers are dealing with outages, another 308 in the East Bay, 1,748 in the North Bay and 190 in San Francisco, Sarkissian said.
There are 2,800 PG&E crew members working around the clock to restore power, and 97 percent of customers affected saw power restored within 12 hours, according to PG&E. On Wednesday morning, more than 64,000 PG&E customers in the Bay Area were without power.
Outages in the last two days affected residents in almost every major neighborhood in Redwood City, including those in Friendly Acres, Farm Hill, Palm Park, Redwood Oaks, Woodside Plaza and Redwood Village.
And restoration times, according to the PG&E outage map, were all over the place and unreliable, according to residents who reached out to the Redwood City Pulse.
Beverly Spiker lost power around noon on Tuesday. Although she said she believes that PG&E is doing all it can and has been good at communicating, she has started to lose confidence in the company’s estimates for restoring power.
“The ‘power back up’ time estimate keeps moving – first 5 a.m., then 1 p.m. and now 10 p.m.,” Spiker said.
Over in Edgewood Park, David Redfern said the outages made for a sleepless night. Both he and his wife wear CPAP breathing machines, and without electricity, the breathing machines were not working. More than 24 hours, Redfern said PG&E’s website on Wednesday indicated he might not get power until midnight.
Woodside Plaza resident Gregory Bollella received a notice on Wednesday that PG&E would restore his power more than 48 hours after it had gone out –10 p.m. on Feb. 23. With no electricity and no heat in the house, his family (and three rescue cats) are spending some time in the car charging phones and laptops.
"(Cats) seem fine," he said. "We are hanging in (there) but would love to have some accountability."
Marianne Steele said she lost power at 2 p.m. on Tuesday. She has received updates from PG&E, but they are unreliable. By noon Wednesday, she said that if she didn’t get power by the indicated time (1 p.m.), she would have to go to a friend’s home to warm up. But several hours later, PG&E had still not fixed the issue.
So when should she expect to have her lights back?
"The latest from PG&E is restoration at 10 p.m. on Thursday," she said. "I am at a friend's house, where it is warm, and the internet works. I am a remote worker, and this is just awful."
And Lidia Beboux worried about her 89-year-old friend in Palm Park who had been without electricity since Tuesday afternoon and throughout the night. She wondered whether the power would be restored or whether she would need to make arrangements to bring her friend back to her own home in Redwood Shores.
When asked whether there was an estimated time of power restoration in homes across Redwood City, a PG&E representative told the Pulse that “storms are very fluid situations.”
“Strong winds have caused widespread damage to PG&E electric equipment due to trees, limbs and other debris striking powerlines," said Sarkissian, adding that customers are encouraged to update their contact information in their PG&E account online to stay up to date on outages.
Redwood City officials spent Tuesday and Wednesday fielding service calls from the community.
The Redwood City Police Department responded to 154 wind-related calls, said Jennifer Yamaguma, communications manager for the city.
On Tuesday, police reported that they were dealing with multiple fallen trees and signal light outage calls. Redwood City Fire Department Battalion Chief Geoff Balton said firefighters responded to downed wires, blown over signs and debris on roadways. The Public Works Department responded to 46-tree related calls, Yamaguma said.
High winds in the Bay Area are expected to briefly subside on Wednesday before returning with even stronger gusts on Thursday, according to the National Weather Service.
Winds are forecast to be between 20 to 30 mph with gusts as high as 45 mph Thursday afternoon, and lower elevations around the Bay Area and Central Coast should see showers with possible thunderstorms late Wednesday into Thursday.
Most areas should receive somewhere in the range of half an inch to 1.5 inches of rain, with up to 2.5 inches in mountain areas.
Sub-freezing temperatures are expected in interior valleys and mountain areas, with a freeze warning in effect from early Thursday morning until 9 a.m.
"We have an anomalously cold storm system that's moving into California, so that really cold air is what's making this storm system more dynamic than other winter storms we've had," said Brooke Bingaman, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service.
In the meantime, Yamaguma said residents looking to recharge phones or get out of the cold could visit the Redwood City Public Library or the Community Center during normal business hours. For those who need emergency shelter beds, the Fair Oaks Community Center is available at 2600 Middlefield Rd. by calling 650-780-7500.
Bay City News contributed to this report.
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Are you currently experiencing a power outage? We want to hear from you! Email us at editor@rwcpulse.com.
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