Update, 3 p.m.: PG&E said that the power outage this afternoon in the North Berkeley Hills started at about 1:21 p.m. and, at its peak, affected 4,875 customers. At the time of writing, power had been restored to all but 119 customers. PG&E spokeswoman Tamar Sarkissian said the outage was caused when a tree made contact with a power line in El Cerrito. “We are continuing working to restore power to the remaining customers,” she said. “We would also like to remind people that if they see a downed or low power line, they should assume it’s live, keep away, and call 911 immediately.”
Original story: Hundreds, possibly thousands, of residents have been affected by power outages in the North Berkeley Hills area. According to a PG&E outage map the outages were affecting anywhere between 500 and 4,999 customers at around 2 p.m. Thursday.
Several Berkeleyside readers took to Twitter starting around 1:30 pm. to say they were experiencing outages, and alerted us by email too.
Todd Woody reported via Twitter at 2:15 p.m. that “power had been out for the past 45 minutes in the Berkeley hills.”
Chris Taylor also said, on Twitter, that he had seen an emergency text alert relating to flash floods. It read: Flash flood warning this area until 6:15 p.m. PST. Avoid flood areas. Check local media.”
Berkeleyside has requested more information from PG&E and will provide updates.
