News

Power restored to all 1,700 Palo Alto Utilities customers affected by Friday outage

Service disruption impacted northern, eastern sections of the city

A power outage affected about 1,700 customers was reported in Palo Alto shortly after 3:30 p.m. on Aug. 5, 2022. Service was fully restored shortly before 8 p.m. Screenshot courtesy Palo Alto Utilities.

A power outage that hit Palo Alto's northern and eastern neighborhoods on Friday afternoon affected about 1,700 customers, all of whom saw their service return later that evening.

The service disruption started shortly after 3:30 p.m., according to the city's outage map. It was caused by a fallen tree branch that landed on power lines, the department said on Twitter.

Shortly after 7 p.m., the Utilities Department tweeted that service was restored to 700 of the impacted customers. The downed branched was removed and utilities crew members made repairs. The remaining 1,000 customers had power back shortly before 8 p.m.

Rinconada Library was closed for the rest of the day as a result of the outage, according to the city.

Palo Alto police asked the public to not call 911 or nonemergency numbers for the Police or Fire departments to avoid crowding phone lines. The city's emergency dispatchers don't have details on the outage, according to police.

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Power restored to all 1,700 Palo Alto Utilities customers affected by Friday outage

Service disruption impacted northern, eastern sections of the city

by Palo Alto Weekly staff / Palo Alto Weekly

Uploaded: Fri, Aug 5, 2022, 4:16 pm
Updated: Fri, Aug 5, 2022, 8:22 pm

A power outage that hit Palo Alto's northern and eastern neighborhoods on Friday afternoon affected about 1,700 customers, all of whom saw their service return later that evening.

The service disruption started shortly after 3:30 p.m., according to the city's outage map. It was caused by a fallen tree branch that landed on power lines, the department said on Twitter.

Shortly after 7 p.m., the Utilities Department tweeted that service was restored to 700 of the impacted customers. The downed branched was removed and utilities crew members made repairs. The remaining 1,000 customers had power back shortly before 8 p.m.

Rinconada Library was closed for the rest of the day as a result of the outage, according to the city.

Palo Alto police asked the public to not call 911 or nonemergency numbers for the Police or Fire departments to avoid crowding phone lines. The city's emergency dispatchers don't have details on the outage, according to police.

Comments

Bystander
Registered user
Another Palo Alto neighborhood
on Aug 6, 2022 at 4:09 pm
Bystander, Another Palo Alto neighborhood
Registered user
on Aug 6, 2022 at 4:09 pm

Here we go again.

In the middle of summer, calm day, no wind or rain, a branch falls from a tree and leaves a large area of Palo Alto without power for several hours.

Is this acceptable? My answer is no. Why in the heart of Silicon Valley do we get so many power outages due to fallen branches, balloons, squirrels, seagulls and geese? We must do better. Get those lines underground!


Online Name
Registered user
Embarcadero Oaks/Leland
on Aug 8, 2022 at 10:46 am
Online Name, Embarcadero Oaks/Leland
Registered user
on Aug 8, 2022 at 10:46 am

CPAU should start giving refunds for service outages, spoiled food, etc. What -- if anything -- is happening with undergrounding the wires?


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