The city of San Francisco plunged into darkness on the intervening night of Saturday and Sunday, with nearly a third of the city being affected by a power outage.
As the outage hit, more than 130,000 houses and businesses were left without power, mostly in the northwest part of San Francisco, while transportation in the city, including self-driving cars, grinded to a halt.
Some parts of the city, such as Richmond, Sunset, Presidio, and Golden Gate Park, were among the worst hit.
As of early Sunday morning, nearly 30,000 people in San Francisco were still without power, as per PowerOutageUS.
Service disruptions
Media reports said that hundreds of businesses had shut shop temporarily due to the outage.
Self-driving cars also grinded to a halt, with Waymo announcing a halt to its services.
"We have temporarily suspended our ride-hailing services given the broad power outage in San Francisco,” Suzanne Philion, a Waymo spokesperson was quoted as saying by SFGATE.
“We are focused on keeping our riders safe and ensuring emergency personnel have the clear access they need to do their work,” she added.
Videos posted on social media also showed self-driving cars stranded on darkened streets.
What caused the San Francisco power outage?
The San Francisco Department of Emergency Management said on X there were “significant transit disruptions” across the city, but did not give a reason behind the same.
The Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E), which serves San Francisco also didn't list a reason behind the widespread outage, but the San Francisco Fire Department reported a fire at a substation in the city.
It is understood that at least part of the outages were related to this, reported KCRA.
What's the status now?
Media reports said that PG&E crews as well as authorities continued to work on restoring power on Sunday morning.
"Crews restored about 95,000 customers by 11 p.m. Saturday and about 35,000 remain without electric service," PG&E said, adding that there were no injuries to workers or members of the public.
Mayor Daniel Lurie also issued an update, saying that work was underway to restore services.
He also advised residents to use candles to reduce fire risk, check on neighbours, especially seniors and those with medical needs.
