Power outage hits 30,000-plus PG&E customers in Bay Area

Thousands of customers are without power in San Francisco and the East Bay Tuesday morning. Thousands of customers are without power in San Francisco and the East Bay Tuesday morning. Photo: Pacific Gas & Electric Company / Photo: Pacific Gas & Electric Company / Image 1 of / 5 Caption Close Power outage hits 30,000-plus PG&E customers in Bay Area 1 / 5 Back to Gallery

Pacific Gas and Electric Co. crews restored power to 29,900 customers in San Francisco and Concord early Wednesday afternoon after a storm-related blackout hit swaths of the city, Peninsula and East Bay, company officials said.

Blackouts continued to pepper the utility company’s outage map at 1:30 p.m., showing outages in Oakland, San Leandro, San Mateo and Union City.

In San Francisco, customers in the Mission District first lost electricity around 9:55 a.m. and a second wave of customers lost power around 10:41 a.m, according to PG&E’s outage map. Power was restored by 1 p.m, said PG&E spokeswoman Andrea Menniti.

Mission resident Britta Gustafson tweeted photos of a downed power line near 23rd and Alabama streets, where caution tape barricaded people from entering the area.

Here’s a photo from 23rd and Alabama, looking down 23rd - there’s caution tape across 23rd so I didn’t get closer. Feel free to use it! pic.twitter.com/sOhpnbrBop — Britta Gustafson (@brittagus) November 21, 2018

Gustafson said she heard a low boom and creaking just as her home lost power, prompting her to rush out to the sidewalk to see what the workers were doing.

“(It) looked like they were nailing insulators to the plank to set it up with the lines,” she said.

Around Concord and Walnut Creek, an hour-and-a-half-long blackout affected 19,000 customers, according to PG&E officials.

As of 1 p.m., there were still 10,135 customers without power throughout the Bay.

PG&E officials do not know what caused the outages but suggested the rain may have impacted service.

“These wet and windy conditions might cause trees, limbs and other debris to fall into power lines, damage equipment and interrupt electric service,” Menniti said.

PG&E crews were also working in Union City, where 1,331 customers were affected Wednesday morning, officials said.

Around 12:34 p.m., outages blanketed Oakland’s Fruitvale and Dimond neighborhoods, where officials said there is no current estimate for when power will be restored. PG&E reported at 1:30 p.m. that 1,879 customers in downtown San Mateo had also lost electricity.

A blackout also hit 1,242 customers in San Leandro, where repair crews headed out to fix damaged equipment on a power pole, according to a map provided by the utility.

Gwendolyn Wu is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: gwendolyn.wu@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @gwendolynawu