Much of downtown San Francisco was left without power following a fire at a utility substation. The city's financial district and the popular shopping area near Union Square were affected.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo/J. Chiu
Advertisement
Known for their technological prowess, San Francisco residents were left clamoring for wifi on Friday as the city became paralyzed by a mass power outage.
The blackout broke shortly after 9am local time (1500 UTC) and was triggered after a fire broke out a utility substation. Some 90,000 customers of the Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) utility company were affected for several hours across fourteen San Francisco neighborhoods, including the city's technology and financial centers, as well as the popular shopping district near Union Square.
Only by 5pm local time could PG&E confirm that it had restored power to all its customers.
Company spokesman Barry Anderson said the outage was a "case where the equipment failed before we could get to it," adding that something went wrong with a circuit breaker although the utility wasn't yet sure precisely what had happened.
San Francisco - The City For Start-Ups
04:18
This browser does not support the video element.
Office workers in the center of the city were seen spilling out on to the sidewalks, wandering the streets for an open café with working power, while major retailers such as Macy's and Louis Vuitton for forced to close shop for the morning.
Meanwhile, the Saint Francis Memorial Hospital in the Nob Hill neighborhood was forced to cancel all non-essential appointments and procedures, a spokeswoman said.
San Francisco International Airport was able to remain operational throughout the day.
Keep calm and enjoy the sunshine
A spokesperson for the US Department of Homeland Security was quick to dispel any fears that the outage was related to a security or terrorism incident.
Those claims were backed up by Joe Weiss, an expert on control system cyber security. "This had nothing to do with cyber," he said. "The real question is how could one substation take out, effectively, San Francisco? What other failures occurred there that didn't isolate this?"
While such an investigation may be pending, in the meantime San Francisco Police Chief William Scott urged residents to savor the sunny spring day. Rather than cross one of the cities bridges to an area with power, he told those affected to "see the city and enjoy the restaurants, enjoy the parks and whatnot."
dm/bw (AP, Reuters)
San Francisco's dark side
San Francisco has been hit hard by the economic crisis in the United States
Image: DW/Andreas Stahl
Homeless hotbed
San Francisco is one of the cities in the US hit hardest by the economic crisis and its homeless rate is one of the highest in the country.
Image: DW/Andreas Stahl
There goes the neighborhood
Described as "the worst neighborhood in the city," the Tenderloin District has become the center of drug dealing in San Francisco - just a few blocks away from wealthy neighborhoods and fancy stores in the heart of the city.
Image: DW/Andreas Stahl
Harrowing hardship
The pain and hardship are visible in this man's eyes. San Francisco's poor district offers little respite and little chance of escaping from the destitution.
Image: DW/Andreas Stahl
Crime capital
The statistics tell a bleak story: The Tenderloin district boasts the highest crime rate in San Francisco - three major crimes per hour.
Image: DW/Andreas Stahl
Drug culture
The great amount of drugs and drug use in the district is one of the reasons for the soaring crime rate in the district.
Image: DW/Andreas Stahl
Helping the needy
People with mental illnesses and disabilities are a big problem in the neighborhood. Free health clinics, shelters and social service centers work hard to improve their situation, but resources are far from enough to provide for the great number of desperate people on the streets of Tenderloin.
Image: DW/Andreas Stahl
Wake-up call
"I think America has to wake up, it cannot look like this - I feel very sorry for all the poor people here," says a passerby walking through the Tenderloin area.
Image: DW/Andreas Stahl
Crime watch
The police are struggling to rein in the rampant drug use and the accompanying wave of crime in the Tenderloin District.
Image: DW/Andreas Stahl
Helping hand
Community workers such as these who work for the Needle Exchange have their hands full providing support for Tenderloin District's many drug addicts.
Image: DW/Andreas Stahl
Sorry symbols
The Tenderloin district in central San Francisco is blighted by poverty and crime. You can find homeless people everywhere in the district. While the Golden Gate Bridge, Fisherman's wharf or the famous cable cars are symbolic for San Francisco, the fallout from the economic crisis shows a city far from what the brochures tell you.
