Bay Space Crews, Residents Rush to Restore Injury – NBC Bay Space

As most of the recent showers pull out of the Bay Area Thursday night, the region is taking a bit of a pause before the next in a series of atmospheric flows hits.

Thousands of people in the Bay Area were still without power as of Friday, and many others were rushing to clean up damage caused by recent flooding and wind.

At the Pink Onion restaurant on 14th Street off Harrison Street in San Francisco, the long-awaited rain break means all hands are on deck, floors are mopped and furniture is dried out.

Meteorologist Kari Hall follows the next storm for the weekend and its effects in the microclimate forecast.

“It’s a race against time,” said Pink Onion contributor Gabriel McCaffrey.

McCaffrey explained that on New Year’s Eve, the restaurant quickly flooded with two feet of water. He said staff quickly stepped in to respond, but the restaurant was still left with broken refrigerators, spoiled food and damaged plumbing. Further rains in the following days didn’t exactly help.

“Because we’re a small business, it’s difficult,” McCaffrey said, noting that the cost of closing the restaurant since New Year’s Eve has been a challenge. The hope is that there will be no rain in this fast lap Pink Onion will be able to reopen for business on Friday due to cleaning work.

“We’re just praying the weather eases up a bit for this whole block,” McCaffrey said, noting that other businesses on 14th Street were also struggling with flooding.

Many other Bay Area residents, businesses, and utilities also ran to repairs Thursday.

In San Francisco, the Public Works Department had employees cleaning up trees that had fallen on 500-foot MUNI lines at Junipero Serra and Sloat.

See more

Rachel Gordon of @sfpublicworks tells us 500ft of MUNI lines fell when the trees fell. Buses are currently being diverted at Junipero Serra & Sloat in the W. Portal area. @nbcbayarea

— Christine Ni Nijuni (@christineniSF) January 5, 2023

PG&E said it was just deck work for their crews too.

At 10:30 p.m. Thursday, PG&E announced that power outages affected 21,173 customers across the San Francisco Bay Area. Power was restored to tens of thousands of customers throughout the day. The utility reported 80,448 outages across the region as of 4:45 a.m

PG&E spokeswoman Mayra Tostado said the rain break has helped crews restore power more quickly and safely. She explained that the utility currently has more than 3,000 people on site restoring power and repairing damage, including some out-of-town workers from Southern California and Canada. Overall, Tostado said, this storm powered more than 500,000 customers, including 200,000 in the Bay Area.

With most of the recent rain showers drifting out of the Bay Area on Thursday night, San Francisco residents are having a little pause while they clean up before the next in a series of atmospheric flows hits the region. Alyssa Goard reports.

Tostado said one challenge in restoring power had been fallen trees, mudslides and saturated soil, all of which made it difficult for teams to work.

“In some cases, our teams were out restoring power and putting up new poles, and trees fell around them, so we had to pull them out because they’re not safe in those places,” she added.

While drier skies are benefiting PG&E repairs for now, Tostado acknowledged expected storms into next week could potentially keep some customers without power for longer.

“Some customers may experience outages that last longer than 48 hours. In those cases, they’ll receive a credit on their bill,” Tostado said, adding that customers with additional claims for PG&E are encouraged to submit them online for review on a case-by-case basis.

Local officials are advising Bay Area residents to use this lull between storms to gather supplies and prepare for the next gust of wind and rain.

After the San Francisco Public Works ran out of much-demanded free sandbags on Wednesday, the sandbags were back on sale Thursday. Residents can take five sandbags per address. These sandbags are available at the Marin Street and Kansas Street gate while supplies last.

Pallets of sandbags are available for pickup at the San Francisco Public Works Yard at Kansas Street and Marin Street. January 5, 2023. NBC Bay Area Photo/ Alyssa Goard.

The National Weather Service expects the next atmospheric flow to arrive in the Bay Area late Friday and flooding and other local effects will continue through Tuesday.

See more

Here are the latest key messages that highlight the series of atmospheric fluxes that will continue to have significant impacts on California over the next week. Significant flooding and dangerous mountain driving will recur Saturday over northern and central California and continue into Tuesday. pic.twitter.com/zC62ajyoR7

– NWS Weather Prediction Center (@NWSWPC) January 5, 2023