Thousands without power as temperatures soar

OAKLAND, Calif. (BCN/KTVU) - Nearly 7,000 Palo Alto residents were briefly without power on Monday. The service outage was first reported shortly after 3 p.m. but was restored at around 5:16 p.m. 

The outage mostly affected South Palo Alto from Matadero Avenue to San Antonio Road and Middlefield to Deer Creek roads.

Catherine Elvert, spokeswoman for Palo Alto Utilities, said the outage stemmed from electrical equipment problems with a transformer at the Maybelle electrical substation.The cause of the electrical problem is under investigation, and may have been caused by an equipment failure, according to Palo Alto Utilities.  

On social media, many in several neighborhoods reported that their power was back on as of 4:20 p.m. 

A power outage affected several traffic signals and an unknown number of East Bay utility customers Monday afternoon in Lafayette. As of 5:45 p.m. power in Lafayette was restored. Police said that PG&E is investigating the outage. Drivers were asked to be cautious in the downtown area, and to treat every intersection like a stop sign. 

Also in the East Bay, 778 customers are without power in Orinda. Officials say the power went out at 4:23 p.m. There is no estimated time of restoration. 

Approximately 3,500 customers in Benicia are also without power. Benicia police are asking people to avoid the 900 block of Elaine Way due to downed power lines. PG&E officials said they hope to have power restore by 7:00 p.m.