More than 800 PG
&
amp;E customers lost power for about an hour Friday night due to
equipment failure, sending hundreds of shoppers at Gilroy Crossings
for the exits and store owners searching for flashlights. The power
outage comes just three weeks after a power outage on Nov. 17,
which left more than 5,000 without power in west Gilroy.
Gilroy – More than 800 PG&E customers lost power for about an hour Friday night due to equipment failure, sending hundreds of shoppers at Gilroy Crossings for the exits and store owners searching for flashlights. The power outage comes just three weeks after a power outage on Nov. 17, which left more than 5,000 without power in west Gilroy.
At 5:48pm the stores at Gilroy Crossings went dark and a sea of shoppers headed across the street to the Pacheco Pass Center, witnesses said.
The parking lot was eerily dark and only a handful of cars belonging to employees and store managers remained until the power went back at about 7pm.
“There was just a mass exodus,” said Stacey Silkwood, of Supercuts.
Two male customers were having their hair trimmed when the store lost power.
“One of the stylists pulled her car out front and turned on the headlights and we used flashlights to finish the rest of the cuts,” she said. “The two guys that got stuck, they were good sports about it. We told them if it looks funny tomorrow to come back.”
Workers at The Game Shop scrambled for flashlights, using light from their cell phones and lighters to guide them as they locked the doors.
“We’ve been having problems for two weeks now,” said manager Charlie Reali.
Customers using Wi-Fi at Panera Bread Bakery lost their work and headed for the doors, employees said.
“It was complete darkness except for our fireplace. Thank goodness we had that,” said breadmaker Adriana Olmos.
The crew of workers gathered around the fireplace telling stories until the electricity returned. All they were missing was the hot chocolate – except the steamed milk machine was down.
“We were able to sectionalize the part of the circuit and get power back to the majority of people in populated areas (by 7pm),” said PG&E spokesperson David Eisenhauer. “It was some kind of equipment failure in the overhead circuit.”
After the lights went back on, Panera and a number of stores re-opened their doors for business.
