California storm: power outage persists for PG&E customers after storm

REDWOOD CITY, Calif. - PG&E is making progress on restoring power to many Bay Area communities, more than 48 hours after power went out to hundreds of thousands of customers. By Tuesday afternoon, PG&E said 38,102 customers remain without power. 

The outages were caused by a powerful California storm that took out trees and power lines.

The Peninsula had 11,881 customers in the dark at 4 p.m., and nearly 25,000 without power in the North Bay. More than 14,000 were without power in the South Bay. 

A handful of Sonoma County schools, as well as schools in the Harmony Union and Kashia school districts, remained closed Tuesday because of ongoing power outages and other problems.

Two schools were also closed in San Jose because of a lack of power. 

In PG&E's South Bay and Central coast region alone, there are more than 600 individual outage sites. 

"So that means it is a lot of jobs that we have to get to. We were prepared before the storm with crews ready to respond just as soon as it was safe to do so," Regional Vice President Teresa Alvarado said: 

One of the hard hit areas in San Jose's Willow Glen neighborhood., where nearly 1,000 customers remain without power in a densely populated urban area.  

"It has been rather tedious when it comes to trying to manage heat, trying to manage hot water and that sort of thing. So pretty difficult," said Adam Martinez, a Willow Glen resident who has been without power since about 3:30pm on Sunday.

Alvardo said the cause of the outage in Willow Glen, like in most others in the region, was a result of trees falling on power lines or power poles in Sunday's high winds.  Crews are at the scene working on repairs.

Alvardo said it takes time to make repairs because many steps are involved and the work needs to be done safely. "You will see there are downed poles, trees that came down that took down poles and wire in backyards. Those take quite a bit of time. We have to move the debris, we have to trim the trees," Alvarado said. 

In Redwood City in San Mateo County, the Public Works Department has an online reservation system for people to reserve and pick up pre-made sandbags. 

Tuesday's forecast includes some off-and-on showers but the bulk of the rain has passed.