A huge electricity outage hit San Francisco on Saturday, leaving 130,000 residents without power and prompting city authorities to ask residents to stay home, according to the utility provider and the mayor.
Large parts of the west coast tech hub, which has a population of more than 800,000 people, were plunged into darkness with disruptions to public transport and many traffic lights not working on a busy Christmas shopping weekend.
“We are working with first responders and city officials on an outage in San Francisco affecting approximately 130,000 customers,” said Pacific Gas and Electric Company, the city’s main power provider, in a statement on social media.
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A spokeswoman for the company said in a video posted on social media that crews were working to fix the problem.
“We do expect restorations later this evening,” she said.
Parts of the city were blanketed in fog and many businesses were forced to close for the day at the height of the holiday shopping period, the San Francisco Chronicle newspaper reported, leaving normally bustling commercial areas quiet.