PG&E: Gas service restored for all Monterey County residents impacted by outage

PG&E crews have restored gas service to all Monterey County residents impacted by a major outage.

According to PG&E, 3,759 customers reported losing gas.

Safety work in Hollister is believed to have caused the outage, but the cause is still under investigation.

UPDATE: Gas service has been restored for thousands of people in Monterey County, according to PG&E.

PG&E said service has been restored to 98% of customers. As of Thursday afternoon, PG&E received 3,300 calls from customers without gas.

PG&E officials are now saying as many as 1,865 businesses and homes are without gas in Monterey County.

This comes after an incident some 40 miles away in San Benito County.

“PG&E crews were doing important safety work to maintain and upgrade our gas system in the Hollister area,” said Mayra Tostado, PG&E Spokesperson. “While they were doing this work some air entered the system, which can happen from time to time.”

But there’s a trickle down affect. That air traveled down the pipe to Monterey County affecting at least 1,865 homes and businesses. While most of the outages were reported in Monterey and Salinas, people in Marina, Pebble Beach, Pacific Grove, Castroville, Seaside, Moss Landing and Gonzales were also impacted.

They say there’s no rhyme or reason as to who was affected.

“When air enters the gas system, it can travel down the pipeline and that will go to areas where the most demand is,” Tostado said. “So if you’re in an area where the air entered your home through a distribution line, which can take out the pilot.”

On Friday, PG&E crews went through parts of Salinas, knocking on doors, to see if people had gas. Others called in for service.

“We don’t have any hot water,” one woman said. “It’s just whatever was in the tank was lukewarm.”

Because of the high demand, additional crews from the Bay Area and Central Valley were called in to help respond.

PG&E is asking people to not relight the pilot light themselves, let the professionals do it.

“It’s better to have somebody from PG&E to come out to make sure there isn’t a leak at your house and that everything is operating safely,” Tostado said.

No estimate when everyone will have their gas back on.

The gas outage comes at a time when there are also power outages. According to the PG&E outage map, there are nearly 800 people without power on the Monterey Peninsula.

UPDATE: 10/20/2017 3:01 p.m. Since Thursday at least 1491 customers called PG&E with gas service complaints.

PG&E said gas has been restored to at least 50 percent of the calls for service. PG&E does not have an estimated time as to when all customers will have service again. Additional crews from the Bay Area and Central Valley are assisting with repairs on the Central Coast.

KION’s Mariana Hicks will have more from PG&E and customers at 5 and 6 p.m.

UPDATE 10/19/17 8:54 p.m.: PG&E Officials say crews doing important safety work to maintain and upgrade the gas system in the Hollister area caused a gas outage Thursday.

According to PG&E spokesperson Mayra Tostado, some air entered the pipeline system during the process. Crews are close to removing the remaining air from the pipeline and crews are quickly working to restore gas service quickly.

As of 8:00 p.m., PG&E received 640 calls from customers without gas service in areas along the Monterey Peninsula.

Tostado said PG&E employees are restoring gas service to customers in Monterey County. 50 percent of the pilot relights are complete.

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Pacific Gas & Electric Company has received more than 300 calls from customers on the Monterey Peninsula regarding gas service issues.

PG&E said they are aware that some customers have experienced an interruption to their gas services and began responding to calls since 7:17 a.m. Thursday.

PG&E officials said they are responding to customer calls and are working to restore gas service as quickly as possible.

“We appreciate customers’ patience during this process, and we understand the urgency in relighting,” said PG&E spokesman Mayra Tostado.

As of 1p.m. 311 calls were reported from customers without gas in different areas along the Monterey Peninsula area including Salinas, and Monterey.

Aside from residential homes, schools, and hospitals have also experienced gas service issues.

“To coordinate restoration efforts, PG&E has activated the Gas Emergency Operations Center and a local emergency operations center in Salinas to respond to this situation and we are working to determine the cause of the outage,” said Tostado.

For your safety PG&E asks customers to not attempt to relight pilot lights themselves.