Monterey Peninsula power outages cause problems, residents stay optimistic

The recent storm may have passed, but the lights are still off for more than a 1,000 customers on the Monterey Peninsula.

“It’s been a few hours. No heat. No television,” said Pacific Grove resident Frank DaSiovn, whose home lost power at about 4:30 p.m. Monday.

As of late afternoon Tuesday, crews were dealing with more than a 1,000 locations without power for various reasons in Pacific Grove and Pebble Beach. In Carmel, it’s a little more than 600 , and in Monterey , it’s less than 200.

KION caught up with PG&E worker Mark Thompson. He’s no stranger to tough storms, but says he can’t remember a winter that has been as bad as this one.

“I’ve been with PG&E for more than 40 years , and I haven’t seen a storm like this,” said Thompson.
The lights are back on on Lighthouse Avenue in Monterey, but on Monday night , everything went dark.

“The whole street was black,” said Rebecca Torres, who works at Pelican Pizza on Lighthouse Avenue. “You couldn’t see anything . ”
The outage happened right around dinner time , when Pelican Pizza and many other nearby restaurants took a power hit , then a financial hit.

“We had to cancel 10 or 15 orders , and that was only at 7 o’clock at night , and we go until 11 p.m.” said Torres. “We were looking at a really busy night , and it all got shut down.”

PG&E reports that most of the current outages on the Monterey Peninsula should be handled by at least 10 p.m. Tuesday. Until then, those still in the dark are staying optimistic.

“We do have a fireplace , so we are able to huddle up in the living room and take advantage of that,” said Pacific Grove resident Carlos Cuellar.