How weekend weather power outages are impacting Central Coast businesses
MARINA, Calif. (KION-TV) - While the vast majority of power outages from Saturday’s severe weather are now restore, some are still dealing with the aftermath. This includes many businesses grappling with food and inventory loss due to the outage.
Cafe Mia Brew Bar and Cafe in Marina became one of the many central coast businesses without power due to the weather. That outage lead to some of their inventory having to be thrown out.
“[We lost] probably about $3,000 worth of product. And for a small business, that's, that's a that's a hard hit to take," Cafe Mia co-owner Horace Mercurio said.
That’s a common sentiment many local businesses from Monterey to Seaside are still trying to account for in the days following the weekend weather. Some of those outages continuing well into Monday.
"In Pebble Beach, it was along Oleada road, we had a tree, or there was a tree that took down several power lines, and then the power lines were wrapped around the branches," PG&E Regional Vice President Teresa Alvarado said.
Alvarado adds, getting equipment out quickly to restore power was their main challenge. She said they’ve also restored power to nearly 116,000 customers over a couple of days.
“If there is a tree that is threatening our equipment or has damaged our equipment, then we are responsible for removing it," Alvarado said.
Despite the power problems, Horace at Cafe Mia said, they were still able to keep the coffee pouring through some creative thinking, and generosity from his customers.
“[An] amazing customer of mine Sunday morning showed up with the generator, a brand new generator," Mercurio said.
Even prior to that generator, he said they were able to remain open in the dark, using their stove to keep up with their coffee orders. As businesses continue to open back up Horace has this take away from their experience.
“The biggest victory was just being here for the community, being able to stay open and provide a service for them," Mercurio said.
PG&E points out, they do offer Storm Inconvenience Bill credit to certain customers whose power has been out for more than 48 hours. You can find more information on that credit, and support for small businesses on the PG&E website.
