On Tuesday, March 14, 2023 an atmospheric river battered Northern California with unrelenting rain and high winds. More than the rain, the winds proved to be the most destructive as they blew over many
trees and power poles. Sunnyvale was hard hit as power went out for many (over 7,000 households just in our immediate area) right after lunch. In our case a tree around the corner from us was uprooted. This
tree had power lines that ran through it from a neighboring power pole, so once the tree went down it took the power pole with it. When we understood the extent of the damage it became clear that power would
not be restored any time soon.
We were lucky that our good friends, Luann and Pat Dugan, who live close by did not have their power interrupted. They offered their free refrigerator and freezer space to us so our food wouldn't spoil. Our
long-time friends, the Hamasaki's, allowed us to visit in the afternoon so Connor could finish his homework that required internet access. In the end power was restored about a day and a half later.
Unfortunately, this would not be the last time our electricity would go out.
The following Tuesday we lost power for about 4 or 5 hours due to another storm with high winds. While not as long, this power outage lasted up until dinner time. Since we couldn't prepare anything we decided
to go out for dinner at Satsuma's. Our close friends, Rob and Pauline Shinkawa, who live behind us also had their power go out so they met us there for dinner.
Tuesday, March 14, 2023
Ran went to church to get some measurements needed for a YBA Conference being held there on the weekend. As he was measuring, Deb kept texting about really high winds and she thinks something fell down on
the street next to our house. As it turns out what she heard was a power pole snapping because the wires it was holding were pulled down by an uprooted tree. Obviously that's when the power went out for the
next day and a half. It would be hours before the city could come out and assess the damage. They were inundated with calls of fallen trees all over the city. This tree ended up getting priority as it blocked
both directions of Knickerbocker Drive. Ultimately, the city didn't have enough resources to completely remove the tree. They ended up cutting as much as they could so at least one lane of traffic could get by.
The power pole wouldn't be replaced until the next day when the winds had died down.
As Ran was returning home he found he would have to exit the freeway early as many trees had fallen across the roadway blocking traffic for miles. Once he got on the main road (El Camino Real) to go home, cars
were backed up as far as the eye could see. Multiple intersections had traffic signals that were out due to the power outage. Finally, when he got home a Sunnyvale Fire Engine pulled up to block the street so
cars and pedestrians wouldn't get near the fallen tree and broken pole.
Fallen tree.
Snapped power pole.
El Camino Real.
Fire truck.
Wednesday, March 15, 2023
Wednesday afternoon PG&E arrived on scene to replace the broken power pole. It probably took about 6 hours to install the new pole and hook up all the wires. By 10:03pm we had our power restored. The
crews, however, would be cleaning up and making sure everything was correct until about 4:00am. All in all, PG&E was on site for about 12 hours.
New pole is here.
Connecting wires.
All done.
Tuesday, March 21, 2023
Just like clockwork, almost to the minute, power went out again one week later. This time it was only out for about 4 or 5 hours, but everyone's patience had worn thin by this time. As dinner time rolled
around we decided we were going to find a restaurant that was open and have dinner there. Luckily, the power outage wasn't as wide spread as only about 3,000 households were affected, so finding a near-by
restaurant with power wasn't difficult. Turns out the Shinkawa's didn't have power either so we met up at Satsuma's for a delicious Japanese meal.
