Power mostly restored after storm knocks out electricity for tens of thousands across Sonoma County

Friday’s storms and torrential downpour knocked out power to thousands of Pacific, Gas & Electric customers for several hours Friday night.

Hardest hit were Rohnert Park, Cotati and Penngrove. At the peak of the outage, more than 27,000 customers across Sonoma County were without power, but by 10 p.m. all but about 4,000 had been restored. Most of those still without electricity were in unincorporated areas of Sonoma County.

Electricity went out about 7:45 p.m. and the utility’s power failure map showed 16,950 Rohnert Park customers were in the dark as of 8:30 p.m. Power to all but 1,000 had been restored by 10 p.m.

Another 2,434 customers lost electricity in the areas of Cotati and the unincorporated areas surrounding Penngrove, those too had mostly been restored within about two hours.

The Rohnert Park Department of Public Safety issued a Nixle alert around 8:15 p.m. acknowledging the power failure and discouraging residents from using gas stoves to keep warm.

The PG&E map shows weather was a factor.

Rohnert Park Mayor Susan Hollingsworth Adams said she’s lived in the city since 1961 and she was seeing “probably the worst outage” she could remember.

She said most of the town was in the dark, and she got about a dozen phone calls and texts from residents Friday night.

“It’s mostly concern. ‘What’s caused this? Is it a weather issue? Did somebody hit a pole?’” Hollingsworth Adams told The Press Democrat.

She added traffic signals were still working around the city, and there appeared to be a “jovial” attitude on social media, with people joking the power failure is a sign for them to head home for the evening.

The mayor said a performance at Sonoma State University’s Green Music Center was affected by the power failure.

“The Sound of {Black} Music” had been scheduled to begin at 7:30 p.m. Friday. There was no immediate word of whether the show would be rescheduled.

Outside of Rohnert Park, about 1,434 PG&E customers lost electricity in Santa Rosa, and another 53 homes and businesses were without power in Petaluma.

About 300 PG&E customers in Napa County also lost power.

Sonoma County is under a wind advisory through Saturday afternoon due to gusts that may reach 50 mph at higher elevations, according to the National Weather Service.

About 3 inches of rain are expected through Sunday.

Hollingsworth Adams said residents have been updating her on their statuses and it appeared electricity was being restored bit by bit Friday night.

As of 9:30 p.m., she estimated about 60% of the community was still in the dark, though PG&E’s map showed power to almost the entire city had been restored by 10 p.m.

You can reach Staff Writer Colin Atagi at colin.atagi@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @colin_atagi