UPDATE: Line Break Caused Outage Affecting Thousands Thursday Morning

Updated: 4:58 p.m.
Provided by Bay City News

PG&E has determined that an outage that left more than 24,000 East Bay customers without power this morning was caused by a line breaking during
a transmission project, a utility spokeswoman said.
           
The outage, reported at 9:51 a.m., affected customers in San Leandro, Hayward, Castro Valley and San Lorenzo, PG&E spokeswoman Tamar Sarkissian said.
           
Crews working in the area of state Highway 92 in Hayward were working on a transmission project and replacing above ground old electrical lines with new ones, Sarkissian said.
           
During the work, a non-electrical pulling line, used to pull out the older line and push in the new line, broke and fell onto the live line, causing the outage, according to Sarkissian.
           
The electrical line fell, but did not hit the ground. It fell onto a safety structure that was there "for this exact event," she said.
           
Power was restored to all customers right around 11:30 a.m., she said.


Original Post - A massive outage has left more than 24,000 PG&E customers without power this morning, a utility spokeswoman said.

The outage was reported at 9:51 a.m. and is affecting customers in San Leandro, Hayward, Castro Valley and San Lorenzo, PG&E spokeswoman Tamar Sarkissian said.

The cause remains under investigation and there is no estimate yet for when power will be restored, she said.

"We do apologize that so many customers are being impacted by this," Sarkissian said.