At least one street in Oakland was in the dark for more than 24 hours but it never showed up in PG&E’s outage map.
Sabrina Nichols is renting on 56th Street near MLK Jr. Way and said the lights went out before going to work on Tuesday evening.
“I was getting ready for work and the power went out,” she said.
It stayed that way for her, and many people, until around 8 p.m. Wednesday.
“At work last night people are coming in that have medical devices that need power and have no power supplied to them, and now all of a sudden they have a medical emergency,” she said.
That’s what her neighbor Joseph James was worried about.
He needs power for his C-PAP machine that helps him breathe when he sleeps.
“It’s a lifesaver,” said James.
A lifesaver he wasn't sure when he’d be able to use next because many on 56th Street not only didn't have power, they didn't even appear on PG&E’s outage map.
Get a weekly recap of the latest San Francisco Bay Area housing news. Sign up for NBC Bay Area’s Housing Deconstructed newsletter.
“The current outage status says they the power is currently on, which it’s not and it also warns me that outages may take ten to 25 minutes to appear. It's been 24 hours,” said Yvette Renee of Oakland.
PG&E said it is working on figuring out why meters of about a dozen or so neighbors, read as powered.
In the meantime, for those whose meters do register, “PG&E currently estimates based on the assessment that have been conducted so far that about 90% of those customers currently without power will be able to be energized by end of day Friday some maybe sooner,” said Evelyn Escalera of the utility company.
But the residents on that Oakland street said they appeared seemingly invisible to the utility.
“I don’t know why I have to learn that from a reporter like why haven’t they sent me a message and you know what options or resources I have in the meantime,” said Renee.
And the frustration is only growing.
“I’m old. When I walk in my house I’m planning on being warm, when I want to pick up my phone to charge it whatever I want to be able to charge it because I think I deserve this. This is what I work for,” said Peggy Hart of Oakland.
PG&E said it offers a credit to customers if they’ve been without power for 48 hours and there is a way to file a claim for some of your expenses.
The question for these customers right now is if PG&E would acknowledge those credits or claims.
