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Published on 08/19/1996 All articles from this issue

Los Altos remained aglow during power outage

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By Clyde Noel / Town Crier Staff Writer

People in Los Altos didn't have to run around and reset their clocks or worry about opening their electric operated garage door openers Aug. 10, because electrical power didn't shut off in Los Altos like it did for millions across the western states.

Scott Blakey, Pacific Gas & Electric Co. spokesman in Cupertino, said the relay that allows electricity to pass through did not open. "A relay is like a fuse in your house," he said. "If the power use is overextended for the supply route, then the relay would open and electricity would be shut down.

"At no time did the sensor serving Los Altos trigger so we didn't need to dump Los Altos from the system," Blakey said. "That's probably because the town wasn't using enough electricity to go below the norm."

Temperatures in Los Altos on Aug. 10 reached 82 degrees, while other neighboring communities reached 100 degrees and over.

The outage created havoc in surrounding communities, and federal and state officials have launched an investigation into the massive failure. News services reported more than 4 million people in nine states were out of electricity.

When the power grid coming from the Pacific Northwest failed, it tripped circuit breakers that shut down half of PG&E's electric generating capacity. According to Blakey, six of PG&E's generating plants went off-line and more than 2 million PG&E customers were without power for hours.

The unaffected Los Altos area proved especially beneficial to local restaurants and retail outlets.

"On a normal Saturday evening, we would serve between 100 and 200 dinners, but last Saturday we served more than 300 dinners and they were mostly out-of-town customers," said Ron Shanholtz, owner of Mac's American Grill on Main Street in downtown Los Altos.

Other restaurants in Los Altos had more than their usual Saturday night customers and several ran out of food.

And visitors walked downtown's Main and State streets until late in the evening, when power was restored and air conditioning made their neighboring homes livable again.