Strong winds bring down trees, cause power outages across Bay Area

OAKLAND, Calif. (KGO) -- High winds caused chaos across the Bay Area Saturday, downing dozens of trees and knocking power out to thousands. PG&E reported Saturday morning nearly 30,000 customers in the Bay Area were without power, most them were in the East Bay.

*UPDATE AS OF SUNDAY: Nearly 2,600 customers are currently without power, PG&E says. Power restored for most of the nearly 30,000 initially impacted Saturday (breakdown of numbers down below)

"Oh no, my housemate's car is smashed," said Lana Faiola.
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A rude awakening for Faiola Saturday, after strong winds took down a giant spruce tree on Asilomar Drive in the Oakland Hills.



"Around 4 a.m. we heard a giant bang, saw a flash of white light," she said.



The tree knocked power lines down, leaving neighbors in the dark. ABC7 Assistant News Director Josh Hubbard, spoke live from his house on ABC7 Mornings as the chaos unfolded.

"There's an Oakland firefighter in front of my house, I'm on the second floor, there's a powerline dangling," said Hubbard.

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Removing the tree could take days.

Not far away, a topped tree was blocking Colton Boulevard.



"It'll take a couple of days to clean up and get power back, we'll be cold and miss the football game," said neighbor Rob Nickerson.

In Rockridge, strong winds downed a 50-foot elm tree on 62nd Street destroying Norman Macleod's car.



"The wind came thru, brought tree down, on my car, there's plenty of parking but I like to park there," Macleod said.

Slow going in Piedmont where some traffic lights were out.
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College Avenue, winds forced some businesses to close, they had no power. Some merchants tried to make it work and stay open.



Yasai Market was doing cash only transactions while hoping frozen foods would not defrost.

"If this goes on any longer, we could be in trouble," said market owner Bo Pak.

WATCH: How to survive power outages in the winter

PG&E says it could take several days to restore the power to some parts of the East Bay.

Latest numbers as of 8a.m. Sunday:

San Francisco
72

Peninsula
153
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North Bay
157

East Bay
2.209

South Bay
0

Bay Area Total
2,591

VIDEO: Fallen trees, downed power lines: Nearly 30K without power