PG&E PSPS: East Bay man frustrated after power shut off for 5th time in 8 months

WALNUT CREEK, Calif. (KGO) -- More than 16,000 people across the Bay Area woke up without power on Thursday.

PG&E says this was part of their Public Safety Power Shutoffs.

These are a planned strategy by the utility to prevent wildfires when there's high fire danger.

As of about 10 a.m. on Thursday, power had been restored to 91% of customers across the Bay Area.

PREVIOUS: PG&E shuts power of 16,000 Bay Area residents as winds intensify and fire danger looms

Some neighbors in Walnut Creek say it was out for more than 24 hours, impacting work from home, food storage and keeping kids entertained.

"Just got back 15 minutes ago, I went to a café to go to work today and as soon as I got there, I got the message that power is back so I was like, alright, I'll go back home," Chad Buccine, a Walnut Creek resident said.

Buccine and his family first lost power around 7 a.m. Wednesday morning.

Using a flashlight, his wife showed ABC7 News where their makeshift fridge was outside at night.

In this case, it's a couple of ice filled coolers.

"I was setting up candles all around the house last night and here I am, I hope I don't burn my house down like trying to light up my house during this outage," he said.

All joking aside, he says this is the fifth time they've lost power since moving in eight months ago.

"I just feel like I'm a pawn in their game with like the state," Buccine said. "I don't feel any safer, because they shut off my power for the past 24 hours."

PG&E says this Public Safety Power Shutoff impacted more than 16,000 customers across the Bay Area.

The shutoffs are a last resort to prevent wildfires.

"It was something that we felt was necessary with the high winds, the gusts, the dry conditions, the many elements that were playing into this decision but we are happy to see that things have started to improve," PG&E spokesperson Tamar Sarkissian said.

Part of what takes so long to get the power restored are safety inspections done by crews patrolling every mile of line that had a potential of impact.

"We have to go out and patrol these lines because if there is a tree branch or damage to a line and we turn power back on, that can cause the same problem that we're working to avoid in the first place," Sarkissian said.

PG&E says Wednesday's wind event did cause some damage, but their crews are still out on the lines working to determine what the extent of the damage actually was.

They expect full power to be restored across the Bay Area later Thursday.