Hollister
– The Hollister area briefly lost electricity Monday
afternoon.
Hollister – The Hollister area briefly lost electricity Monday afternoon.
Jeff Smith, a spokesman for Pacific Gas and Electric, said the problem occurred at 1:59pm on the transmission line that brings electricity from the Moss Landing Power Plant to Hollister.
Smith said PG&E investigators aren’t completely certain what caused the outage, but a likely culprit is the windy weather, which could have blown two wires together.
An automatic safety system cut off electricity to the transmission line, Smith said, but the interruption was only momentary, and service resumed a few seconds later.
Frankie Valent-Arballo, a spokeswoman for Hazel Hawkins Memorial Hospital, said the hospital immediately switched over to its emergency generator. The transition was so seamless that her computer didn’t even shut down, Valent-Arballo said.
Citifinancial’s Hollister branch also avoided problems through the use of an emergency generator. Manager Rosie Robles said that without the generator, the company would be in trouble.
“It would be a very big problem,” Robles said.
Ignacio Velazquez, owner of The Vault restaurant in downtown Hollister, said brief blackouts are only a minor inconvenience.
“We’re so used to it, it’s just a part of life,” Velazquez said.
Anthony Ha covers local government for the Free Lance. Reach him at 831-637-5566 ext. 330 or
ah*@fr***********.com
. Staff writer Alice Joy contributed to this report.
