Feb. 19, 2023Updated: Feb. 19, 2023 5:17 p.m.
Travelers walk under departures sign for Southwest Airlines at Oakland International Airport in May 2021. Smith Collection/Gado/Gado via Getty Images
LATEST Feb. 19, 5 p.m. Reports indicate that power is back on at the airport and flights appear to have resumed. However, power is still out for many Oakland residents.
Feb. 19, 3:20 p.m. A major power outage caused by a fire at a PG&E station halted all activity in and out of Oakland International Airport on Sunday afternoon and left over 50,000 Oakland residents without power.
According to PG&E’s outage map, 50,308 customers were without power in households from the Bay coast all the way to the Oakland hills. The outage began just before 1 p.m. PG&E initially estimated that power would be back by 3:30 p.m. but later changed that estimate to 6:30 p.m.
BART reported that the power outage briefly halted its Oakland Airport Connector service, stranding would-be flyers at the airport. By 2:35 p.m., BART restarted the Oakland Airport Connector on a limited capacity.
A little before 2 p.m.,Twitter user @matt_ashlock posted a video of a jam-packed Oakland Airport, and said no one was making it through security and that no flights were able to take off. Reports were coming in that flights headed for Oakland from other airports were told not to take off.
Power outage apparently, all of Oakland Airport at a standstill. No one getting thru security for going on almost an hour now.
TSA Agents saying this has never happened before. Saying no flights are gonna leave while it’s like this.
No timetable for a fix. pic.twitter.com/d4Fq6Nt5DW
— matt ashlock (@matt_ashlock) February 19, 2023The power outage was also causing headaches for Alameda residents. With the power out, both the Fruitvale Ave. and High St. bridges were stuck in an upwards position, meaning the only ways in and out of the island community were via the Posey and Webster tubes.
The Oakland Fire Department tweeted that the outage was caused by a fire at a PG&E substation near 50th Avenue and Coliseum Way in East Oakland. The department reported that fire at the PG&E substation had been put at 2:30 p.m.
This is a breaking news story and has been updated.
54,000 PG&E customers in East Oakland without power after fire at PG&E substation near 50th Ave. and Colisieum, per @OaklandFireCA. Outage is disrupting BART service, including to OAK airport. PG&E currently estimating restoration at 3:30 p.m. pic.twitter.com/VeT1Fkzkmd
— Scott Morris ☀️ (@OakMorr) February 19, 2023
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