Nearly 9,400 Pacific Gas and Electric Co. customers lost power in San Francisco on Saturday morning during an unplanned outage.

Restoration was estimated by 4:30 p.m., PG&E spokesperson Edgar Hopida said. The outage began around 9:23 a.m., according to an alert.

An earlier outage alert had shown more than 120,000 customers affected in San Francisco, but Hopida said that figure was wrong.

“There never was an outage of that magnitude,” he said. “Unfortunately, there may be some glitches in the system.”

PG&E’s outage information said crews were evaluating the electrical system to identify damaged sections and make repairs before safely turning power back on.

The cause of the outage was not immediately clear, though San Francisco firefighters responded to high-voltage wires arcing near Anza Street and 16th Avenue in the Richmond District, said Lt. Mariano Elias, spokesperson for the San Francisco Fire Department.

PG&E was called to the scene, and firefighters were released after the utility said the wires were no longer a hazard, Elias said.

Elias said PG&E also told the Fire Department that “there was a substation out in the Mission district” that may have caused the broader outage.

The outage affected traffic signals in parts of the Richmond District and Presidio, according to the San Francisco Department of Emergency Management.

The agency urged drivers to expect delays, consider alternate routes and allow extra travel time. Nonworking traffic signals should be treated as four-way stops, emergency officials said.

The department directed residents to PG&E’s outage map for current outage areas and 511.org for live traffic information.

On Reddit, one user described heavy traffic backups near Golden Gate Park and said signals were out at 19th Avenue and Lincoln Way. 

“It is absolute chaos trying to get through the park,” they wrote. “Avoid going that way if you can.”

The outage also hit during the Saturday morning brunch and shopping rush in the Richmond District and nearby neighborhoods.

Sarah Rooney, a barista at Bazaar Café on California Street in the Richmond, said the business lost power for roughly two hours before it came back on a little after noon. 

Without fresh coffee, Rooney had to turn away some customers looking for a Saturday morning cup of joe. But the café was still able to sell freshly baked treats, such as its buttermilk biscuits, and she said most customers were understanding. 

“It did slow us down. A Saturday morning would usually be pretty busy and pretty fast paced,” Rooney said. “It was just a quieter couple hours than would be normal.”  

The lights went out, so Rooney set out battery-powered tea lights on the tables “for ambiance” to complement the natural light filtering in through the café windows. The music stopped, so someone started playing the piano tucked into the café’s front corner. 

“Life goes on, I guess,” Rooney said. 

The latest disruptions come months after a December fire at PG&E’s Mission Street substation triggered widespread blackouts across San Francisco. A third-party report commissioned by PG&E later found that the fire was probably caused by multiple problems, including humidity buildup inside the facility.

That December outage affected about 130,000 homes and businesses at its peak, with the Richmond District among the hardest-hit areas. Days later, a separate transformer fire in the Richmond triggered another unplanned outage affecting more than 11,000 PG&E customers.

PG&E’s weather team said Saturday that no public safety power shutoff events were planned. The utility said winds were expected to remain generally below 25 mph, though afternoon sea breezes could bring gusts of about 35 mph through coastal gaps and passes.

The latest outage followed several recent PG&E power disruptions in the Bay Area, including a Thursday outage in Contra Costa County that affected more than 6,000 customers and multiple San Francisco outages in recent weeks.

Customers can check PG&E’s outage center for current maps, restoration estimates and alerts, or call 800-743-5002.

Alyce McFadden contributed to this report.

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This article originally published at PG&E outage knocks out power for nearly 9,400 in San Francisco.