Power returns to downtown Santa Rosa

PG&E says a bad underground cable in front of The Cantina restaurant in downtown Santa Rosa was behind an equipment failure that cut power to more than 1,600 customers late Tuesday night.

About 578 homes and businesses in the downtown and Santa Rosa Junior College neighborhoods remained in the dark throughout the night and morning hours Wednesday, PG&E and police personnel said.

All but two had power restored shortly after 11 a.m. Wednesday — nearly 12 hours after the lights first went out — bringing traffic lights back to life and allowing several downtown businesses shuttered for the morning to open their doors.

The 11:43 p.m. Tuesday blackout affected a swath of Santa Rosa from the Santa Rosa Plaza, up Mendocino Avenue to SRJC, and extending to about North Street and Pacific Avenue, police and PG&E personnel said.

A junior college police dispatcher said there had been no reports of power blackouts on the campus itself.

Ground Zero was down below the front of the well-known Mexican eatery on Mendocino Avenue near Fourth Street, PG&E spokesman J.D. Guidi said.

Some downtown merchants opted to stay closed until power was back on again, including Treehorn Books and Corrick’s, while the popular Fourth Street Market and Deli at Fourth Street and Mendocino Avenue was unusually dark and quiet Wednesday morning.

“No coffee. No hot food. No slicers. This is crazy,” owner Pete Mogannam said.

He usually opens at 7 a.m. and had opted to stay closed until customers insisted he open his doors.

“People were knocking on our door like crazy,” he said.

He lamented his inability to provide coffee and hot items, but muffins, bagels and other dry goods still were available.

“I don’t like it,” Mogannam said. “It happens. It’s part of life.”

A few doors down, Mary’s Pizza Shack regional manager Sam Borquez was outside the restaurant, waiting and hoping for power.

Borquez said the restaurant was OK, with the food still cold, shut up tight. But whether he’d be able to open for lunch remained a mystery only PG&E could solve.

The morning crew typically would already have been getting things set for the lunch crowd.

“We sent a couple of people home,” Borquez said. “If it doesn’t come back soon, we’ll move the food to other restaurants.”

Things were better farther east at Fourth and D streets, where corner coffee spots remained open and busy.

At Mac’s Delicatessen, where the lights were on and people were eating breakfast, head waitress Doris Johnson said they hadn’t lost power.

“Thank God,” she said.