Yesterday night power went out in the middle of a busy shopping mall in Daly City. The lights turned off shortly after 8 pm in the crowded Serramonte shopping mall in Daly City, California. People were ordering food at the busy food court section of the mall…Suddenly there was darkness and the sound of computers and registers shutting down brought silence into a huge space. Then, people screaming. Everything stopped. It was very strange. I’ve never seen anything like that.
The power outage lasted for a couple of hours in Pacifica and Daly City. The Daly City firemen said that “the transformer blew and PG&E is working on it”. Affected areas are Pacifica and Daly City.
It started shortly after it got dark outside. I was at home planning to cook some dinner. I turned on the light, but it was not working. I thought something was wrong with the outlet. So I tried another light – no result. The power is out. Darkness enveloped the house. Can’t cook anything. Can’t even see. It was time to go out and get some “take out”. Driving through the foggy Pacifica without streetlights is no fun. Amazingly, the traffic lights were on. Fairmont Shopping mall – out, no lights. Serramonte shopping mall is on.
I rush in, order my food and in the middle of me paying for it, the power goes out. In the darkness I hear the Panda Express employee dialing numbers and shouting questions like why the generator is not coming on. The next thing I hear is that this had never happened before. Still, in the darkness, I get explained to me that I cannot get my food because the register won’t open without power and I cannot pay for it. Wow. I’ve never seen this before. The Panda Express employee apologies and says “I thought we were in America too”…So I continue to wait with the line of people behind me.
After a good 10 minutes the power comes back on, goes out and comes back again. The firemen crew arrives and tells people the power is out in Pacifica and Daly City and might be out for another couple of hours. I go eat my food with the light and come home to darkness in Pacifica.
I have never expected to have this “darkness experience” in the middle of a shopping mall. That phrase got stuck in my head “I thought we in America too”. I couldn’t agree more.