SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) — Businesses in San Francisco’s Sunset District were hit hard by this weekend’s PG&E power outage. Restaurants and markets selling raw fish along with roast chicken and pork were preparing huge orders for Sunday’s winter solstice celebration, but they had to dump it all.
The timing of the outage could not have been worse. Business owners are especially frustrated because they say PG&E told them power would be restored within hours, instead it was restored within days.
The raw fish at Tuna House is supposed to be as fresh as the business’ recent grand opening, but this weekend William Liu had to empty these refrigerators, estimating he lost at least $5,000 in inventory, not counting the lost sales.
“Without power, how can you survive?” said Tuna House owner William Liu.
Businesses like Tuna House on Irving Street in the Sunset are reeling after a weekend-long PG&E power outage forced them to close shop and cancel orders.
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The timing, catastrophic, coinciding with Sunday’s Winter Solstice celebration.
“Most people like fresh and live seafood on that day,” said Tina Zheng of Irving Seafood Market.
Irving Seafood Market also had to toss endless inventory and was getting in new inventory on Monday. Zheng says the power was out approximately 40 hours.
“Ugh, it’s a long time,” she sighed.
This, even though PG&E promised power would be restored much sooner.
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“The message delayed four hours, and then delayed eight hours and then next day,” said Liu.
“What’s your position on this in terms of how long it took PG&E to restore power?” ABC7 News reporter Melanie Woodrow asked District 4 Supervisor Alan Wong.
“It’s ridiculous,” said Wong.
Supervisor Wong says he will insist PG&E compensate businesses for their losses.
“I want answers and that’s why I’ve called for a hearing from PG&E so that we can understand what exactly happened,” said Wong.
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From raw fish and live lobsters, to roast pork and chicken.
Steven Liang estimates the restaurant he works at may have lost $40,000 – 60,000 in inventory.
“We were going to have a big, busy day on Sunday but it just happened,” said Liang.
He says the smell coming from the animals is so strong, it was clear they had spoiled.
For most businesses in this neighborhood, power was restored Monday morning, but the damage was already done.
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