Update: Power Restored To Most Rossmoor, Lafayette Residents Hit By Outage

Power has been restored to all customers in the Rossmoor community in Walnut Creek as well as neighborhoods in Lafayette that lost electrical power on Friday morning.

Pacific Gas & Electric Co. spokesman Tamar Sarkissian said the outage hit at 7:47 a.m. and originally affected 11,560 customers.

Of those, 7,280 were in Walnut Creek and 4,280 were in Lafayette.

At 8:40 a.m., there were still 8,460 customers without electricity.

Sarkissian said as of 10 a.m. all but 2,893 customers had power restored. The remaining customers had their electricity back by 10:20 a.m.

Sarkissian said the outage was caused by a squirrel that touched a piece of equipment known as a "bus" at the PG&E substation in Rossmoor.

Don Liddle, president of Rossmoor's Golden Rain Foundation board of directors, said PG&E officials told him the power could be off for some customers until 11:30 a.m.

His power was back on at 8:45 a.m. Liddle said everyone in Rossmoor seem to take the outage in stride and he hadn't heard of any serious problems.

Melinda McClure, another Rossmoor resident, said she stayed in bed late because it was cold inside her home. When she got up to turn the heater on, it didn't work.

McClure said the power outage is an inconvenience for her, but it might other residents more seriously. In particular, she was worried about people who might need electricity for medical reasons.

McClure said her power restored about 10 a.m. She planned to turn on her heater and make a cup of hot tea.