Power outage caused by pole hit by lightning! That's a first. I must add it to my list of above ground problems along with balloons, birds/animals, and tree branches when it isn't even windy.

Seriously though, many thanks to our hard working crews who have been working hard while remaining cheerful as they keep us all safe.

Thank you to city staff for stepping up to meet this big weather challenge. Our power was off and conditions outside were clearly challenging.
Now it’s time for our multitude of elected and appointed politicians to accelerate the two bridge replacements to protect Palo Alto and Menlo Park from flooding.

I was just thinking about this today as I was biking through town. In years past, as in twenty, thirty, forty or fifty yeas past, much less rain would have caused a lot more damage. I thought, "someone in the city has been doing something right." I have watched work being done on flood management projects by city crews over the past thirty years. I did not know about the pump upgrades, but that explains a lot. I wish I knew who to thank.

Other PAO article notes "lightning struck a tree, which came down on power lines. The outage was reported at 2:12 a.m. Power was restored to about 97% of customers by 3:55 a.m."

That's really impressive, especially for the middle of the night! Thank you, essential workers!