Peninsula power outages force changes in Christmas plans

By Amanda Hari

It was a dark and dreary Christmas night for many people throughout the Bay Area, but especially for those in and around Half Moon Bay.

“Don’t make me cry,” said Donna Diamond, about spending Christmas alone in the dark. “It’s very hard.”

Diamond lives in Montara, but drove down to El Granada to watch the waves and get out of the house. She has no electricity, for the second time in as many days.

“Wednesday morning at 1 a.m. and then it was out until 5 o’clock last night, and then it went out again at 1 o’clock this morning, and it’s still out and probably will not be back until 11,” Diamond explained. 

Without electricity, there’s not much she can do, and she says this time a year, it happens often.

“The weather often knocks out the electricity, and when the electricity goes out, I have no cell reception,” said Diamond. “And that’s true for most of the coast. I’m on a well, so I haven’t taken a shower, sorry, and you can’t flush too many times until the electricity comes back.”

Amr Salahih has also been dealing with no electricity, but he’s looking on the bright side.

“I have free time,” Salahih stated. 

He gathered up his gear to spend his Christmas kite surfing.

“It’s outdoors, it’s so much fun, and it’s windy and I can get on my gear,” said Salahih.

He wasn’t the only one; about a dozen kite surfers were out taking on the big waves. Meanwhile, Diamond was just grateful she was able to get out and be around people. 

“The weather has been so bad that I haven’t wanted to drive to friends’ houses,” said Diamond. “I’ve had a couple of friends offer me to come out, but the weather has been horrible.”

She is hoping for a long-term Christmas miracle, an infrastructure change so they’re not in the dark as often.

“What I hope is long range, is they actually do something about the overall situation out here because it’s really, I think, political, and really complicated, and we need to get it fixed,” said Diamond.