RIO DELL, Calif. — At least two people were dead, nearly a dozen were injured and scores were displaced on Tuesday as the North Coast of California — a rugged and remote stretch of redwood country overlooking the Pacific Ocean — worked to recover from a 6.4-magnitude earthquake.

The powerful jolt, in the frigid dark at 2:34 am Pacific time, damaged bridges and roads, topped walls and chimneys, and cut power to more than 70,000 utility customers in Humboldt County. By evening, electricity was restored for about half of those customers, but some 34,000 were still without power, according to Pacific Gas and Electric, and some parts of the county were left without running water and major transportation routes.

The quake was centered just offshore, about 12 miles west of the community of Ferndale and more than 200 miles north of San Francisco, in a seismically active region. Exactly one year ago, the same area was rocked by a 6.2 temblor. More than 50 aftershocks followed Tuesday’s earthquake, including a large one about five minutes after with a magnitude of 4.6, according to the US Geological Survey.

William F. Honsal, the sheriff and emergency services director of Humboldt County, said that at least two people, ages 72 and 83, died because they had suffered medical crises around the time of the earthquake and could not be reached by emergency personnel soon enough .

Among the damaged roads is the one that crosses Fernbridge, a historic multiple-arched bridge across the Eel River that is the primary route for Ferndale residents to Eureka, the county’s largest city. The bridge was closed early Tuesday, and photos showed that a billowing crack had formed in the road nearby.

In Rio Dell, an old logging community about 10 miles southeast of Ferndale that the sheriff called “ground zero” for the earthquake’s impact, the city manager, Kyle Knopp, said that 15 homes were already deemed uninhabitable because of earthquake damage, and that inspectors were continuing to examine structures. Gavin Newsom, the governor of California, and Humboldt County officials declared a state of emergency to expedite aid.

Mr. Knopp, who estimated that as many as 150 of the community’s 3,300 residents would be displaced by the time inspections were completed, also said the city might be unable to supply tap water until Wednesday at the earliest.

“This was a tough day,” said Greg Allen, the Rio Dell police chief. “That jolt hit us pretty hard.”

Witnesses, many of whom had been through significant earthquakes before, said that Tuesday’s quake felt unusually strong, leading to terrifying moments as they were shaken from their sleep.

In Rio Dell, Kirstin Collins, 32, said she awoke to a violent rattling and thought immediately of her 8-year-old son, Liam, who slept on the opposite side of the house. Her husband, Johnnie Collins, 30, ran to retrieve Liam in the pitch darkness, and cut his feet on broken items on the floor, she said.

A dresser topped onto her bed, and a fallen mirror nearly barricaded her in the room, she said. The house’s water heater broke, and a broken pipe flooded the laundry room where the family’s dog slept.

“I honestly didn’t think I was going to get out of the house,” Ms. Collins said hours later, assessing the quake’s aftermath in the rain. Once there was daylight, she said, she found more damage both inside and outside the house, and wondered how she would feed her son, charge her phone or find shelter.

“We have nothing,” she said. “Everything is broken in our house completely, and we don’t know where to go and what to do.”

Another Rio Dell resident, Joe Filyau, 59, said that he had been through other earthquakes, but “never felt one that hard.”

The “earth was just slamming up and down,” he said.

A tile from the countertop in his newly renovated kitchen broke away from the wall, he said, and he had to turn the water off after a line burst, spraying water under his house.

“Everything in the house is just everywhere,” he said.

But Mr. Filyau had more pressing concerns: His 87-year-old mother, Beverly, is on oxygen, and he did not know how much longer their gasoline-powered generator would keep running to provide power for her oxygen machine. All of the nearby gas stations were closed, so he planned to drive to Ferndale, hoping that a gas station there would have electricity and be open for business.

In the city of Fortuna, five miles east of Ferndale, local merchants said the quake on Tuesday was stronger even than the one that struck last Dec. 20 in the same region. By dawn, many people were already busy sweeping up broken glass on the sidewalks.

Kathy Comerer, the proprietor of Fortuna Fabrics and Crafts, said the earthquake had shattered seven of her store windows, “a record.” Nearby, the aroma of alcohol wafted from a Beverage Plus store, where the floor was littered with smashed liquor bottles. The owner of a pharmacy, Robert Johnson, said his storefront was intact only because he had installed sturdier windows after an earlier earthquake.

About 15 minutes’ drive away, Daniel Zingale, a retired state political strategist who now lives on eight acres of redwood forest, said the quake had frightened his two donkeys, Niño and Pinto; had sent his cat, macaroni, into hiding; and had knocked a statue of the Virgin Mary from a crèche on the fireplace mantle. But otherwise, he said, his cabin came home through without serious damage.

“It’s very dark here at night and very quiet, and all of a sudden, the house was rocking and rolling,” Mr. Zingale said. “A big mirror fell off the wall and we didn’t even hear it, because the sound of the quake was so loud.”

Boutique shops in Ferndale, a small town of 1,350 residents, had merchandise scattered across their floors. The front windows of Valley Grocery were shattered, and signs declared “Cash Only” because the power was out, as patrons shopped for essentials in the dark. At Ring’s Pharmacy, a clerk, Susie Klatt, said the quake had left not only her workplace, but also her holiday covered home, strewn with debris and damage.

“I’m a big Christmas person, so I had three trees fall over,” she said. “Santa Clauses all over the place.”

The latest earthquake and the one last year occurred in a region where three of the earth’s large crustal plates come together. Known as the Mendocino Triple Junction, it is an area of ​​high seismic activity, averaging about 80 earthquakes a year of magnitude 3 or greater.

Along most of coastal California, the Pacific plate slides slowly to the northwest past the North American plate. This results in the San Andreas fault and other major faults that occasionally cause large earthquakes.

In the northernmost part of the coast, however, a third plate, the Gorda — part of a larger plate called the Juan de Fuca — comes into play. At this triple junction, the Gorda is sliding beneath the North American plate, a process called subduction, and at the same time sliding past the Pacific plate, creating a fault called the Mendocino Transform. The combination of these various stresses is what leads to the large number of earthquakes in the area.

Kitty Bennett contributed research. Ollie Hancock contributed reporting from Ferndale, Calif., Henry Fountain from Albuquerque and Jacey Fortin from New York.

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RIO DELL, Calif. — At least two people were dead, nearly a dozen were injured and scores were displaced on Tuesday as the North Coast of California — a rugged and remote stretch of redwood country overlooking the Pacific Ocean — worked to recover from a 6.4-magnitude earthquake.

The powerful jolt, in the frigid dark at 2:34 am Pacific time, damaged bridges and roads, topped walls and chimneys, and cut power to more than 70,000 utility customers in Humboldt County. By evening, electricity was restored for about half of those customers, but some 34,000 were still without power, according to Pacific Gas and Electric, and some parts of the county were left without running water and major transportation routes.

The quake was centered just offshore, about 12 miles west of the community of Ferndale and more than 200 miles north of San Francisco, in a seismically active region. Exactly one year ago, the same area was rocked by a 6.2 temblor. More than 50 aftershocks followed Tuesday’s earthquake, including a large one about five minutes after with a magnitude of 4.6, according to the US Geological Survey.

William F. Honsal, the sheriff and emergency services director of Humboldt County, said that at least two people, ages 72 and 83, died because they had suffered medical crises around the time of the earthquake and could not be reached by emergency personnel soon enough .

Among the damaged roads is the one that crosses Fernbridge, a historic multiple-arched bridge across the Eel River that is the primary route for Ferndale residents to Eureka, the county’s largest city. The bridge was closed early Tuesday, and photos showed that a billowing crack had formed in the road nearby.

In Rio Dell, an old logging community about 10 miles southeast of Ferndale that the sheriff called “ground zero” for the earthquake’s impact, the city manager, Kyle Knopp, said that 15 homes were already deemed uninhabitable because of earthquake damage, and that inspectors were continuing to examine structures. Gavin Newsom, the governor of California, and Humboldt County officials declared a state of emergency to expedite aid.

Mr. Knopp, who estimated that as many as 150 of the community’s 3,300 residents would be displaced by the time inspections were completed, also said the city might be unable to supply tap water until Wednesday at the earliest.

“This was a tough day,” said Greg Allen, the Rio Dell police chief. “That jolt hit us pretty hard.”

Witnesses, many of whom had been through significant earthquakes before, said that Tuesday’s quake felt unusually strong, leading to terrifying moments as they were shaken from their sleep.

In Rio Dell, Kirstin Collins, 32, said she awoke to a violent rattling and thought immediately of her 8-year-old son, Liam, who slept on the opposite side of the house. Her husband, Johnnie Collins, 30, ran to retrieve Liam in the pitch darkness, and cut his feet on broken items on the floor, she said.

A dresser topped onto her bed, and a fallen mirror nearly barricaded her in the room, she said. The house’s water heater broke, and a broken pipe flooded the laundry room where the family’s dog slept.

“I honestly didn’t think I was going to get out of the house,” Ms. Collins said hours later, assessing the quake’s aftermath in the rain. Once there was daylight, she said, she found more damage both inside and outside the house, and wondered how she would feed her son, charge her phone or find shelter.

“We have nothing,” she said. “Everything is broken in our house completely, and we don’t know where to go and what to do.”

Another Rio Dell resident, Joe Filyau, 59, said that he had been through other earthquakes, but “never felt one that hard.”

The “earth was just slamming up and down,” he said.

A tile from the countertop in his newly renovated kitchen broke away from the wall, he said, and he had to turn the water off after a line burst, spraying water under his house.

“Everything in the house is just everywhere,” he said.

But Mr. Filyau had more pressing concerns: His 87-year-old mother, Beverly, is on oxygen, and he did not know how much longer their gasoline-powered generator would keep running to provide power for her oxygen machine. All of the nearby gas stations were closed, so he planned to drive to Ferndale, hoping that a gas station there would have electricity and be open for business.

In the city of Fortuna, five miles east of Ferndale, local merchants said the quake on Tuesday was stronger even than the one that struck last Dec. 20 in the same region. By dawn, many people were already busy sweeping up broken glass on the sidewalks.

Kathy Comerer, the proprietor of Fortuna Fabrics and Crafts, said the earthquake had shattered seven of her store windows, “a record.” Nearby, the aroma of alcohol wafted from a Beverage Plus store, where the floor was littered with smashed liquor bottles. The owner of a pharmacy, Robert Johnson, said his storefront was intact only because he had installed sturdier windows after an earlier earthquake.

About 15 minutes’ drive away, Daniel Zingale, a retired state political strategist who now lives on eight acres of redwood forest, said the quake had frightened his two donkeys, Niño and Pinto; had sent his cat, macaroni, into hiding; and had knocked a statue of the Virgin Mary from a crèche on the fireplace mantle. But otherwise, he said, his cabin came home through without serious damage.

“It’s very dark here at night and very quiet, and all of a sudden, the house was rocking and rolling,” Mr. Zingale said. “A big mirror fell off the wall and we didn’t even hear it, because the sound of the quake was so loud.”

Boutique shops in Ferndale, a small town of 1,350 residents, had merchandise scattered across their floors. The front windows of Valley Grocery were shattered, and signs declared “Cash Only” because the power was out, as patrons shopped for essentials in the dark. At Ring’s Pharmacy, a clerk, Susie Klatt, said the quake had left not only her workplace, but also her holiday covered home, strewn with debris and damage.

“I’m a big Christmas person, so I had three trees fall over,” she said. “Santa Clauses all over the place.”

The latest earthquake and the one last year occurred in a region where three of the earth’s large crustal plates come together. Known as the Mendocino Triple Junction, it is an area of ​​high seismic activity, averaging about 80 earthquakes a year of magnitude 3 or greater.

Along most of coastal California, the Pacific plate slides slowly to the northwest past the North American plate. This results in the San Andreas fault and other major faults that occasionally cause large earthquakes.

In the northernmost part of the coast, however, a third plate, the Gorda — part of a larger plate called the Juan de Fuca — comes into play. At this triple junction, the Gorda is sliding beneath the North American plate, a process called subduction, and at the same time sliding past the Pacific plate, creating a fault called the Mendocino Transform. The combination of these various stresses is what leads to the large number of earthquakes in the area.

Kitty Bennett contributed research. Ollie Hancock contributed reporting from Ferndale, Calif., Henry Fountain from Albuquerque and Jacey Fortin from New York.

The post 6.4-Magnitude Earthquake in California Leaves 2 Useless, 1000’s With out Energy appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.

One of San Francisco’s most prominent and wealthy tech power couples are reportedly leaving the city.

Stewart Butterfield, the co-founder of both Slack and Flickr, and his wife Jen Rubio, CEO of luggage manufacturer Away, listed their Presidio Heights mansion this week, reports the Wall Street Journal. The 7,700-square-foot, seven-bed Victorian at 3636 Clay Street hit the market on Monday at $19.8 million.

The pair are leaving San Francisco for Aspen, Colo., where they recently purchased a $25 million mountain home, reports the WSJ.

Once referred to as “Silicon Valley’s newest ‘it’ couple” by Insider, the couple got engaged in 2019 after Butterfield appeared to propose to Rubio over Twitter, seemingly as a joke. Butterfield was previously married to his Flickr co-founder, Caterina Fake.

3636 Clay Street, San Francisco

Google Earth

After a previous stint working with Warby Parker, Rubio launched Away with co-founder Steph Korey in 2015. The luggage company has been valued at $1.45 billion, and Rubio’s net worth estimated at $130 million.

After founding photo hosting site Flickr in 2005, Butterfield and co-founders launched messaging software Slack in 2015. The company was bought by Salesforce in 2020 in a $27.7 billion “megadeal.” Butterfield’s net worth is estimated at $1.3 billion.

The home at 3636 Clay, between Locust and Spruce streets near Laurel Village, was built in 1899 and features a guest suite, a gym, a four-car garage, a private yard and a deck that opens out to a view of the Golden Gate Bridge.

Find the full, on the Sotheby’s site.

The post Billionaire energy couple checklist San Francisco mansion, go away metropolis appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.

One of San Francisco’s most prominent and wealthy tech power couples are reportedly leaving the city.

Stewart Butterfield, the co-founder of both Slack and Flickr, and his wife Jen Rubio, CEO of luggage manufacturer Away, listed their Presidio Heights mansion this week, reports the Wall Street Journal. The 7,700-square-foot, seven-bed Victorian at 3636 Clay Street hit the market on Monday at $19.8 million.

The pair are leaving San Francisco for Aspen, Colo., where they recently purchased a $25 million mountain home, reports the WSJ.

Once referred to as “Silicon Valley’s newest ‘it’ couple” by Insider, the couple got engaged in 2019 after Butterfield appeared to propose to Rubio over Twitter, seemingly as a joke. Butterfield was previously married to his Flickr co-founder, Caterina Fake.

3636 Clay Street, San Francisco

Google Earth

After a previous stint working with Warby Parker, Rubio launched Away with co-founder Steph Korey in 2015. The luggage company has been valued at $1.45 billion, and Rubio’s net worth estimated at $130 million.

After founding photo hosting site Flickr in 2005, Butterfield and co-founders launched messaging software Slack in 2015. The company was bought by Salesforce in 2020 in a $27.7 billion “megadeal.” Butterfield’s net worth is estimated at $1.3 billion.

The home at 3636 Clay, between Locust and Spruce streets near Laurel Village, was built in 1899 and features a guest suite, a gym, a four-car garage, a private yard and a deck that opens out to a view of the Golden Gate Bridge.

Find the full, on the Sotheby’s site.

The post Billionaire energy couple listing San Francisco mansion, go away metropolis appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.

Two of Dallas-Fort Worth’s largest public companies named new chief executives this week in planned successions.

Irving-based Vistra Corp., the state’s largest power generator, named longtime company executive Jim Burke as its next CEO to replace Curt Morgan, who has guided the company since 2016. Burke’s promotion is effective Aug. 1.

Richardson-based Lennox International went outside the company to find Todd Bluedorn’s successor. It hired Alok Maskara, CEO of Luxfer Holdings PLC, to an advanced materials industrial company. He takes over May 9.

Bluedorn announced in July that he intended to retire by mid-2022. He led the heating, venting and air conditioning giant for 15 years. Lennox’s revenue grew 15% last year to nearly $4.2 billion.

Maskara, 51, has guided Luxxfer Holdings for five years. Prior to Luxfer, he was president of several global business units at Pentair PLC, a water treatment and sustainable applications company, for a decade. He also previously held leadership roles at General Electric Corp. and McKinsey & Co.

At Vistra, Morgan will stay on as CEO through a summer transition, according to the company. Board chairman Scott Helm credited Morgan with moving the company away from a reliance on coal plants and into one of the largest power producers and retailers in the US It sells electricity and natural gas to nearly 4.3 million residential, commercial and industrial customers.

“Leading Vistra has been the most rewarding experience of my 40-year career,” Morgan said in a statement. “Now is the right time for this leadership transition. The company is strong with the right strategic direction and capital allocation plan. And importantly, Jim is the right person for the job.”

Burke, 53, most recently was president and chief financial officer of the $12 billion-a-year business that includes well-known retailers TXU Energy, Ambit Energy and Dynegy and power generator Luminant. Before that, he was Vistra’s chief operating officer for four years and previously served as CEO of TXU Energy.

CEO turnover is beginning to accelerate this year, with 276 top executives departing in January and February, according to a report by global outplacement and coaching firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc. That’s up nearly 42% from the same two-month period a year ago.

“As pandemic concerns subside somewhat with falling cases, leaders who have been in crisis mode for the last two years may look for something new,” said Andrew Challenger, senior vice president of the Chicago-based firm. “As with many American workers, they may choose to retire or resign for other positions.”

Since August, American Airlines, Southwest Airlines and Tenet Healthcare are among North Texas companies with retiring CEOs being replaced with internal successors. Earlier this month, Susan Salka, the chief executive who established Dallas as a second headquarters city for staffing firm AMN Healthcare, said she will retire this year after her successor is hired.

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SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Evan Longoria hit a two-run homer and Alex Cobb pitched six solid innings to lead the San Francisco Giants to a 6-1 win over the Arizona Diamondbacks on Monday night.

The Giants are 18-2 at home against Arizona since the start of the 2020 season. They’ve also won seven of their last nine games.

“The energy has been much better in here,” Longoria said.

San Francisco took control and broke open a scoreless game by scoring all of its runs in the fourth, fifth and sixth innings.

Diamondbacks starter Madison Bumgarner (6-12), the Giants’ 2014 World Series hero, allowed all six runs and eight hits in 5 2/3 innings while walking two and striking out six. Bumgarner made just his second Oracle Park start with fans in the stands. He started once in San Francisco in 2020, with only cardboard cutouts in the seats due to COVID-19 restrictions.

On Monday, Bumgarner received a warm ovation from the crowd as he left the mound.

“I’m not going to lie to you and say to you it’s just any other game in any other stadium,” Bumgarner said. “I especially want to pitch well here and just didn’t. It’s frustrating. … It’s embarrassing is how I’d describe it. I definitely made some bad pitches, but I made some bad pitches in the first few innings, too. It wasn’t like I was as good as I could be out there, but I would like to have been able to have better results.”

Longoria followed JD Davis’ one-out double and broke a scoreless tie with his 10th homer of the season, a drive into the left-center field stands. Longoria has 14 double-digit home run seasons. The 13 he accumulated before this season ranked him tied for sixth among active players.

After extending their lead to 3-0 in the fifth on Joey Bart’s double and Austin Slater’s RBI single, the Giants chased Bumgarner with three runs in the sixth. Davis’ leadoff single and Longoria’s walk set up the outburst. Thairo Estrada hit a double that scored Davis with one out and preceded Bart’s two-run double.

Bart is batting .500 (14 for 28) during a career-best seven-game hitting streak.

“He’ll be placing himself in a category of his own,” Longoria said of Bart, who has begun to display the maturity that the Giants expected from him when they drafted him second overall in 2018.

Cobb (4-6) struck out five in six innings and allowed five hits, including Christian Walker’s sixth-inning homer, his 28th of the season.

Diamondbacks: Right fielder Daulton Varsho returned to the lineup, batting leadoff, after being hit in the jaw by a wayward between-innings throw from third baseman Josh Rojas … Ketel Marte did not start Monday, allowing him to rest his tight left hamstring . His playing status remained day to day.

Giants: Outfielder Joc Pedersen did not start, but was considered available after taking batting practice. Pedersen proved he was physically sound by rapping a pinch hit double in the seventh. Pedersen was hit on his right pinkie by a pitch from Pittsburgh’s Zach Thompson on Sunday. Giants manager Gabe Kapler said that X-rays taken on Pedersen’s finger were negative. … Monday was deemed a day of rest for shortstop Brandon Crawford, who left the injured list on Aug. 7 after coping with left knee inflammation.

The Giants and Diamondbacks continue their four-game series at Oracle Park on Tuesday. Arizona ace Merrill Kelly (10-5) wants to oppose San Francisco right-hander Jacob Junes (4-3).

Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.

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Bay Area // san francisco

May 26, 2022Updated: May 26, 2022 8:46 am

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PG&E crews work to restore power to around 750 customers in San Francisco’s Noe Valley neighborhood after what appeared to be a blown transformer scorched a utility pole.

Andy Reinhardt / The Chronicleshow moreshow less

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A PG&E worker addressing the burned top of a utility pole in San Francisco, Calif. An apparently blown transformer scorched the pole.

Andy Reinhardt / The Chronicleshow moreshow less

About 750 residents near San Francisco’s Noe Valley neighborhood were without power Thursday morning following an outage that impacted more than 3,000 customers on Wednesday night, Pacific Gas and Electric Co. said.

The outage was first reported at about 11 pm Wednesday and affected 3,272 customers, said PG&E spokesperson Karly Hernandez.

PG&E crews were working Thursday morning to restore power to the remaining 751 customers, and expect full restoration by 2 pm, said Hernandez.

The cause of the outage was under investigation.

Residents reported hearing a loud “bang” around 11 pm Wednesday when a transformer may have blown. PG&E crews were working to replace a burned utility pole Wednesday morning.

Jessica Flores (she/her) is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: jessica.flores@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @jesssmflores

Jessica Flores is a reporter for The San Francisco Chronicle. Before joining The Chronicle in 2021, she worked for USA Today, NPR affiliate KPCC and Curbed LA. Originally from LA, she received her master’s degree in journalism from the University of Southern California and a bachelor’s degree from Mount Saint Mary’s University in Los Angeles.

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Lorde performs at Bill Graham Civic Auditorium in San Francisco on May 3, 2022, Roman Gokhman/STAFF. This story will be updated with photos as soon as they become available.

SAN FRANCISCO — It’s been a hot minute since Lorde last visited the Bay Area.

The New Zealand artist’s last show, at Oakland Arena in 2018, took place when most of the country didn’t know the difference between a pandemic and epidemic. Heck, Oakland Arena was the Oracle back then. After initially delaying a new album, 25-year-old artist Ella Yelich-O’Connor returned with Solar Power, her most complicated work so far.

At her concert Tuesday at Bill Graham Civic Auditorium, the third to last of her Solar Power North American tour, Lorde made it clear that she has missed her fans as much as they have missed her.

“I wished I could call you up,” Lorde said of her time away from the music scene, back home in New Zealand. “I know I don’t seem like it, but I’m shy. A lot of my life has been spent very isolated, very alone. These rooms full of you … have made me feel very cared for, very supported.”

She said this before her band kicked into “Liability,” one of a handful of songs from older albums, which she sprinkled into a 21-song set; first a little at a time and then a lot at once for a climactic finish. The show was broken up into three segments representative of the time of the day. Driving the point home was a giant sundial, which consisted of a rotating platform, a 45-degree ladder that Lorde and her touring musicians would sometimes climb, and a Lorde-sized drum (the fulcrum of the ladder), in which she’d duck into a couple of times, including once to change outfits while everyone watched her silhouette. At the back of the stage was a video screen that projected, mostly a sun that was illuminated various colors to assist in the theme; dark at first, then pink and purple to signify daybreak, and so on.

If that sounds like a lot… it was actually a bit underwhelming. The stage was lit in sepia tones most of the night. The band members, doing performance art, were as motionless as possible. If they were having fun on stage, they didn’t show it. While performing, Lorde often had a musician or singer positioned next to her, but unmoving; sometimes facing the back of the stage. The biggest issue with the show as the pacing, which buried most of the slower songs in the first two acts. It was Lorde’s will, for sure, and those songs represented some of the heavier themes of Solar Power.

“We’re gonna have a great show, but right now we need to have a cry,” she said before sitting down inside the drum with one of her crew/mannequin for “Stoned at the Nail Salon.” There was a lot of crying to get through, with only occasional energetic pit stops like “Buzzcut Season,” “The Louvre” and “Secrets From a Girl (Who’s Seen It All).” Periodic glances at attendees in the building showed that the fans were into the sad vibes. The thousands packed shoulder to shoulder remained standing (not that they had room to sit down). They had clearly connected with the material.

Lorde, meanwhile, performed a noticeable amount of these songs for two-thirds of the show while seated, either on the ladder, in the drum or on the moving sundial platform itself. A couple of times she leaned against the ladder. Dancing songs, these were not.

Lorde began with “Leader of a New Regime,” with a story of a ruined earth, and worked through “Homemade Dynamite” at the back of the stage and “Buzzcut Season,” during which the “sun” against the back of the stage glowing pink. The crowd was ready to explode by this point, and the people moving on the floor created a wave-like effect from above.

Lorde performs at Bill Graham Civic Auditorium in San Francisco on May 3, 2022,

Following “Fallen Fruit” she disappeared backstage and returned not with the orange jacket and black pants in which she started the show but in a poofy white dress. On several songs like “The Path,” she performed on the ladder itself, some bandmates standing behind her.

Lorde introduced “Ribs” as a song she wrote when she was 15, and asked the crowd to dance like they were still 15. While fans sang along to most of the songs, the older material clearly still hit harder.

“It feels so good to be out of bed,” she said, after earlier in the show saying she was recovering from a recent illness.

Other highlights from these first two parts of the show included the mood-boosting “Secrets From a Girl (Who’s Seen It All)” and the bassy “The Louvre,” after which Lorde announced there was a “slight sundial malfunction.”

This meant that the majority of the dance-ready songs got held to the last segment of the show. And while the first two segments represented the themes of the album, the last segment was by far the best entertainment of the night.

Reappearing from the drum, in which she’d just changed to a pink cocktail dress, Lorde was ready to get her evening within an evening started. She and her band breezed through “Mood Ring” and “Sober” before launching into “Supercut,” on which she finally broke out into that signature jerky dancing and hopping around onstage.

The new album’s title track—which Lorde said she wrote about in Martha’s Vineyard in an attempt to catch that salty, summer, beach feeling—was sandwiched between the night’s two biggest melodic highlights: “Perfect Places” and “Green Light” (still one of the best pop songs of the last decade). It was all an impeccable 25-minute stretch. Perhaps these songs work better together, all at once. But tossing a few in earlier in the set would have made getting to this moment a happier experience.

She rounded off the show with “Oceanic Feeling” and an encore of two of her biggest hits, “Royals” and “Team.”

Bay Area singer-songwriter Remi Wolf opened the concert in her second or third local performance in recent months, following her headlining show at the Regency Ballroom in January. Wearing a summery dress, Remi Wolf danced around to her band’s surf-pop guitars and funky rhythms. Her 30-minute set included “Disco Man,” “Monte Carlo,” “Sexy Villain” and “Photo ID.” She showed off her most impressive belting on power ballad “Liz,” some rapping on “Woo!” and did a faithful Janis Joplin impression on a cover of “Piece of My Heart.”

Follow editor Roman Gokhman at Twitter.com/RomiTheWriter.

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LIVERMORE (KPIX 5) – A power surge in Livermore early Tuesday fried thousands of appliances and likely caused hundreds of thousands of dollars in damage, as it impacted 521 homes.

Pacific Gas & Electric Co. said it happened around midnight Monday night into Tuesday morning when a palm frond falling across a high voltage distribution line and a lower voltage transmission line at Elaine Avenue and Holmes Street in Livermore.

READ MORE: San Jose’s Yerba Buena High School Told To Shelter In Place After Shooting Nearby

It caused a power surge so powerful it blew the meters off houses and fried electronics.

“I had the TV on and I literally can see the smoke and sparks flying. It was like a big fire, poof, and then it was over. Completedarkness. It was scary,” said Christy Garcia, one of the impacted homeowners.

“Our dishwasher we just bought is like completely destroyed, coffee maker, Xbox, monitors are fried,” Garcia recalled.

Neighbors also said they lost solar panels, pool pumps, hot tubs, TVs, computers and other small electronics, garage door openers, kitchen appliances, HVAC systems, sprinkler controllers – basically anything that was plugged in when the surge hit.

“How do you have that much electricity going through your house at one time to cause that much damage?” Garcia wants to know.

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“We’re extremely busy right now. Non-stop calls,” said Tim Agront, is one of the project managers for Five or Free, a local Livermore electrical company.

Agront told KPIX 5 that they have worked on 36 houses Tuesday and 43 houses Wednesday.

“Cost of repairs that I’ve seen, probably on the high end, would be at least up to $40,000-$50,000 and that’s just in appliances alone,” he says.

PG&E said impacted homeowners can file a claim on their website but told KPIX 5 in a statement that “Although the palm tree was not in PG&Es right of way and we are not responsible for its maintenance, we will review and consider each claim.”

Agront said one way to prevent something like this from damaging electronics in your home is to have a whole house surge protector installed or ensure all electronics are plugged into strip surge protectors before they’re plugged into the wall.

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Claims with PG&E can be filed by calling the utility’s claims department at (415) 973-4548 or online at www.pge.com/claims. Each household can only file one claim per incident, so people need to make sure they check everything in their homes before filing the claim.

The post Livermore Residents Search Solutions From PG&E After Energy Surge Damages Electronics In Over 500 Houses – CBS San Francisco appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration is restoring California’s authority to set its own tailpipe pollution standards for cars, reversing a Trump administration policy and likely ushering in stricter emissions standards for new passenger vehicles nationwide.

A waiver approved Wednesday by the Environmental Protection Agency allows California to set tough emissions rules for cars and SUVs and impose mandates for so-called zero-emission vehicles that do not contribute to global warming.

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At least 15 states and the District of Columbia have signed on to California’s vehicle standards, which are stricter than federal rules and designed to address the state’s severe air pollution problems. According to the American Lung Association, seven of the 10 US cities with worst ozone pollution are in California, along with six of the 10 most polluted cities measured by year-round particle pollution.

Former President Donald Trump’s 2019 decision to revoke California’s authority to set its own limits on auto emissions was one of his most high-profile actions to roll back environmental rules he considered overly burdensome on businesses. Regulation of vehicle emissions is central to combating climate change.

President Joe Biden has made slowing climate change a top priority of his administration. Transportation is the single largest source of planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions in the United States, making up 29% of all emissions. Within the transportation sector, passenger cars and trucks are the largest contributor, accounting for 58% of all transportation-related emissions and 17% of overall US carbon emissions.

“Today we proudly reaffirm California’s longstanding authority to lead in addressing pollution from cars and trucks,” said EPA Administrator Michael Regan. “With today’s action, we reinstate an approach that for years has helped advance clean technologies and cut air pollution for people not just in California, but for the US as a whole.”

The waiver reinstates California’s authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions under the federal Clean Air Act for model years 2017 through 2025, effective immediately. The California Air Resources Board will determine how to implement and enforce the standards.

The waiver also withdraws a Trump-era regulation that blocked other states from adopting California’s standards. Collectively they represent 36% of the US auto market.

Officials in California, New York and other states have been seeking reinstatement of the waiver, saying California’s strict standards have improved air quality in the state and ensured that Los Angeles and other cities are no longer shrouded by smog.

California Gov. Gavin Newson thanked the Biden administration “for righting the reckless wrongs of the Trump administration and recognizing our decades-old authority to protect Californians and our planet.”

Restoration of the Clean Air Act waiver “is a major victory for the environment, our economy and the health of families across the country” and comes at a pivotal moment to address climate change, said Newsom, a Democrat. “California looks forward to partnering with the Biden administration to make a zero-emission future a reality for all Americans.”

Harold Wimmer, the lung association’s president and CEO, called climate change a health emergency. From degraded air quality due to wildfire smoke to increased ground-level ozone, or smog from carbon pollution, “climate change is harming the health of people across the country,” he said.

The new bipartisan infrastructure law includes 500,000 new charging stations for electric cars and trucks. Fully electric vehicles, or EVs, represent just 2% of new vehicle sales in the US, but analysts expect that to rise rapidly in coming years. Major automakers, including General Motors and Ford, are pledging billions to develop EVs and GM has gone so far as to announce a goal of ending gasoline-fueled passenger vehicles entirely by 2035.

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Biden’s sweeping environmental and social policy bill — stalled for months in the Senate — includes a $7,500 tax credit to buyers to lower the cost of electric vehicles.

The EPA in December raised vehicle mileage standards to significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions, reversing a Trump-era rollback that loosened fuel efficiency standards.

The EPA rule raises mileage standards starting in the 2023 model year, reaching a projected industry-wide target of 40 miles per gallon by 2026. The new standard is 25% higher than a rule finalized by the Trump administration and 5% higher than an earlier proposal by the Biden EPA.

While hailing the waiver reinstatement, environmental and public health groups said it is now up to Newsom to impose strict rules on emissions from cars and SUVs.

“Now that he’s got the keys back, Gov. Newsom needs to steer California to the strongest possible clean car standard and reclaim the state’s climate leadership,” said Scott Hochberg, an attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity.

Besides New York, other states that follow California’s rule include Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington. Several other states are moving to adopt the California standard.

Trump’s move to revoke the state waivers split the industry, with most automakers behind him while Ford, Honda, BMW, Volkswagen and Volvo decided to go with California standards. After Biden was inaugurated, General Motors and other automakers came out in favor of California setting its own standards.

In a statement Wednesday, Ford took a shot at GM’s apparent change of heart in supporting reinstatement of the California waiver.

“It was the right thing to do for people and the planet before the last election, it’s the right thing to do now and we’re committed to continuing to do the right thing going forward as we lead the electric vehicle revolution,” said Bob Holycross, a Ford vice president.

Reinstatement of the California waiver comes as the Biden administration proposed stronger pollution regulations for new tractor-trailer rigs that would clean up smoky diesel engines and encourage new technologies during the next two decades. A proposal released Monday by the EPA would require the industry to cut smog-and-soot-forming nitrogen oxide emissions by up to 90% per truck over current standards by 2031. The emissions can cause respiratory problems in humans.

New rules would start in 2027 to limit the emissions from nearly 27 million heavy trucks and buses nationwide.

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