Wondering about all the commotion on the 500 block of Haight Street last night?

Yesterday afternoon, we shared a tweet from Memphis Minnie's stating that construction workers had knocked out power to the restaurant. Last night, Memphis Minnie's manager Tom Campbell told us that power was still out, and that PG&E crews were rushing to run a temporary line to Memphis Minnies' location at 576 Haight that would serve as backup until they could restore permanent power.

We reached out to Joe Molica of PG&E for more information. "Yesterday, a non-PG&E construction crew (a sewer contractor) struck and damaged our duct bank—the underground concrete enclosure that houses our electrical lines that serve the neighborhood, including Memphis Minnie's—while installing shoring," Molica confirmed. "Our PG&E crews ran a temporary electrical service in order to reenergize the impacted customers. Today, our crews will make permanent repairs. Once we repair the duct bank,  we will replace the service and restore the customer back to their normal electrical service."

Photo: Memphis Minnie's/Facebook

Last night, Campbell worried that the loss of power might ruin the restaurant's refrigerated and frozen inventory stock, in addition to affecting yesterday's business. However, as interim power has been restored, Memphis Minnie's will open at 11am as usual for lunch today.

This isn't the first snafu that crews working on the ongoing sewer construction project have encountered: in the Upper Haight, crews ruptured a gas line in April and may have also caused a sinkhole in May. The project, which encompasses 33 block of Haight and Hayes streets, is projected to wrap up in fall of 2016.