Frustrated residents of San Francisco's westside neighborhoods, beleaguered by frequent power outages, confronted PG&E officials in a special meeting organized by SF Supervisor Myrna Melgar. The electricity interruptions have been notably unrelated to storms or natural causes, reported SFist.

At the heart of the west side, places like West Portal, Mount Davidson, and Casitas Avenue east of Saint Francis Wood have been particularly hard hit, with one resident decrying, "Less than two months, four outages," in a statement obtained by SFist. This is just after last year's three interruptions and the previous year's five. Supervisor Melgar expressed her dissatisfaction at the meeting, asserting, "You are a company that provides a product and services but you're also a utility...It's just essential, I mean people can't survive, some people are in a very vulnerable situation," as quoted by SFist and CBS News San Francisco.

PG&E presentation at the hearing was less than illuminating, providing scant explanation for the ongoing issue besides the age-old song of aging infrastructure in need of repair, as stated by a PG&E official, "Twenty-two percent [of outages] were five minutes or less, and in terms of 12-plus hours it's 4 percent. Everything in the middle is between five minutes and 12 hours, that's 74 percent," as per the interview conducted by CBS News San Francisco. However, residents argue the outages have lasted longer, with some extending over a day, implying an insufficient response from the utility giant.

Drawing attention to the broader significance and the inescapable reality of PG&E's financial backdrop that flaunts a $2.2 billion profit amidst raising rates, Supervisor Melgar pressed the company for a timeline on infrastructure updates PG&E officials could not supply firm answers. This, even as they faced residents who shared stories of outages not just stretching a few hours but several days, forcing rejection claims twice due to circumstances PG&E claimed were outside their control, conveyed by another disheartened resident according to CBS News San Francisco. Posthearing, when queried by CBS News San Francisco, Melgar suggested that customer service might not be PG&E's top priority. She vowed to continue her pursuit to resolve the issue, leveraging her position in chasing the accountability that eludes her constituents' grasp.