live breaking news. crews working feverishly across san francisco as a baffling mass outage hit the city this morning. we just got confirmation nearly 100,000 customers have lost power. it's crippling escalators, intersections, and even a downtown bart station. thank you for joining us. >> this is a major situation happening right now in san francisco. take a look at the pgne power outage map. look how many alert icons there are throughout the city from the great highway all the way east. all told, 95,000 are confirmed

in the dark right now. >> this is a picture tweeted by dylan gail looking down 3rd street now. the office buildings, the streetlights out now leading to mass delays for morning commuters. >> in 20 minutes, we talked with a spokesperson about the incident, and this is what he told us. he told us it is a affecting about 95,000 customers, more details now. >> as of 10:00 a.m., about 95,000 customers are without power, of course, the safety of our customers and the communities we serve is pgne's top priority, and crews are assessing the situation and restoring power safely and as quickly as possible. what happened, we have an incident that occurred at the substation, and the san francisco fire department responded and is working to extinguish a fire. >> well, fire officials told us that fire was an insulation fire. >> abc 7 news reporter kate

larson is live in union square in san francisco with what she sees there, kate, affecting a lot of people? >> reporter: if you are in downtown san francisco, you are definitely feeling this power outage, whether it means you are stuck in traffic. a lot of cars here where you can't get to work. the lights are out in all intersections that we have seen nearly union square. we are at post and grand about a block off from all of this major shopping. a lot of the stores closed as well. people are not able to get to work. look at this. we've seen san francisco fire trucks zipping up and down the street all morning long. i spoke to an engineer on board, and they were slammed. they say they are getting call after call for people who are actually stuck in elevators because of this outage. we have also seen the crews in the downtown area trying to figure out what's happening here in san francisco with this power outage. of course, trying to get power restored to all of these

businesses, and folks who live and work down here. as i said, a lot of folks can't get to work because there's no power in office. power doesn't work, security issues, so for a number of folks who are unable to do what they need to do on this friday morning. >> i have no idea what happened. somebody just said the company doesn't know when it's taken care of. >> lights went off, we thought it was just us, then we realized it spread out throughout the city as we looked at the phones. >> you and other businesses shut down? >> the best thing for us to do, especially in our industry, just shut down. >> so we've seen a lot of stores shut down, and as you can see, just grouping of employees out on the sidewalk or in the lobby of their buildings because there's nothing they can do right now. there's some stores open like this coach store. you can see, though, that a lot of the lights are out now. i asked if customers are able to pay. they have a system. i've spoke to folks who were in big knewer office buildings, some folks have backup

generators so there are some folks with power. the power company hopes to have power restored by about noon, but as you guys have been reporting, there are close to 100,000 customers without power, not just in downtown san francisco, but really the whole city, especially on the north side, of course, we'll be on this throughout the day bringing you the latest. for now, that is the latest live in downtown san francisco, i'm kate larson, abc 7 news. now a traffic alert. >> from abc 7 mornings. >> as you'd imagine, this is causing headaches right now in san francisco. mass transit, the bart montgomery station is closed due to the power outage. that's the only closure because of that. th other trains are on time. they have a couple generator on site, have not established power yet, but i'll tweet that out as soon as we get that update. also impacting uni, there's

motor coach service instead and service across multiple lines are affected. of course, expect delays. i want to zoom in on surface street levels, yeah, a lot of red as you'd imagine. we have a ton of stoplights out. this is a reminder, treat all of them as a four-way stop, and, boy, if you don't have to leave the house today, stay at home. back to you. >> all right, thank you. breaking news coverage continues now on the abc vp news app and abc7news.com. we send push alerts as updates. enable push alerts to get breaking news on your phone after downloading the free app. we'll let you know when power is restored. a power outage caused a disruption in new york city this morning. electricity knocked out for a large portion of midtown, manhattan, subways impacted, and our commuters stranded in cars that lost power. now power is restored, but there's still big delays for passengers, talking about hours

late. major developments in the past hour in the case of tad cummins, the tennessee teacher accused of allegedly kidnapping his 15-year-old student and bringing her here to california. he was set to face court an hour a ago, arrested yesterday with 15-year-old elizabeth thomas. the feds swooped in just before the trial started. the district attorney's explaining what happened. >> there's been a warrant issued by state officials of tennessee. he was held on a tennessee warrant. what happened this morning as we were prepared to proceed, the federal officials came in, arrested him on a federal warrant and took custody of him. >> fbi agents took custody of him immediately, and they are on the way back to sacrimenamento appear in district court in sacramento monday. for more on the case, let's check in with jessica castro now. >> reporter: we know cummins and

the teen were in a cabin with no running water or electricity. they had two handguns. they cooperate the with police when arrested. police described the teen today as being an emotional roller coaster crying and laughing when taken into custody. elizabeth thomas on the way home today after a long ordeal. the 15-year-old 2500 miles away from where she disappeared in a remote area of see sillville northwest of redding. >> she's healthy and unharmed. >> reporter: authorities received a tip that the 50-year-old and thomas were on a cabin on his property. they said they lost everything in a fire in colorado. >> the girl was not looking at me or anything. >> reporter: they went by fake names, john an joanna. they spoke with "good morning america" the moment he realized who they were. >> they ended upcoming knocking on my door, and a photo of him, it was the amber alert, like,

that's definitely the guy. >> reporter: the man hunt triggered 1500 leagues from all 50 states. r family was on "good morning america" this morning. >> we all love her, and we're really happy to see her back home and that she's safe. >> reporter: while the search is over, the family knows they have a tough road ahead. her father thinks his daughter was brainwashed. >> we're going to be patient with her. we got to be -- got to get her the help she needs. >> reporter: he faces state and federal charges of kidnapping and having sex with the girl and could face a sentence of ten years and possibly longer. abc 7 news. >> thank you. new this morning, killer in the racially motivated shooting in fresno entered the courtroom today shouting at the judge. >> do you feel he's unable to -- >> that's the voice of corey yelling let black people go.

they asked for a psychiatric evaluation. he was arraigned for a separate shooting last week leaving a security guard dead. that was postponed until may 9th. he's not yet been charged in monday's attack that killed three men. developing news, two groups that wanted to bring ann coulter are counting down the hours. they'll sue the university at 5:00 p.m. today if they do not get the original speaking date. we are live on the campus with more. amy? >> reporter: hi, kristin, that lawsuit is just going to happen, neither side is budging this morning. the university says her speech needs to move from next thursday to the following tuesday because of a credible security threat. the burkley college republicans who invited her to speak called the security threat unexcused saying the university has not given them any specifics and their attorney mement menwants y tuesday is safer than thursday.

>> the threat is she's unpopular, we expect protesters and so we're not allowing the speech? that's not kredle. if there's a credible threat, call the fbi and deal with it. it's nonat excuse. berkley's used to protesters, berkley is the home of the free speech movement. free speech usually comes with both sides. >> reporter: a spokesperson said he could not go on camera but said the university doesn't understand why the republican group is blatantly disregarding the assessment of law enforcement. says the university is putting the well being of the students first. ann an the republican group don't like the new date because it's during dead week when students don't have classes so they can study for finals so they say no one will be here. just speak in the middle of the night. if the university doesn't move the date back to the original date of next thursday, the group says they will be filing a lawsuit, and believes that case

law backs them up. lve in berkley, amy hollyfield, abc 7 news. >> thank you. new this morning in the south bay, police look for a hit-and-run suspect in san jose. police say the driver took off after slamming an suv into a method call building. take a look. this was on mather drive overnight. no one inside the building at the time. a tow truck removed the suv at 3:00 this morning. the building is part of the regional medical center. inspectors have checked the integrity of the building and put up caution tape. the facility will be reopened as soon as it's declared safe. >> bart hired a new police chief. carlos rojas with 27 years of extensive experience and leadership in community policing. he has to complete psychological exams and background check. the bart participated review board was involved in the hiring and said, quote, the chief is a great choice and i'm confident

he'll provide strong leadership as the department east new chief. his start date is expected to be sometime in late may or early june. all right, happening today, silicon valley comicon is in a few hours, and the company is auctions off rare movie memorabilia. tiffany wilson is live with the highlights, testill me you snag something? >> reporter: oh, i wish. i'm not quite sure my wallet can afford it. some of the items going for nearly a quarter million dollars. you saw it on the screen. now you can put it in your home. >> having the actual piece of the actor actually used is very, very rare. >> reporter: the clock from "back to the future," the uniform from "star trek. "and superman" suit. >> it could go for over $100,000. this is a space shuttle. denise riches was in this. if you don't have room for this

in the house, don't worry, they have nearly 200 items all sizes and price points. $50 is the lowest opening bid, and this star wars storm trooper helmet is the crown jewel. >> that could go up to $250,000. >> the coowner of screen used say they love props from the '80s and '90s thanks to technology. >> things are changing to cgi, and so if you had "back to the future" today they wouldn't have hover boards. it would be done on the green screen. >> reporter: he says it's tough to explain the magic of owning these iconic pieces. you kind of have to hold it in your hand to find out. >> reporter: open the wallet first. that's right. a lot of looking, but no touching of those special props and costumes this weekend. the online auction opened at the beginning of the month, and the live auction takes place sunday at noon.

live in san jose, tiffany wilson, abc 7 news. >> thank you. we're continuing to follow breaking news in san francisco. that major power outage affecting 95,000 customers, sky 7 showing us the large substation what the company is working to extinguish a fire that's causing the problem, apparently. we'll keep you updated here on air and abc 7 news app. good morning to you. we're going to open up the weather window on one of the areas you want to be today. if you want warm sunshine because these temperatures, you see, are not going to last through the weekend. we'll be 7-10 degrees warmer than average with low 70s to near 80. a chance of rain next week in

a massive power outage in san francisco. we got word that a news producer got power back in north beach, but, of course, thousands still in the dark. >> this has traffic implications. we bring a spokesperson to talk about how it's impacting service. talk about the streetcars, cable cars, and subways. >> caller: we remind riders that due to the power outage, a subway train continue to bypass montgomery station. if you take the subway, we do want to know people get off at pal or, and a handful of bus routes a affected, 1 california, 22 philmore, the 30 stockton, and the 45 union. so it's instead of electric trolly for running regular busses on the routs and shuttles

are deployed to service for p all cable car lines. we remind everyone there's updates posted every few minutes on our twittering the. >> how many people do you service at this hour? >> caller: good news is our peak rush ends at 10:00 a.m., and i'm looking at some live cameras of the platforms now, and they are empty. a will the of people are not affected. we have service on the surface so those who take the subway usually can use the busses that run along market as well. >> all right, due to the changes in transit, what do you advise drivers as well? >> caller: we have a handful of intersections with no signals properly working at the moment, we advise everyone to drive carefully and treat intersections as a four-way stop. >> all right, mta, we appreciate the time, thank you. >> caller: thanks. you'll want to keep it here. keep cover k breaking ne

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zblnchsz bre back to the breaking news of a power outage affecting nearly 100,000 customers. >> now we bring in francis with the san francisco department of emergency management. francis, our last estimate was everything would be back to normal by noon. are we sticking to that? >> caller: you know, right now,

the city and county of san francisco has activated our city's emergency operation center. this is really to coordinate all of our response activities so that includes getting specific gas and electric here as well as city agencies here to really get a better sense of what's going on, and so you know, i don't have an update on what -- when power will be restored, but, you know, we are activating the city's emergency operation center to better coordinate activities. >> can you talk about which agencies and institutions might be most impacted? i mean, what comes to mind might be the emergency responders, hospitals, for example, hopefully they all have emergency back upjup generators. >> caller: the purpose of the focus remains on public and light safety of the we are closely coordinating with all the critical facilities including hospitals, schools, public transportation agencies, and so what i can tell you right

now is that, you know, our public schools remain open and operating under a standard blackout protocol. so that is why we have activated the emergency operations center, to get a better sense of what's going on so we can better respond to what's going on, but light safety is our absolute priority. >> francis, a reporter on the ground near union square in san francisco is speaking with a firefighter, and he said it was just getting a flood of 911 calls from people trapped in elevators. is that really sort of the main bulk of calls you're getting right now? >> caller: we are getting a lot of 911 calls, and there are people trapped in elevators. we want what -- we asked the public to refrain from calling 911 unless it's a life saving emergency. the lines have to remain open for urgent emergencies. we want to -- don't call 911 if you're asking if it's a blackout. keep the lines open for people that really need it. >> all right.

francis with the city, thank you so much for your time. san francisco department of emergency management. very busy coordinating at this hour. over to our meteorologist, we couldn't ask for better weather during this power outage, mike. >> now your accuweather forecast. >> the weather window from the exploratory camera, pier 15, gorgeous and quiet today weather-wise. sunshine and spring warmth today, but not as sunny or warm this weekend. the next storm is weak for tuesday and wednesday. right now, high pressure with the clockwise flow keeps the track to the north, and what we are dealing with continue to warm here. 6 61 in san francisco and 75 in san ramone. that's the temperature spread now. as far as what's going on, no chop out there. 2:00 will be in the 60s at the coast, mid-70s the rest of the us, mid to upper 70s, the sea breeze drops temperatures, in fact, in the 50s and 70s at 6:00

and 55-65 the spread at 8:00. gorgeous evening. 72 in san francisco. the rest of us at 75-81 degrees. going to the game tonight? a's won three in a row. 66 at 7:05 to 58 degrees taking on the mariners again. lows tonight 48-50 degrees. come as this morning. outside for earth day tomorrow? temperatures about 5-10 degrees cooler with high clouds and sun. dropping down a little bit again heading towards sunday, and then once we get to monday into tuesday, that's when the next storm comes in, best chance of rain is a light one, which

another update on the big power outage in san francisco, impacting 95,000 customers. the city urges public not to callth 11 to ask if there's a power outage, to keep lines clear for true emergencies. the fire department has responded to 20 rescues of people stuck in elevatorelevato responding to 100 emergency calls since. no word on injuries. >> you mentioned not calling 911 if it's not a true emergency. the number to call is 311 for more information, and download the abc 7 news app.

we'll keep you posted here as well. from us all here, thank you for joining us. >> "who wants to be a millionaire" next, and next

>> 14 questions, 14 answers, and $1 million in the balance. but hey, no pressure, right? let's play "who wants to be a millionaire." [dramatic music] ♪ welcome to the show, everybody. you guys ready to play "millionaire"? [cheers and applause] all right, let's do it. our returning contestant has done some crazy things for money. he's back today on his quest for $1 million. from brooklyn, new york, please welcome back matt rogers. >> thank you. >> what's up, matty? >> hi, chris. >> what's up, brother? >> how's it going? good to see you. good to be back. >> good. now this is not the most unconventional way to make money. it's a game show. what's the craziest thing you've done to make money?