it's affecting customers near hoffman avenue, fountain street and grandview avenue.hat caused about 4 or 5 transformers to shut down. this outage started right at around 1:12 this morning. and we spoke to one neighbor just a few moments ago and she described to us just how powerful that lightning strike was. >> it was almost as if a bomb was going off. there was a huge crash and my husband and i actually both woke up and went, whoa. what was that? >> reporter: and now you woke up and there's no -- >> we should have realized at the time because it was that loud that there wouldn't be any power. clearly we have no power. >> reporter: crews have been working ever since. there is no estimated official time of restoration but pg&e says they are hoping for about 8 or 9 this morning. back out live you can see they are busy working trying to get the power back on in the neighborhood and frank and michelle, i was told the challenge was because it affected multiple transformers pg&e crews had to count how many customers were tied to each transformer before they knew officially

the property is at 498 hoffman avenue and letter of determination addressed to allen sowle regarding the legal dwelling unit count for the subject matter. matters is on for hearing. you can begin with seven minutes. >> good evening madam president and members of the board. i am allen sowle and the attorney for james mcdermott and nicholas andrade who live at the property along with their tenants. following extensive water damage to the lower level of the property a request for a building permit was sought by my client's architect at which time they represented to the building inspection department that the building was a three unit building. the planning department objected saying that no, we have a document in our file that says this is a two unit. my clients bought this as a four unit building and and was originally -- and altered to a three family dwelling according to city records. the records handed to my client by the planning department indicate that the owner at that time applied to allow the property to be subdivided into three separate parcels. it was originally 85 meet wid

the board of appeals was appeal of the zoning administrator letter of determination for 4 98 hoffman avenue. this letter found that the subject building illegally contained two dwelling units based upon past building permits and special notice of special restriction. this letter of determination also upheld by the board of appeals. so, that concludes both my reports unless there are questions. >> thank you thev appears to be no questions. >> thank you. >> thank you. >> good afternoon, commissioners, tim frye on behalf of the planning department here to share with you the events from yesterday's historic preservation commission hearing. the hpc provided recommendation on the west soma area plan and on supervisor wiener's proposed c-e-q-a appeals amendments. both of these items will be before the commission i believe next week. and the hpc's recommendation on both items will be part of your packet. if you have any questions, though, i'm happy to answer. any questions you have at this time. there are two preservation related announcements, though, i'd like to make. one is that last week, the d

crews are working on hoffman avenue to check other transformers, as well. challenge is because it involves multiple transformers, they have to count individually how many customers were affected and connected to each transformer. another challenge that pg&e mentioned is it is misty out here and that's why they are having a hard time trying to work on these right now. but at this point, the outage started around 1:12 this morning and there is no time or estimate for when the power will be restored in this neighborhood. live in noe valley, cate caugiran, cbs 5. >>> the weather has just turned wintry. it is cold out there. we're expecting showers today around the bay area. there could be some snow on some of the higher peaks here, as well. there's definitely snow up in the sierra. we can tell you that. highway 89 at squaw valley snow up there. they could get nearly a foot of snow by the time the storm moves out. the snow level down to about 5,000 feet. better chain up. >>> and the falling snow caught drivers off guard despite the fact that they knew it was com

it's affecting customers near hoffman avenue, fountain street and grandview avenue. that lightning strike caused about 4 or 5 transformers to shut down. now, this outage started around 1:12 this morning and then a neighbor described just how powerful that lightning strike was. >> it was almost as if a bomb was going off. there was this huge crash and my husband and i both looked at each other and went, whoa, what was that? >> reporter: now you woke up and there's no -- >> we should have realized at the time because it was that loud that there wouldn't be any power. we have no power. >> reporter: crews have been working ever since. there is no official estimated time of restoration but pg&e says they are hoping to get all the power out there running in the neighborhood in an hour and a half or two hours or so. now, as you can see, again they are working to install that new transformer in the area. i know that pg&e crews told me they called for extra help. the challenge was to determine how many customers were originally affected because so many transformers were out.

working hard to get everybody back on 100 customers were affected in the area of 24th street and hoffman avenue crews are working to replace those blown transformers. residents say they heard a loud explosion when lightning hit 1:00. crews have been able to replace one transformer and restore service to some it may take several more hours to get everybody else back online. >>> aggressive snow-making operation helped mammoth open yesterday visitors were greeted with snow flurries mixed with nature made stuff. further north in the tahoe area it is cold and new snow is falling again months have been fired up, several resources that opened for a few days last month are hoping to open for good in the coming days. >>> right now in the south bay hundreds are waiting in line to get tree food in time for the holidays. -- to get free food in time for the holidays. they were out in the storm. >> reporter: good morning. having trouble hearing you right now volunteers are arriving the doors open in one hour you can see people now on their feet starting to wake up. earlier this morning when we arrived around

avenue and the famed fao schwartz over my shoulder. even the toy soldier ready with a salute. i'm david muir from abc. >> yeah, i know you. >> reporter: kim hoffman knew us. and knew what we were up to. do you mind if we look and see where it's made? >> oh, i hope it's america. oh! >> reporter: that reaction says it all. the teddy bear made in china. in fact, the newest numbers reveal just how much we as americans spent on toys from china last year at christmas. $2.5 billion. and tonight, one economist reminds us, that's just toys. >> that means we must be spending $10 billion or more during the christmas season on chinese-made goods. and that's probably a low number. >> reporter: but here on new york's famed fifth avenue, we didn't give up. this family came all the way from mexico for made in america. but nothing in their bags. feliz navidad. and this shopper? >> china. >> reporter: and this young woman, dina cooper from virginia. do you think you have anything in any of these bags? >> no. >> reporter: you don't. so, we told her what economists told us. if we all just bought one thing for 64 bucks, we could create 200,000 jobs. >> okay. >> repor