City Hall serves as emergency shelter for residents evacuated due to downtown power outage

Mayor Steinberg at a late night press conference announcing the evacuation to City Hall

City Hall became an emergency shelter Tuesday night for 160 people who were evacuated from their apartments during a downtown power outage. A fire in a SMUD substation Tuesday left much of downtown without electricity. Most of those evacuated were elderly residents from Edgewater, an apartment complex run by the Sacramento Housing and Redevelopment Agency.

The Sacramento Fire Department, Office of Emergency Management, Police Department and Code Enforcement worked together to conduct the evacuation. At City Hall, the Red Cross set up cots on the second floor for people to sleep. Medically fragile people were placed in hotel rooms and provided with transportation.

Six members of Mayor Steinberg’s staff helped set up the triage and shelter areas and secured food for the evacuees. Drewski’s Hot Rod Kitchen delivered fried chicken and mashed potatoes.

SMUD crews worked through the night and as of Wednesday morning had restored power to 500 of the 1,300 customers affected by the outage. SMUD was providing hotel rooms for those who were still without electricity.