Santa Cruz Boardwalk Rides Shut Down by Power Outage

0:00A power outage hit the Santa Cruz Beach boardwalk hard on Friday, shutting down all the rides for the rest of the day. It was part of a bigger blackout affecting nearly 19,000 PG&E customers in the area tied to a local substation issue. The trouble started sometime before 4pm, right before closing time, so they decided to keep everything outdoors closed. Indoor spots like arcade games and mini golf got power back quick and stayed open. Pops on the rides had to get evacuated safely, with videos popping up online showing people stuck, but calm as staff helped them down. No one got hurt, which was a relief on a busy summer day. This all went down the same day, a rebuilt section of the 100 year old wharf had its soft opening after two years of fixes from those winter storms, last year that caused the collapse. Powers fully restored now, so expect the boardwalk back to full swing Saturday with rides spinning again and crowds rolling in like nothing happened. Local news, powered by AI.

1:02This is California News Today.