The lights went off at the Bayshore Mall about 15 minutes ago. The messages started lighting up our Facebook page almost immediately, and there seems to be broad agreement that the Mall — or parts or it, at the very least, are being evacuated, and traffic is getting congested around that part of town.
PG&E has nothing on its outage map as of this writing. Nothing from CHP dispatch either; no cars into poles, it seems.
At about 1:26 p.m., though, Eureka Police Department dispatchers and an officer on scene put their heads together and determined that no emergency existed. Alarms went off all over the mall area, the dispatcher said, and then the power died. The officer said that that there was no need to send the fire department in.
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