Gas Line Break

South of Mission businesses, others, angered by gas leak

"Ask my customers. They were pretty irate," said Carlann Lauria, manager of Croker's Locker, a self-storage company, after a gas leak effectively shut down a four block area yesterday, leaving businesses and their patrons angered. Another manager, Samantha Feldman of Wa-Ha-Ka restaurant, said that they lost $500 in the shutdown.
Neighborhood residents, drivers, dozens of business owners and their customers were disrupted by the leak, after police cordoned off the area surrounding Folsom and 11th. Lauria said that the employees kept busy by going outside the police perimeter to collect payment checks from their customers.
According to information from PG&E, the mess was caused when a private construction crew accidentally severed a high-pressure gas pipe with a backhoe in the South of Mission area, resulting in at least 100 people being forced out of the area. They had been trying to repair sewer lines in the area.
PG&E said they had the gas restored at 5:09 p.m.