LATEST: City Announces Power is Restored to 100 Percent of Downtown Long Beach [Click here]

The Post will be providing live updates on the downtown Long Beach blackout. Read on for a recap of the facts and a live feed of residents’ and business’ reactions, as well as important updates from various city services.

  • Power has been restored to most of downtown Long Beach. SCE says the company is still troubleshooting the system and monitoring voltage levels.
  • If you’re in the affected area and your power has not returned, the City says to try resetting your circuit breaker.
  • Cesar Chavez Park will remain open as a shelter throughout the evening, according to the City of Long Beach.
  • Southern California Edison is currently conducting tests to ensure the network will hold. 
  • Power has been temporarily restored to most of Downtown Long Beach, with the exception of the area surrounding the Civic Center.
  • Southern California Edison announced a new strategy to attempt to restart power in downtown Long Beach. By dividing the city into three sections, East (roads east of Long Beach Boulevard), Northwest (roads north of Fourth Street), and Southwest (roads south of Fourth Street to Ocean Boulevard), the city hopes to return power to at least two sections of the city by tonight. 
  • A shelter opened at Cesar Chavez Park 4:00PM, providing food, water, charging stations and shelter to affected residents. Beds will be provided to residents starting at 7:00PM. The shelter will remain open until power is returned to all residents. 
  • Three events have been canceled for this weekend:
    • Saturday’s Mission H20 LB Kickoff Event. The event, scheduled from 11:00AM to 3:00PM tomorrow, has been canceled, but the campaign to conserve water will still go strong, according to organizers. 
    • The Downtown Long Beach Associates’ Bicycle Drive-in and Wizard of Oz showing have been canceled and rescheduled for next Friday, July 24.
    • The Frida Theater’s outdoor screening of The Birds at Sunnyside Cemetery has been canceled due to projected thunder storms, with no plans to reschedule.
  • The American Red Cross, CERT volunteers and the Long Beach Fire Department’s (LBFD) Search and Rescue Team are visiting senior housing facilities and performing wellness checks at homes. 
  • A shelter is expected to open soon, according to a press release issued by the city at 1:50PM. The city said more details would be released shortly. 
  • A Verizon charging station, created by Verizon’s “Significant Emergency Response Team,” opened this afternoon at Third and Promenade, outside of Michael’s Pizzeria. 
  • SoCal Edison is camped at 730 Pacific Avenue in downtown with water, ice and flashlights.

  •  Police announced new road closures:
    • Third Street, from Chestnut Avenue to Magnolia Avenue.
    • Sixth Street, from Pine Avenue to Locust Avenue.
    • Locust Avenue, from Sixth Street to Seventh Street.
    • Locust Avenue, from Seventh Street to Eighth Street.
    • Through traffic on Seventh Street is open to the public. 
  • A total of 3,872 downtown Long Beach residents were impacted as of 12:02PM Friday.
  • Officials put the estimated time of repair (ETR) at 11:07PM Friday night, though various press conferences have emphasized the estimate is tentative. 
  • Southern California Edison officials attempted to reboot the system between 10:00PM and midnight Friday night.
  • After power returned to some customers, the system shut down again around 3:40AM. Another manhole cover jumped into the air. 
  • Long Beach’s Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) is moving throughout the community to provide food, water and assistance to seniors in affected residential areas. 
  • Most downtown businesses north of Ocean Boulevard are closed. 
  • Hamburger Mary’s, 7-Eleven, Michael’s Pizzeria and Beachwood BBQ are among the few businesses that remain open. 
  • Residents have been without power since about 3:00PM Wednesday, due to a cable failure in an underground vault.
  • The cable caused an electrical fire and smoke to spill into the air from various manhole covers, even causing one manhole cover to jump nearly 4 feet into the air.
  • Such large-scale blackouts are needed due to the area’s unique network configuration system, according to SoCal Edison officials. 
  • Instead of only fixing sections of power throughout the system, workers need to restore power to the entire system, thus impacting thousands of customers at certain times.
  • Safety has been emphasized. Fire officials stated that unattended candles were the cause of Thursday’s early morning apartment fire that left two critically injured. Heflin said the apartment was also affected by the power outage.