UPDATE 09/10/15 at 11:00AM | According to the Southern California Edison power outage map, power has been restored to all West Long Beach residents.
UPDATE 6:32PM | The Southern California Edison power outage map was updated on September 9, and as of 6:32PM Wednesday afternoon, 52 Southern California Edison (SCE) customers remained without power in West Long Beach in an unrelated power outage. The Estimated Time of Repair (ETR) is set for 9:00PM, according to the map.
According to SCE spokesman David Song, Tuesday power was restored to customers affected by Tuesday night’s power outage around 10:00AM Wednesday morning, September 9.
UPDATE 09/09/15 at 9:47AM | According to an SCE tweet, 44 customers remain without power as of Wednesday morning. The ETR is set for noon.
. @KerryGerotPIO @bbdd333 @LongBeachPW @RobertoUranga @AnthonysTV Update on LB outage: 44 customers out, Noon ETR. pic.twitter.com/FrfYQ553aK
— SCE (@SCE) September 9, 2015
UPDATE 8:54PM | Seventh District Councilman Roberto Uranga, who represents the affected area, said in a tweet that power has been restored to over 600 customers. Two Southern California Edison (SCE) crews are working to restore power to the remaining residents still in the dark and have an estimated time of repair of 11:00PM.
PREVIOUSLY: Power Outage Hits West Long Beach, Over 1,000 Affected
8:32PM | For the sixth time in nearly as many weeks a major power outage struck the City of Long Beach. The outage reported by Mayor Robert Garcia during Tuesday night’s city council meeting is centered in the Upper Westside just south of Silverado Park, and at its peak, was affecting over 1,400 residents.
The announcement of the outage came at the conclusion of a hearing on the city’s disaster preparedness, specifically aimed at how it handled the July 15 and July 30 power outages that left tens of thousands of residents without power, some for multiple days.
Garcia, who did not mince words about Southern California Edison during the presentation, even stated his lack of confidence in a system that was “old” and not “appropriately maintained.” He made the announcement before adjourning to a short recess to confer with city staff.
“It’s unfortunately very timely, but as I understand we just had an Edison outage and 1,400 customers are affected in parts of West Long Beach,” Garcia said. “This is obviously both unfortunately ironic but goes to show you that we need change and there needs to be an improvement in the system.”
The July outages were caused by underground vault explosions. However, the cause of Tuesday night’s outage was not immediately known.
At the urging of Garcia and other elected officials in the city, the California Public Utilities Commission got involved with the ongoing power outage issues in the city. Last week, the commission delivered a letter to Edison asking it to comply with seven specific areas of inspection, including detailed investigations of its underground vaults and ventilators, making sure all manhole covers are properly tethered and confirming that all transformers are properly rated to meet customer demand during peak usage. The utility company has 30 days to respond to the letter that was dated September 1.
As of 8:15PM over 1,100 residents were still without power according to SCE’s website. No estimate of when power would be restored is currently available.
This story was updated on 09/09/15 6:37PM, correcting the number of individuals affected in West Long Beach. A separate power outage occurred near the Long Beach airport that affected 297 people the same day.