Given an infrastructure project that will span into next year, Southern California Edison (SCE) is forewarning residents in the southeast portion of Long Beach that they could be experiencing rolling power outages as the electrical company begins Phase 1 of the project this Saturday.

Screen Shot 2014-10-15 at 3.10.56 PMThe initial phase, at a cost of $1.1M, will involve upgrades to a substation, the construction of three new underground vaults, half a dozen manholes and about 1.6 miles of underground cable.

However, the work does not come without its inconveniences—namely power outages.

“Whenever we do infrastructure work, in order to replace out equipment, we have to schedule outages for customers,” Robert Villegas, spokesperson for SCE.

SCE informed the Post that at 11PM this Saturday, an outage will occur for no more than 12 hours. However, due to safety reasons, they cannot publicly report which block will be blacked out. Fearful that burglars and other criminals might target homes given their increased vulnerability to breaches in safety, SCE opts to sends private postcards to the customers who will be affected rather than publicly announce the information.

“The postcards we provide people give them an opportunity in order to prepare ahead—keeping food cold, preparing home alarms that require power and what not,” Villegas said. “While we always attempt to re-route disconnected customers to another grid, we can’t guarantee that.”

In addition, SCE has put traffic mitigation measures into place as well as working with the Long Beach Police Department, which oftentimes increases patrol units in areas that are known to experience power outages for SCE work.

SCE noted that residents in the southeast area of Long Beach should take the following precautions:

  • customers with a medical condition that require electric-powered life support equipment should be sure to have a backup power system in place or make other plans for health and welfare during an outage.
  • Make sure food stays as cold as possible by keeping refrigerator and freezer doors closed and placing blocks of ice inside.
  • Learn how to manually open security gates and garage doors.
  • Notify any security companies that monitor the customer’s home or business.
  • Protect computers, televisions and other sensitive equipment by unplugging them.