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UPDATE: SCE Inspected UPDATE Nearly 300 Underground Vaults In Downtown LB (Outage Stubbornly Persists For About 200 People); No Cause(s) Announced By SCE or City For Either Of Two Outages

Second Downtown (And Beyond) SCE Power Outage Lasts About Three Hours For Approx. 30,000 SCE Customers (Accounts, Persons Affected Likely Several Times More) Triggering Swift City Response


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(Aug. 1, 2015, updated 8:10 a.m.) -- The City of LB says in an early Saturday a.m. release that SCE inspected [UPDATE] nearly 300 underground vaults in downtown Long Beach on July 31, as an outage stubbornly persists for about 70 downtown area residents.

[LBPD Aug. 1 release text] During the day on Friday July 31, SCE crews, accompanied by Long Beach Police Officers, inspected 300 underground vaults throughout downtown Long Beach. All but four were inspected. The remaining four vaults are inaccessible at this time, and will be inspected as soon as possible. The inspections were an effort to identify any challenges that could cause further loss of power...Based on information from the inspections, crews have already started making repairs and have been working through the night on the repairs to the system. There are more than 75 crews, which is over 150 technical staff, working on repairs.

The situation at dawn Saturday is much improved from the estimated 30,000 customers -- unofficially estimated by LBREPORT.com at nearly 100,000 people, since an SCE "customer" is an account that may affect multiple residents -- who were without power through parts of downtown, the East Village, north to Wrigley (Willow St.) and across to WLB (Santa Fe Ave.) the most recent outage at its height. About 29,000 customers in these areas had power restored within about three hours.

"Late on Friday July 31 SCE began assessing the potential to use generator power to temporarily restore power to the affected area. This approach proved successful last night and resulted in power being restored to approximately 190 of the 260 customers that were without service," this morning's (Aug. 1) release says and adds:

SCE will continue to connect customers with generators and expect to have all customers restored to service by Saturday afternoon. SCE is currently using 10 generators to serve businesses and residents. As the underground network system is restored, SCE will transition these customers off the generators. When this happens, they will experience a short power outage, which could last up to 45 minutes.

To LBREPORT.com's knowledge, neither SCE nor the City have publicly announced the cause(s) for the July 30-31 outage (about three hours for most) OR the 54 hour July 15-17 outage.

A City of LB release stated in pertinent part:

SCE continues to work on repairs. Since 9:00 p.m. this evening, 10th Street between Pine Avenue and Locust Avenue, and Tribune Court between 10th Street and 9th Street has been and will be closed until further notice as SCE works on repairs. Aside from the repair area, all traffic signals in Long Beach are working.

During the day on Friday July 31, SCE crews, accompanied by Long Beach Police Officers, inspected 300 underground vaults throughout downtown Long Beach. The inspections were an effort to identify any challenges that could cause further loss of power. Officers directed traffic during the inspections and monitored vehicular and pedestrian safety. Inspections concluded today [July 31] at approximately 5:30 p.m.

Residents who remain in need can continue to obtain water, ice, snacks, and flashlights at Cesar Chavez Park [was available through midnight, opens again at 8 a.m. Saturday.]...The supplies are being distributed near the Jenny Orepeza Community Center.

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The City release says parking enforcement MAY RESUME again at 10 a.m. Saturday Aug. 1 from LB Blvd. to Pacific Ave. and from 8th St. to Anaheim St. as situation will be reassessed at that time. "For public safety reasons, citizens should avoid parking in red, blue and white curb restrictions. All other parking laws, such as blocking fire hydrants or driveways, remain in effect."

Trash and recycling collection will occur as scheduled. Leave spoiled food in its packaging and place into trash containers being set out. Tie bags closed securely and place inside container. [Scroll down for further.]

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(July 31, 2015) -- As flashed, followed and updated on LBREPORT.com's front page yesterday (July 30), downtown Long Beach and beyond (into part of Wrigley as part north as Willow St. and WLB to Santa Fe Ave.) -- lost power on Thursday (July 30), at its height affecting roughly 30,000 SCE "customers" (accounts, meaning persons affected were likely several times more.) For most (about 29,000), the outage lasted about three hours; for about 650-700 customers (mainly north Pine Ave. areas) several hours more with about 250-300 customers (our unofficial estimate as many as 500-600+ people) remaining without power (mainly 9th/Locust area) as of dawn today (July 31.)

"As of this morning, approximately 250-300 customers are still without power. The area is still centered around 9th Street and Locust Avenue. SCE is deploying 2-person crews to inspect vaults in downtown Long Beach starting at 10am. Unless additional problems are discovered, SCE anticipates that power will be fully restored to all customers by 6pm today," said a City of LB emailed dispatch at dawn.

"The Civic Center, including City Hall, the Main Library, and the Police Department Headquarters, remain open. Employees should report to work. Business and service provision will continue during normal operating hours," the City dispatch stated.

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The outage was preceded by what LBFD said were fires in at least two SCE downtown area power vaults, one of them in the 9th-10th St/Locust area (unverified third party video shows an explosion that launched a manhole cover.)

The unfolding events were reminiscent of the scenario two weeks earlier that led to a 54 hour outage (July 15-17) impacting much of downtown Long Beach...and City officials responded swiftly on July 30 with actions that included mobilizing the City's Emergency Operations/Communications Center, using social media to communicate information (in email dispatches, Mayor Garcia repeatedly called the situation "unacceptable"), deploying a CERT team to aid senior living facilities and, with residents facing a humid night, opening an overnight shelter for those without power at Cesar Chavez Park.

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By shortly before 8 p.m., power was restored to all but about 1,000 customers (mainly north Pine area.) At a press conference shortly after 8 p.m., an SCE spokesman indicated the outage began in the 4:00 p.m. hour [a subsequent city release said 4:45 p.m. although earlier info indicated about 4:15 p.m.) that affected several thousand customers, but as situation developed, SCE shut down a larger part of the system at about 5:13 p.m. affecting the roughly 30,000 customers over a larger area so it could diagnose, isolate and restore power.



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