Recap Of 54 Power Outage Hours That Impacted Estimated 10,000+ Long Beach Residents As Power Is Restored To About [UDPATE] 90%+ Of Downtown Area; See ON-DEMAND VIDEO of Friday Night (July 17) News Briefing
SCE hasn't publicly announced cause; we provide link to SCE page to submit claims for damages/losses; costs to City still being tallied
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(July 18, 2015, 5:15 a.m.) -- Lights flickered back on in most of LB's downtown area, and about 80% of the original power outage area affected. It came roughly 54 hours after a So. Cal Edison power vault on 3rd St. between Magnolia and Chestnut Avenues caught fire in the 3 p.m. hour Wednesday (July 15), sending black smoke and a manhole cover into the air, followed by fires in two other vaults downtown area vaults.
[July 18 update, 9:28 a.m.] And as of 9:28 a.m., city management says now roughly over 90% of customers in downtown Long Beach have now had their power restored, leaving [by SCE's estimates] about 200 customers [we estimate 400 to 600 people, not customer accounts] without power in areas near where SCE's underground equipment sustained damage.] [end July 18 update]
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LBREPORT.com began continuous coverage throughout the roughly 54 hours of the event, including LIVE coverage of news briefings and updates from SCE officials...and we were on-scene downtown as power was restored by the 9 p.m. hour July 17 (VIDEO is on our Facebook page.) About 90 minutes later at about 10:30 p.m., Mayor Robert Garcia and an SCE VP Paul Grigaux came to the still darkened corner of 3rd St./Chestnut Ave. and indicated that power had been restored to about 2,600 customers (down from an estimated 4,800+ at its height) although about 600 SCE customers remained in the dark [as of the news briefing] near the 3rd/Chestnut area where the vault fire originated.
By LBREPORT.com's unofficial estimate, residents directly impacted by what occurred approached or exceeded 10,000 people. We base this on SCE's acknowledgement that at its height, roughly 4,800 SCE customers were affected. A "customer" is an SCE account, and SCE thus counts one family (with 2, 3, 4 or more family members) as a single "customer." We believe our unofficial estimate of roughly 10,000 residents affected is the more accurate figure to use in assessing the event's direct impacts (and we believe it's a conservative figure.)
As previously reported by LBREPORT.com, residents who've incurred costs -- including spoiled food or medicines -- can file a claim with SCE...and the utility has a process for handling this. To access the SCE claims page, click here.
SCE's claims page states in pertinent part:
[SCE text] Our policy is to respond to claims promptly and fairly, and to make the process easy for you. In our evaluation of your claim, we may review records, interview witnesses or employees, and perform a technical evaluation. You can help by providing thorough and accurate information and documentation.
We evaluate each claim individually, and determine:
If losses occurred due to our negligence
How the incident happened
The extent of damages
What the law considers fair compensation
Our goal is to reach a decision on most claims within 30 days of receipt. The process may take longer when complex issues are involved, when further information is needed, or when extenuating circumstances are present. Once our investigation is complete, we will contact you with our conclusion.
If we accept responsibility for your property damage claim, we will reimburse you for either the repair cost, actual cash value, or the replacement cost -- whichever is lowest.
And yes there are links for "claim responsibility" and "documentation."
The costs in extended LBPD and LBFD deployments and major efforts by other city crews hasn't been fully tallied and publicly released by city officials...and it remains to be seen to what extent the utility may agree to reimburse the City for what occurred.
As for the exact cause: SCE hasn't said publicly at this point.
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LBREPORT.com was on-scene from the late 5:00 p.m. hour July 15. Smoke was visible on 3rd St. looking west from Cedar Ave. toward the area of Chestnut/Magnolia Aves.
July 15 photo shortly before 6 p.m. by Diana Lejins
These high rise dwellers on 3rd St. just west of Cedar had to use the stairs; their elevator was out.
LBREPORT.com photo
Much of LB's densely populated downtown core from Willmore City to the East Village and from 10th St. extending south of Ocean Blvd. to the waterfront lost power, trapping people in elevators in downtown high rises, snarling traffic with leaving many in darkness. The conditions persisted through two more days and two nights and began entering a third night when the lights came back on in most of downtown Long Beach.
The situation began at about 3:07 p.m. July 15 when a fire broke out in an underground power vault on 3rd St. between Chestnut and Magnolia Aves., which was extinguished but reignited and two additional vaults (Pacific/9th, Pine/Nardo Way) caught fire.
The Aquarium of the Pacific reported its power was back on in the 9:00 p.m. hour, July 15 and in the 11 p.m. hour, Mayor Garcia tweeted that power was being restored to many buildings throughout downtown...but for many it didn't last; by 2:23 a.m. July 16, SCE indicated roughly 2,578 customers remained without power.
July 15, 8:50 p.m., view from Ocean/Linden looking north. Photo by Elizabeth Mahoney
July 15 evening photo by Gary Shelton
In an ominous development, a man and a woman sustained very serious injuries when a candle they used for illumination set their apartment unit on fire in the 400 block of Chestnut Ave. A quick thinking LBPD officer (part of an increased police presence patrolling darkened areas) applied all of his physical strength to pry loose security bars, enabling the residents' rescue from their blazing apartment unit.
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Throughout July 16, SCE crews tried making repairs and retesting parts of the system...but without success. City Hall (which was operating on emergency power) closed several hours early. Downtown area freeway on-ramps and off-ramps were closed. SCE acknowledged that what had taken place was a "major system failure."
With downtown LB in darkness for a second night, on July 16 at roughly 9:30 p.m., SCE officials told a news briefing (carried LIVE on LBREPORT.com, see on-demand video below) that crews would attempt a major network retest to try and restore power after 10 p.m.
The SCE official indicated that if the retest didn't work, 300 SCE crewmembers would be deployed in Long Beach on July 17.
It didn't work...and as dawn broke on July 17, SCE escalated its efforts along with increased supportive actions by the City, assisted by corporate partners and well-prepared volunteers (including CERT.) The City's Emergency Communications and Operations Center, which had already been activated, was raised to its highest level.
SCE said it would make flashlights, ice and water available at 730 Pacific Ave. "We will resupply until outage is over," SCE tweeted. LB's CERT team assisted in the distribution (photo below)
Photo via City of LB on Twitter
Verizon tweeted: "Mobile device charging station being set up by @VerizonWireless, ready by noon at 3rd and Promenade. Can serve 50-60 at a time."
At the temporary shelter set up at Cesar Chavez Park, the city says [in a July 18 release text] that it "distributed 2,000 cases of bottled water, 1,200 meals, 500 flashlights and ice bags to those affected by the power outage. Programming and services were made available at the Cesar Chavez Community Center, which saw 1,365 visitors over the course of the day and into the evening. In total, 15 individuals chose to spend the night at the Cesar Chavez Park shelter." Water, snacks, and showers will continue to be provided at Chavez Park throughout Saturday [July 18] and at 11:30 a.m. [July 18], a hot dog lunch will be served at the park.
During the outage, the City used its Twitter channel to disseminate the latest information which LBREPORT.com relayed as received.
Nearing noon July 17, LBREPORT.com noted and reported that SCE's website outage map showed 3,873 "customers" affected and estimated "most up by July 17, 2015, 11:07 p.m." Although the outage map included standard SCE caveats that it was only an estimate and not a promise, it was the first time SCE had indicated any estimated restoration time.
In the 3 p.m. hour on July 17, in another briefing carried LIVE on LBREPORT.com, Mayor Garcia said the number of customers impacted was going down (dropped to about 2,000 customers from about 3,800+ customers)...but it soon became apparent that LB officials were hoping for the best but preparing for the worst: they announced that multiple generators were being brought in and a shelter (with showers) was opened at late afternoon-early evening at Cesar Chavez Park and meals would be served.
An SCE official acknowledged how serious the coming hours would be. Crews would again attempt to retest and re-energize the system at early evening July 17. If it worked, most of the outage areas would be restored to power -- BUT -- if it didn't work, areas that had been restored might have to drop power again.
And it worked.
And as of 4:40 a.m. July 18, it's held.
LBREPORT.com will continue to follow this story -- including LIVE and ON-DEMAND video coverage -- as we have from just hours after it began. .
LBREPORT.com photo
