Community Corner
Thousands Left Without Power After Sunday Storm
Traffic lights were out in much of the city and thousands of Los Angeles Department of Water and Power and Southern California Edison customers were left without power on Sunday.
Utility crews scrambled today to restore power to thousands of customers affected by outages blamed on the first storm to strike the Southland this spring.
As of 5 a.m., 3,912 Southern California Edison customers were still without electricity, down from 8,126 late Sunday night, the utility reported.
The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power said 7,500 customers were without power last night and did not immediately announce how many got their power back this morning.
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Crews worked through the night to restore power as quickly as possible, said SCE spokeswoman Mashi Nyssen. Residents who see downed power lines should call 911 and never come near them, she said.
Nyssen also recommended using flashlights rather than candles in a power outage.
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Electrical service also was interrupted in the city of Vernon on Sunday afternoon, when more than a dozen power poles were downed in the 3000 block of South Atlantic Boulevard, according to the Vernon Fire Department.
The Southland outages were blamed on rain and fierce winds, which downed power lines.
Among the affected customers was the Norwalk Meadows Nursing Center at 10625 Leffingwell Road, where the power failed and the backup generator could not power patients' oxygen machines.
The Los Angeles County Fire Department sent a paramedic team and 10 ambulances to the nursing center at 9:49 p.m. Sunday to transport patients to another facility, said fire dispatch supervisor Phil Ulloa. Four patients were evacuated, but the power was restored by 11:25 p.m.
Traffic lights were dark in much of Culver City Sunday, and a multiplex movie theater in Sherman Oaks handed out rain checks after the power failed at about 2:45 p.m.
"We were watching 'Trout Fishing In The Yemen," said one customer. "The generators came on and they escorted us out."
Sixteen cities served by Edison in L.A., Ventura, Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino counties reported blackouts Sunday, including Alhambra, Beaumont, Montebello, Santa Clara, Simi Valley, Oxnard, Long Beach, Signal Hill, Redondo Beach, Inglewood, Buena Park, Cypress, Fullerton, Fountain Valley, Crestline and Rialto.
Dry weather was forecast to return to the region today.
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