Media Contact: Robert Laffoon Villegas, (626) 302-2255
ROSEMEAD, Calif., May 1, 2014 — Southern California Edison (SCE) crews made significant progress restoring service through the night and morning hours to areas hit hard by high wind conditions. As conditions change and winds continue to be unpredictable, SCE reminds customers that some may continue to experience service interruptions. As always, SCE reminds customers to never approach or touch downed power lines.
Numerous communities across the Southland have been impacted by the high wind conditions. As of 11 a.m., about 3,000 customers in the counties of Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino are experiencing service interruptions. Riverside County was the hardest hit region by the winds, with about 1,650 customers remaining without power there.
SCE’s system continues to perform well. The Etiwanda fire has not yet impacted service to customers in the area. Winds, however, continue to cause service interruptions.
“SCE personnel, including restoration and repair crews, are responding to outages, with a priority of restoring service to the most heavily impacted customers that have been without power the longest,” said Steve Conroy, SCE director of Corporate Communications.
The company is ensuring that crews are available to respond to outages by having additional personnel in the affected areas and continues to focus on ensuring the safety of the public and repair crews due to the hazardous wind conditions predicted through the day.
Customers may report outages at 1-800-611-1911, online or through the SCE Outages App. SCE will provide the latest information about outages at its website and Twitter.
Customer safety is a top priority for SCE. Here are some important tips for high wind conditions:
- If you see a downed power line or dangling wire — even if it appears not to be live — don’t touch or approach it, or anything that is in contact with it, and call 911 immediately.
- Watch for traffic signals that may be out. Approach those intersections as four-way stops.
- Make sure you have a battery-operated radio and flashlights. Check the batteries and use flashlights during a power outage; do not use candles because they may pose a significant fire hazard.
- If you use a generator, place it outdoors and plug individual appliances directly into it, using a heavy-duty extension cord. Connecting generators directly to household circuits creates “backfeed,” which is dangerous to repair crews.
Additional safety tips, videos and fact sheets are available at: www.SCE.com/staysafe. The information is also available in Spanish.
About Southern California Edison
An Edison International (NYSE:EIX) company, Southern California Edison is one of the nation’s largest electric utilities, serving a population of nearly 14 million via 4.9 million customer accounts in a 50,000-square-mile service area within Central, Coastal and Southern California.
