Wind Update: 20 Customers Without Power

Update 1:40 p.m.

Still No Power for Some: 20 Sierra Madre Edison customers are still without power this afternoon--seven days after a wind storm swept through the San Gabriel Valley.

The number of affected customers has been slowly dropping since the beginning of the week. About half the town, 2,714 businesses and residences, were still without power on Monday. On Tuesday Edison's outage map showed 78 customers still in the dark.

Patch just spoke with Mashi Nyssen, a Corporate Communications spokesperson for Edison. Nyssen said she did not have an estimated restoration time for the remaining 20 customers, but would attempt to find out from the crews in the field. Patch will keep you updated as we receive more information.

2,332 Without Power in the San Gabriel Valley. At the height of the storm, 430,000 Edison customers were without power. This is nearly double the customers Edison originally said were affected (about 226,000).

Why is it taking so long to restore power? An Edison rep attempted to explain the delays and lack of answers at a La Cañada Flintridge Town Council Meeting on Monday.

Edison offered this explanation in a statement this morning: "One of the complications SCE is facing is a safety concern. Where trees have taken out lines and poles, crews may be able to reconstruct poles, but trees may also have taken down the lines between poles and homes. SCE crews also need to repair those lines as part of the process of safely restoring power to individual customers."

City Hall Phone is Working Again, but Voicemail is Down: City Hall's main line, (626) 355-7135, was down for a period this morning but is now working again. Voicemail is not functional, so City staff is currently taking messages manually and delivering them to the appropriate recipients. 

911 calls may still be diverted and answered by another agency, but all emergencies will be addressed.

Get Wi-Fi, Charge Your Phones: Residents without power are welcome to charge their cell phones and use Wi-Fi at City Hall.

Trash Service has resumed and will run normally. However, some pick-up times will occur later than usual due to the large debris.

Parking: Overnight parking restrictions have been lifted throughout Sierra Madre for the remainder of December. The city has indicated that their public parking lots will be available to residents for overnight parking for the rest of the month as well.

Curbside Debris Pick-up: The city is offering curbside pick-up of debris until next Wednesday: here's more info.

Officials say crews will be continuously working to clear streets through December 14.

"We are generally working to keep clear the major roads, areas around schools, downtown, etc.," said James Carlson, Management Analyst for the city. "We are progressing through residential streets from the east to the west. We understand that we will need to return to areas for additional clearing."

The city asks residences to be wary of flyers or business cards they receive for clean-up assistance, ask for business licenses, and turn to friends, family and colleagues for contractor recommendations.

All roads are open. Public Works crews are working to clear streets from east to west. The city says residents can expect multiple passes on streets with heavy debris.

How long will clean-up last? Debris clean-up will likely last until the end of the December, according to the city. Officials say they will

City is waiting for county, state and federal aid. City officials have declared a local emergency and requested county, state and federal aid. They are awaiting a response.

Stay away from downed power lines. Residents are advised to stay away from dangling and downed power lines, even if they don't appear to be live. Contact with a power line could turn deadly.

Be cautious when walking and driving under trees. The high winds have weakened many trees and branches and caused broken limbs to hang in trees. The city is urging residents to be careful when they are walking and driving by trees. The city says it is working "to identify and mitigate potential hazards such as broken limbs that remain in trees."

Useful Phone Numbers and Alerts: If you see downed power lines, damaged buildings or have a true emergency, call 911.

The police department number is (626) 355-1414.

City Hall can be reached at (626) 355-7135, but their main number is currently damaged. See above for how to reach City Hall.

The county has set up a hotline for residences to report damages caused by the winds: (800) 980-4990.

The county is suggesting people sign up for their emergency alert system for emergency updates.

Damage Estimates: As of 11 p.m. Thursday, 28 structures were reported to have possible damage. Seven have been red tagged and six have been yellow tagged. A red tagged structure means it's completely uninhabitable.

Local blogger John Crawford posted his storm story on his blog, and one family spent Thursday night camping out in City Hall.

The other 15 homes and businesses endured more minor damages from downed trees, fallen utility poles and high wind.

County Emergency Declaration: The county has declared an emergency, allowing it to apply for state and federal funds to deal with clean-up issues, according to County Supervisor Michael Antonovich's office.

Local Emergency Declaration: At an emergency City Council Meeting last week, Mayor John Buchanan and the council approved an emergency proclamation for Sierra Madre. This will also allow the city to apply for state and federal aid.

More on Power Outages

Power outages were the worst in Sierra Madre, San Gabriel, San Bernardino, Alhambra, Altadena, Arcadia, El Monte, La Crescenta, La Cañada Flintridge and Monrovia.

Also heavily impacted were San Marino, Temple City, El Segundo, Long Beach, Torrance, Upland, Crestline, Barstow and Sun City.

“Sierra Madre is one of the harder hit areas,” said Scott Andresen, a SoCal Edison spokesperson. “We have crews out working as quickly and safely as we can. We are running into a lot of severe winds and debris… it’s starting to affect our crews’ ability to restore power," Andresen told Patch Thursday.

How is your power situation- has it been restored? Are you still in the dark? Tell us in the comments.

Tuesday 11:56 p.m.

Nearly 70 Sierra Madre Edison customers are spending their seventh night in the dark. That's 12 more customers without power than this morning.

The estimated power restoration times provided on Edison's outage map continue to change frequently and rarely indicate when customers actually get power back. Since Wednesday night's wind storms, Edison has not been able to stick to a definitive timeline for power restoration in Sierra Madre.

New numbers were released today regarding the number of Edison customers who were in the dark. Originally Edison said the outages affected about 226,000 customers. Today, they're saying it actually affected 430,000 customers.

Residents have heard nearly every day since their power has been out that it will be restored that night. I've been hearing from residents who are frustrated, angry and cold.

A representative from Edison spoke at a La Canada-Flintridge town council meeting Monday night and attempted to explain their crews' delays and their lack of answers. County officials also scolded Edison at a meeting this morning.

Tuesday Morning:

Six days after the wind storm that tore down trees, utility poles and knocked out power in almost all of Sierra Madre, some buildings are still without power.

This morning Edison's outage map is showing that 58 residences and businesses are still in the dark. The map's estimated time for power restoration varies from noon today to "currently being re-evaluated."

Yesterday at this time 2,714 Sierra Madreans were still without power.

At the height of power outages, over 430,000 Edison customers were in the dark. Throughout the ordeal, Edison hasn't been able to provide a definitive restoration timeline and has repeatedly pushed back deadlines. Edison keeps pushing back their deadline of when power will be restored. The company originally claimed that all customers would have power by Sunday... then 99.9% by Monday night.