Power outages affect Southern California Edison customers amid hot temperatures
As the Coachella Valley experiences some of the hottest days of the year, now is the worst possible time to be without electricity. Hundreds of valley residents were dealing with such problems, as Southern California Edison had an unplanned power outage on Wednesday. Over 1,000 customers in Cathedral Canyon Country Club lost power around 5pm. Some got their electricity back within in a few hours, but 413 customers were without power for nearly 24 hours. Maria Gonzalez, a new resident in the area, was one of the many affected. She bought groceries for her whole family that will now go in the trash because of a non-powered refrigerator unit, and every Edison update she got on Thursday continued to be pushed back. “Today they told me like about noon, but it’s past noon already and nothing,” she said. Power was eventually restored to the area around 3pm on Thursday. Edison blamed a “bad section” of underground cable for the unplanned outage.
An unplanned outage is one thing, but Edison continues to have planned outages during the sweltering heat. Notices were delivered to customers 11 days prior to the scheduled outage, but customers continue to be baffled on why the company deems the dead of summer the best time to leave their customers without power. “Like last week, I didn’t even, I didn’t know it was going to be this hot, so it was kind of weird that they would schedule a power outage to prevent a power outage. I guess that’s what they’re saying it is,” said Indian Wells resident Tom Turner. “But it’s really really just too hot. I don’t understand why they would do that on the hottest, probably one of the hottest day of the year I guess.”
A spokesperson for Edison said scheduled repairs are critical to help avoid potential unplanned outages in the future. Edison has rescheduled a handful of planned outage dates in the past, and depending on how many calls the company receives from customers, Edison can re-evaluate certain situations and try to accommodate their customers as best as possible. To contact Edison customer service, the number is 1-800-655-4555. The Edison outage communication line is 1-800-611-1911. You can also download their outage app.
