36 Hour Power Outage Ends In Cathedral City

CATHEDRAL CITY – “This is as bad as it gets,” said Roy Baufield, a resident of the Royal Palms Mobile Home Park.

He and his neighbor, David Agapito, lost power on Sunday. They cooled off at a cooling center set up in the clubhouse at the Royal Palms Mobile Home Park. Park managers gave residents food, water, and beds to sleep.

“It’s like the family that comes to visit that you don’t know was coming to visit. It’s unexpected,” manager Doreen White observed during the outage. “You gotta find beds and you gotta find linens and you gotta get food together and you gotta try and keep them as comfortable as they possibly can be.”

The outage was due to one of the three underground transformers blowing up Saturday afternoon. Southern California Edison is building a new one. But, in the meantime, SCE patched up the old one and restored power by Monday evening. Many of the residents of this mobile home park are 55-years-old and older, and there was a lot of concern about their health.

“The elderly don’t take heat well. They don’t notice until they’re sick,” said resident Lorraine Bachmann.

“Doesn’t matter how hot it is. To be inconvenienced and to sweat and cool off a dozen times a day –I don’t care who you are or how old you are, it’s not good for your health. It’s aggravating to say the least,” says Agapito.

Managers say 200 out of 1,000 residents lost power. They even lost power to the clubhouse. They had to transport a power generator from another facility in Riverside to the clubhouse. Still, neighbors came together to help each other out.

“They’ve come together as a community and people helping out people,” White said.”We’ve had residents take other residents home when their homes haven’t been affected by the outage and let people stay overnight where it’s cooler.”