Mecca Power Outage Puts Exotic Fish Farm At Stake

MECCA – Ernest Lo knows his fish.

“I see they’re swimming not very smooth!” he says, pointing to a school of goldfish in his farm’s tank.

Lo owns Kimco Fish Farm, the only koi fish and goldfish farm in the Coachella Valley.

Business is not going well on this Friday because the farm has no power. It is running on four generators, and he’s running out of gas to run them.

The reason for the power outage: The California Highway Patrol says someone slammed into an electrical pole a quarter of a mile away on Hammond Rd.

The driver ran from the scene.

“We are currently looking for the driver,” said Officer Ramon Perez. “The vehicle is registered to a person in Mecca, and we do believe the driver is related to the registered owner.”

CHP says the fish farm is the only business affected.

“Oh, this is big problem for us!” exclaimed Lo’s wife, Traci.

They explain that electricity is needed to run blowers, which blow oxygen into the fish tanks. Without oxygen, the fish will die.

All fivemillion of them, which Ernest says is worth perhaps $500,000.

An Imperial Irrigation District (IID) worker at the scene told News Channel 3 that replacing the downed line would be an “all day project.”

Ernest Lo doesn’t have “all day.”

“You see here, the fish?” he asks reporter Gil Diaz. “They’re not happy.”

The fish may survive as long as the four generators keep running. By the time the News Channel 3 crew left the farm,Ernest was down to just three generators.

“One [generator] has some problem now! I’m trying to fix it!! need to go there now!”