Hundreds of IID customers remain without power
Recent rainstorms have wreaked havoc across the inland Southern California region - KESQ News Channel 3's Crystal Jimenez reports
RIVERSIDE COUNTY, Calif. (KESQ/KYMA,KECY) - After a storm ravaged through East Valley the last two days, Imperial Irrigation District (IID) said it's working as fast as it can to get the power back on for over 600 customers.
The IID website shows active power outages since Monday night which have affected 662 customers in the area.
Mecca resident Louisa Rodriguez said, "We really, really need it. We have kids. No electricity.”
Another outage is reported in the Thermal-Oasis area since Tuesday morning. It is affecting the Cactus City community. The number of customers affected by this outage isn't listed on the website.
“My daughter she’s still in the house. I mean her boss let her use a generator just for one unit of air conditioning. But we don’t have electricity so we can’t cook," continued Rodriguez.
Vice President of the IID Board of Directors J.B. Hamby said power is still expected to be restored fully for customers by Friday.
"This is a really interesting area, there's really nothing quite like it in the IID service area." he expressed.
Yesterday's storm complicated things for IID, as Hamby said over 100 transmission poles were knocked down in Imperial Valley. 33 transmission poles remain down in East Valley.
Aside from working to get power restored, IID and Riverside County is providing relief to those who need it.
Arreola Martin, who's also a Mecca resident, shared, “We have two days without light. And the food we have has already gone bad. [But} the kids can’t sleep. We barely got a generator today; and we had to sleep outside of the house.”
Martin says his family slept outside because it was so hot. Power is expected to be restored by Friday.
Until then, it’s a waiting game for those stuck at home without electricity as the imperial irrigation district works to get things up and running.
Community Resources
- The North Shore Yacht Club in Mecca is being used as a cooling center from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.
- Catholic Charities are also handing out food from 8 a.m. to 10 a.m.
- IID will be handing out water throughout the day outside of the Yacht Club as well.
