Storm knocks out power to 620 IID customers
Imperial Irrigation District said energy crews have been working around the clock to restore power to the Seeley area after a Thursday afternoon summer storm knocked down more than 30 power poles that serve a major Imperial Valley transmission line.
IID said crews were able to quickly reroute power, restoring electric service to most customers within less than an hour after the 3:29 p.m. outage. About 620 customers were initially affected.
As of Friday morning, the district continued to work on a temporary solution to provide electricity to the estimated 300 residents living at the Rio Bend RV & Golf Resort and at Storm’s Crossing Mobile Estate who were without power during the night. Most residents sought shelter elsewhere; the American Red Cross opened a temporary shelter at the Southwest High School auditorium in El Centro.
While complete restoration of the energy infrastructure is expected to take two or three days, IID expects to have all power restored through temporary measures by 5 p.m. Friday.
Residents are encouraged to visit the clubhouse to cool off, the Red Cross’s emergency shelter or a cool center in the Imperial Valley.
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620 people were left without power due our monsoon weather activity in the Seeley area on Thursday.
Crews have been working to fix the problem but only a temporary solution has been put in place.
Shelters have popped of for residents affected; News 11 visited the shelter and has more on the outage.
“People have suffered a power loss through evidently a microburst or some sort of storm and so their homes are apparently intact but without power,” said Paul Dillinger, Volunteer with Disaster Services with the American Red Cross.
The outage took place at 3:29 p.m. on Thursday and most customers had power restored within the hour. As of Friday morning work continued to restore power to about 300 residents who were without power through the night.
A temporary shelter has put in place at Southwest High School for those affected.
“After the power is restored, they still may have a need for assistance in the process of recovery. For example, refrigerators without power for a day or so, the food is going to be spoiled likely,” explained Dillinger.
The American Red Cross also provides comfort kits to those in need of them.
“We provide the cots and blankets and everything that they need. We have comfort kits that have all the toiletry supplies so that if they come in with nothing, they still have everything that they need,” added Dillinger.
Some people have stopped by the shelter, but most found a place to stay elsewhere.
Complete restoration is expected to take another day or two.
For more information on what to do during and after a power outage, you can visit http://www.redcross.org/local/california/san-diego.
