Millions left without power, including local businesses
By Ashley Mackin | SDUN Editor
The power outage that left millions without electricity Thursday, Sept. 8 across southern California, Arizona and Baja, Mexico may have come and gone, but research as to the cause is ongoing.
Early reports indicated the outage was triggered after a 500-kilovolt line from Arizona to California tripped out of service, according to the California Independent System Operator (ISO). Other reports suggest human error by a maintenance worker in Yuma, Ariz.
The ISO initiated a joint task force to investigate the blackout. Working with the Western Electricity Coordinating Council, the ISO will bring together all of the utilities impacted by the outage including: Arizona Public Service, San Diego Gas & Electric, Southern California Edison, Imperial Irrigation District and Comisión Federal de Electricidad, serving customers in northern Baja.
Locally, businesses felt the impact in various ways.
At the Hillcrest 24 Hour Fitness, workouts were cut short by the outage. “We had to shut down the whole gym since all the machines run on electricity,” said employee Kayden Iverson. He said their main concern was getting people out of the locker rooms and showers, which go completely black at their facility since there are no windows.
Iverson said it took about 20 minutes to get everyone out of the gym, but employees had to stay for an additional two hours to let people know they were closed. They reopened at 6 a.m. the next day.
The Best Western Hacienda in Old Town had generators to power their main building and lobby area, which took about 20 minutes to get running.
“When the power initially went down the electrical locks to the rooms weren’t working, so we had to have a bellhop escort people to their rooms [to open them],” said sales manager Sidona Malone. “We handed
out flashlights and directed people to places to eat that were open and gave out cookies for those that needed a snack,” she said, adding that the vending machines were down.
Malone said the main concern was when the power would go back on, but overall, people were “understanding and pleasant.”
Dennis Lee, General Manager of Riki Sushi in North Park, utilized a friend who had power to keep his seafood from spoiling. “One of my chefs lives in Temecula and he had power,” he said, “So I threw all my fish and expensive items in a freezer chest and drove it to his house [to use his refrigerator]. ” He added that by the time he got everything together and to Temecula, power had been restored.
“I had to throw away some rice, but for the most part I didn’t have to throw away anything expensive,”
Lee said, “the loss of potential business was the worst.”
The Marketplace Deli in Bankers Hill suffered a slightly larger loss. “We had to throw out a couple thousand dollars worth of product,” said store owner David Brown, “Fortunately we have a huge ice machine,
which turned our sinks into ice bins.” He added that he needed to move the items from the refrigerator to the freezer. In the process, he lost the original freezer items.
“If the power remained off, we probably would have lost three times the product we did,” Brown said.
One place that was prepared was Scripps Mercy Hospital in Hillcrest. With emergency generators that turn on after ten seconds and special outlets running on reserve power that never go out, the hospital was able to remain operational.
Rick Gorton, Administrative Director of Facility Support Services of Scripps Mercy Hospital, explained that not everything was kept on, only what needed to be. “We had adequate light, but not all the lights were on,” he said, “and any [elective surgery] that could be canceled, was.”
Any clinical device that needed to remain on, such as a respirator, is plugged in to the emergency outlets at all times in the event of an outage. The patient care areas remained with power. Offices, such as for the marketing department, were dark.
The generators are tested monthly at Scripps. When it came to this blackout, Gorton said, “I think we handled it really well.”
