City Manager Jill Ingram said this week that she had requested a meeting with a Southern California Edison representative to discuss the on-going power outages in Seal Beach. District One Councilwoman Ellery Deaton said she also intends to request a meeting with Edison when she returns from her vacation. According to Paul Netter, an Edison spokesman, last Sunday’s outage began at 1:12 p.m. and affected 2,218 customers.
“It was caused by failed overhead conections and all power was restored by 6:23 p.m. on Sunday,” according to Netter.
The last major outage in Old Town occurred on Sunday, Jan. 31, when power was out for about nine hours. This week’s outage wasn’t as long and was better described as a brownout rather than a blackout as some businesses, such as Knock Knock toy store, were able to continue selling to customers. Other shops didn’t fare so well.
“I work from home a lot, and the low voltage was a ‘no go’ for my computer, so my work day was curtailed at 1:30 p.m.,” according to Alice Billman.
Her comments were among several in response to a question that the Sun News posted online.
“As bad as it coulda been—initially told power would be on by 3 p.m.—stayed open because of that—then told 6:30—still no power- closed both restaurants—disaster,” according to Aaron Kweskin, owner of The Hangout and the Italian Kitchen restaurants.
According to Diana Newton, “At Bay Hardware, we go in to ‘emergency mode,’ which we are well prepared for nowadays, having five outages in the last five months, writing all of our sales tickets manually, for later entry in to our system. The outage on Sunday was especially unfortunate for us, as we had an employee call in sick, so we were already shorthanded. Cash sales are easiest, credit card sales take an extra five minutes, at least, as cards have to be called in for approval to avoid chargebacks and/or fraudulent cards from being used. Unfortunately, while people offered to go get cash, the ATMs were also down (double bummer).”
According to Rob Jahncke, owner of Javatinis, “This last brown out cost our store a lot of business revenue and lost wages to my staff. Our coffee house could not make espresso drinks costing a 75 percent drop in sales during the failure. Because of the lack of sales, and the lack of full equipment operation, I had to send my staff home before dark and /or early.”
According to Wendi Rothman, who lives in Old Town, “I just got a bill for $295 to reset the elevator after the LAST power outage. Today I have sent my computer in for diagnosis, as it’s not working after (Sunday)’s outage. Seal Beach Old Town should be next for underground utilities as both residents and businesses are seriously affected.”
According to Mike Balchin of River’s End Cafe, “Lights out in kitchen, could not cook food, water heater out. No hot water to wash with. Fried cash register with partial electricity. Had to shut off all refrigeration because partial power burns up expensive condenser motors. City waste pumps out, could not use anything connected with sewer down here in First Street parking lot. No soft beverage equipment worked. Pretty much had to shut down.”
According to Melissa Knievel-Natanson of Up, Up & Away Kites, “We definitely need more patrols when power is out. Last time it went out we went down Main to check our shop for this reason. It was pitch black and not a soul in sight. We both thought—this can’t be good.”
Seth Eaker, local business owner and activist said, “In the nearly 10 years I have lived here, I have never experienced the length (over four hours at a time) and frequency of blackouts and brownouts in Old Town Seal Beach since the end of January.”
