Update on Power Outage That Began Aug. 11 Before 10 p.m.
Map of the Canyon’s electrical service system as of January 2025, per data on the LADWP website. Dashed green line indicates existing underground service. Yellow lines west of Rustic Creek indicate separate Greentree area service at lower power; red lines are the remainder of the Canyon (map by Doug Suisman).
By Doug Suisman
President, The Canyon Alliance
The latest information we have comes not from official LADWP sources or communications, but from a conversation two hours ago between Sharon Kilbride (Canyon Alliance board member and the Canyon Area Rep on the Pacific Palisades Community Council) and an LADWP inspector she spoke with on the street in Palisades Village.
According to this inspector - and this has not been confirmed - there is a faulty circuit in the new underground main line that LADWP has been installing along parts of Sunset since the fire. Per this account, they do not know which circuit is bad, and since much of the line is covered in concrete, they have to drill the concrete to access the line and try to determine where the break is.
So far today, we have had reports that the cause of the outage was 1. an explosion in an electrical underground vault on Toyopa (a street visit provided no indication of work there) and 2. Other reports of a repair crew at Mesa and Sycamore, which turned out to be related to pole replacement.
So we have no confirmation of the problem, the issues related to fixing it, or a timetable for doing so.
I just got off the phone with Christina Holland, who called me after my letter to the LADWP demanding accountability and information. She is a Community Initiatives Manager in DWP’s Communications and Community Affairs Division. I gave her a full-throated report on the Canyon community’s frustration and outrage, not just at the power outage but at LAWDP’s nearly complete failure to communicate with any useful information. She is reporting this to her superiors, and has agreed to pass on all new information immediately to the Canyon Alliance so that we can immediately report it in the Canyon News and provide a link to all WhatsApp groups, Google groups, and neighborhood associations.
I don’t know that this will get us any closer to a solution today, but it may help in future blackouts, which seem inevitable during reconstruction. I will post further updates on the Canyon News (www.the-canyon.org) and on the Canyon News WhatsApp chat (https://chat.whatsapp.com/Dva3kOmKQZb7Irg03fDQ97). Feel free to share and disseminate any information you see there. With editor Laurel Busby (laurelbusby@mac.com), we are seeking to make sure that what we share is reliable, and if not confirmed, then indicated as such.
