Power Outage in Canyon Frustrates Residents

An unexplained power outage throughout the Canyon left people confused for more than 16 hours over the past two days.

Power was reduced around 5 p.m. and then went out around 7 p.m. on Aug. 5, according to Boca resident Sharon Kilbride, who was told by a Los Angeles Department of Water and Power representative that an unspecified circuit was not working. Then, on Aug. 6, she spoke to someone from the contractor Petrelli Electric, which had recently installed a slate of new power poles in the Canyon.

“They said it was an LADWP problem with the circuit and had nothing to do with the new power poles or lines,” Kilbride said.

During the outage, The Canyon Alliance President Doug Suisman struggled to get answers from LADWP.

“LADWP didn’t seem to take any basic steps, like texting or emailing, to inform customers and provide updates,” he said. “Both Spectrum and Frontier did that throughout. Why can’t LADWP?”

At around 10 a.m. on Aug. 6, the power came back on.

The LADWP website did not list any information about the outage by the morning, but at 4:50 p.m. on Aug. 6, an LADWP representative replied to an emailed question about the issue.

“Crews made repairs to a faulty circuit and had power restored by 10:50 a.m.,” said LADWP Community Initiatives Manager Christy Holland.