The electricity went out again Wednesday early afternoon — starting during the lunch hour — in much of central Arcadia. It affected many residents as well as Westfield Santa Anita mall, the L.A. County Arboretum, the Arcadia High School and First Avenue Middle School. It also knocked out street lights for at least 90-minutes and, in some cases, more than eight hours.
Scott Hettrick
One sometimes wonders if Southern California Edison fully understands or is held accountable in any tangible way for the problems caused by power outages. Some of us were complaining Wednesday and early Thursday about the impact even a 90-minute outage has on so many things, when we got news from the Arcadia Police Department mid-day Thursday that a 78 year-old male pedestrian died when struck by a car driven by a 19 year-old while crossing Huntington Drive near the mall where the traffic lights were still out after 9 p.m. No one is saying the man’s death is in any way connected to the traffic lights being out — and certainly the man and another 76 year-old man with the victim who was also hit but did not suffer life-threatening injuries were reportedly hit while they were making a dangerous diagonal street crossing from north to south and were nowhere near the crosswalk when they were hit.
Westbound Huntington Drive near Gate 1 at the mall.
But based on cars we saw blowing through the same intersection in full daylight a few hours earlier, and knowing how that “intersection” at Gate 1 by the mall and east of Baldwin Avenue is not a typical four-way intersection where a driver would naturally expect to see a traffic signal or stop sign and could easily miss it while driving in the dark, it’s easy to believe that the tragedy could have been avoided had the traffic light been working at the time.
Even before the fatal accident, the outage had already caused many problems in town, as such outages always do. While residents are mostly just inconvenienced, and while drivers are slowed substantially as traffic quickly backs up at every interesection that is turned into a voluntary four-way stop, the impact on everyone and everything else is far greater.
Shops and businesses lose customers if they cannot operate without power. Most of Westfield mall was out for more than three hours during important lunch hour. And with many kids still on spring break, it was an extra loss for food court businesses and the AMC theater which had to be evacuated.
Schools had to deal with students in classrooms suddenly without power.
Timers, bells, security and fire alarm systems, water sprinklers, all had to be re-set at both schools and most businesses and residences.
Some electric devices and computer systems get damaged with the power surge that comes when power is restored.
Stove pilot lights powered by electricity went out in kitchens in schools and professional businesses, causing a dangerous situation and all the pilot lights having to be re-set.
Street lights, electronic signs, and other things set to timers have to be re-set.
We drove through all the dead traffic lights on Huntington between Holly and Baldwin and then on Baldwin between Huntington and Colorado, which took way longer due to the lines of cars backed up at each interesection, and when we got to the Arboretum, the power was off there too. Our first stop was the Peacock Cafe, which had to lock its doors during its peak hours. Although the managers wanted to let people in to at least buy some cold food, there was a danger also caused by the outage, with smoke filling the room since a ventilator was not working to pull the smoke out, forcing the restaurant to keep most people out altogether. We were allowed in to buy cold prepackaged sandwiches with cash only.
I’ve not been able to attain any records as yet to determine if the number of outages in this area has increased the last couple of years but it sure feels like it to school and mall officials (Westfield says this was the fourth or fifth time in the past year, though none were as lengthy or extensive as the Wednesday outage). City officials say they met just last month with Edison regarding the status and reliability of their system, with Edison identifying a series of upgrades they plan to make to their infrastructure and equipment in the coming years to enhance safety and reliability for Arcadia customers. But many of those improvements are only in the planning or conceptual stages at this point.
So far Edison has not returned calls or e-mails — I will update this blog if and then they call back. Meantime, let’s hope that due to the level of damage, danger, and lost revenue and time these outages cause, that all appropriate parties increase the level of priority and investment in the reliability of electric equipment and service. Even if Wednesday’s outage didn’t directly cause the death of a pedestrian, every car and pedestrian that has to pass through an intersection during a power outage is at great risk of being struck and injured or killed by a driver who doesn’t notice that the lights are not working.
— By Scott Hettrick