Summer Storm Knocks Out Power In Inland Empire

SAN BERNARDINO (CBSLA.com) — A storm in the Inland Empire caused 4,000 Southern California Edison customers, including homes, businesses and schools, to lose power early Monday.

Southern California Edison reports that they have received 350 service calls regarding the outages.

Many businesses left without power, including a shipping and receiving business called Jenco Productions, sent employees home in the middle of the day, shortly before their power ended up being restored.

"Lightning struck one of the power poles over there, and at the same time it hit the power poles, there was an explosion," Bob Wheeler of Jenco Productions said. "A big blast of light."

Meanwhile, schools were left without air conditioning, and resorted to leaving doors open as crews worked to restore power.

"The schools were able to function as normal," San Bernardino Unified School district emergency manager Eric Vetere said. "Obviously not having power effects the use of the air conditioning but it wasn't too hot on any of the campuses."

Edison reports that crews will continue to work to restore power to homes and businesses that are still without it, and that there is currently no time-frame for when it might be back.