Long Beach Residents Air Grievances Over Power Outages At Town Hall Meeting
LONG BEACH (CBSLA.com) — Dozens of Long Beach residents turned out for a town hall meeting on Saturday to discuss their frustrations with repeated power outages this summer. SoCal Edison executives in attendance acknowledged missteps on their part and said they'd try to do better.
The meeting was organized by Assemblymembers Patrick O'Donnell and Anthony Rendon, along with State Senator Ricardo Lara and Long Beach Mayor Robert Garcia. The idea was to provide a forum for communication between residents and representatives of the power company.
Many residents took the microphone to tell the power company of the inconvenience caused by two widespread power outages caused by underground vault explosions. The first outage affected 5,000 customers and left some without power for four days. The second knocked out power for 30,000 customers and lasted as long as three days for some particularly unlucky customers. Residents also expressed concern that there was not enough communication with residents during the outages.
SoCal Edison executives said the power company has now inspected all cables and vaults, reinforced its system and tethered manhole covers. The results of the power company's internal investigation into the outages and the results of an independent analysis will be released to the public, a SoCal Edison representative said.
