Thousands Without Power In Studio City, Valley Village; Crow Blamed

STUDIO CITY (CBSLA.com) — About 15,000 customers in the Studio City and Valley Village area were without electricity Thursday after officials say a crow flew into a power distribution station.

The outage was reported about 8:45 a.m., according to the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power.

Crews later determined the cause to be a crow that came into contact with a 34,500-volt circuit breaker within Distributing Station 57, LADWP spokesman Joseph Ramallo said.

Crews were dispatched to restore service, but that effort could continue through the afternoon and as long as 10 hours, officials said.

DWP said crews were working to complete the repairs faster.

Some traffic light outage and other service disruptions were reported in the area.

CBS2's Randy Paige reported from the scene and spoke to residents who were trying to cope without air conditioning and store owners who had to close or compromise how they do business.

Carl McGee lives in a nursing home across the street from the power substation.

"I had to lay on my back," he said, "my bed won't work cause the power is out, the air conditioner is really low. And the beeper kept going off, not sure that that was about, but it's not been very good at all."

McGee told Paige he was considering going down the block to Starbucks to get a cold beverage -- but the coffee shop was closed.

Auto repair shop owner Albert Isaian had to send traffic away because without electricity the lifts won't work and he is limited to repairs under the hood.

"Already like 10 customers came for just maintenance, brake job stuff, and I said 'Sorry, no power, can't do it,'" he said.

He was able to work on a Prius that needed a new battery -- no need for a lift.

Around 7:30 p.m. Thursday, LADWP officials said more than 11,000 customers had their power restored.

They said around 4,200 remained without power and will remain on site until all customers were back on the grid.

LADWP said they expected all customers to have power within another couple of hours.

At 10 p.m. LADWP announced all customers had power restored.

Ramallo wrote, "LADWP wishes to thank everyone for their patience and understanding while our crews undertook an extensive repair process at our Distributing Station."

For more information about this outage, other LADWP news and cooling centers information, click here.

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