Following the Santa Ana windstorm that ravaged Los Angeles County in December causing around $34 million worth of damage, a Southern California Edison spokersperson told a roundtable panel that they didn’t do a good a job in communicating with their customers.
“We didn’t do a very good job of letting our customers know [when power would be back on],” spokesperson Scott Anderson said. “We could’ve improved our communication channels.”
Congressman Adam Schiff (D-29) held a roundtable discussion with various utility companies as well as both local and federal politicians in order to assess windstorm response.
Winds rushing in at 40 mph harbored hazardous conditions, prompting a state of emergency in the city of Pasadena, closing down PCC in the process. School officials had met for a special meeting on Dec. 1 to discuss whether or not to cancel classes for the following day.
“I viewed the windstorm as a massive unrehearsed disaster preparedness drill,” said Schiff. “We got some good information at the hearing about some of the failures about communication.”
Representatives from Pasadena, Temple City, Crescenta Valley, Altadena, South Pasadena and San Gabriel cities were present at the event.
Temple City Mayor Tom Chavez voiced concerns about Southern California Edison’s response to the disaster, and the power outages that it caused throughout the city.
“Our main concern regarding SCE’s response involved … a lack of communication with the public, as well as city officials,” Chavez said in an e-mail. “We also have concern about possible pole overload. Were some of the poles … over-loaded with equipment as to cause their failure?”
According to Schiff, a second purpose of the meeting was to determine what kind of aid cities could receive to offset the massive damage caused by winds. Schiff estimated that the City of Pasadena sustained between $10-15 million of damage.
Though funding could come from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Schiff reported that FEMA’s current policies “discriminates against small cities like Pasadena and South Pasadena that sustained heavy damage,” since California is a large state.
SCE reported that full power was restored to all known customers at 6:21 a.m. Dec. 8, approximately a week after the initial storm. 440,148 customers were impacted by the windstorm and crews worked 24/7 to restore power to all areas.
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