Accident Causes Loss Of Power to Mountain

  • A guy-wire which was snapped during a vehicle accident flew on top of this pole's power lines, causing a short. This resulted in loss of power to homes and businesses throughout the mountain area. [photo by The Mountain Enterprise]

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    A guy-wire which was snapped during a vehicle accident flew on top of this pole's power lines, causing a short. This resulted in loss of power to homes and businesses throughout the mountain area. [photo by The Mountain Enterprise]

  • Southern California Edison workers cutting the surrounding brush and look into power boxes working to find shorts in Lake of the Woods on Sturdevant ]

    Image 2 of 3
    Southern California Edison workers cutting the surrounding brush and look into power boxes working to find shorts in Lake of the Woods on Sturdevant ]

  • Lights went out at 4:26 a.m., and automatic generators didn't start up in most areas of the mountain, including Pine Mountain Club's clubhouse. Bob Clark fired up the generator about 5 a.m., restoring lights to the parking lot and offices. Gerard Palmisano said the CalNeva Broadband generator went on because he had back up UPS (uninterrupted power supply) units online, but the short fed just enough power into the lines to confuse the

    Image 3 of 3
    Lights went out at 4:26 a.m., and automatic generators didn't start up in most areas of the mountain, including Pine Mountain Club's clubhouse. Bob Clark fired up the generator about 5 a.m., restoring lights to the parking lot and offices. Gerard Palmisano said the CalNeva Broadband generator went on because he had back up UPS (uninterrupted power supply) units online, but the short fed just enough power into the lines to confuse the "auto on" switches to generators.

By Gary Meyer

Power was lost across the Mountain Communities Tuesday, Jan. 11 at 4:26 a.m. when a northbound Ford F-150 truck exited Interstate 5 in Lebec without using the off-ramp.

A guy-wire supporting a power pole 100 feet north of the Lebec overpass was snapped. It flew upward over high-voltage lines, causing a short which resulted in the outage, according to a Southern California Edison (SCE) repairman at the scene.

Power was temporarily restored at 7:15 a.m., then maintained in much of Frazier Park by 7:30 a.m. and was reported fully restored by 9:09 a.m., by SCE spokesperson Vanessa McGrady, who said 4,865 customers were without power during the morning.

Calls to The Mountain Enterprise revealed many areas were unaffected while other areas were still cut off well after most of the mountain’s electricity had been restored.

Kate Donahue at Coffee Cantina in Frazier Park opened her shop at 4:30 a.m. and did not lose power all morning. Cary Bauer called at 7:43 a.m. to report that Pinon Pines was still dark even after an update had been posted to www.MountainEnterprise.com stating that power had been restored.

A resident on East End Drive in Frazier Park called at 10 a.m. to say her power was still out, although she called back to say all was well after she switched her electrical breakers back on.

Gerard Palmisano, CalNeva Broadband’s Frazier Park manager, suggested that many people’s “automatic-on” generators, such as that at the Pine Mountain clubhouse, may have failed to start because the SCE short caused a very low level of electrical power to be maintained, rather than cutting out completely. The “auto-on” switches require a complete cessation of power in order to trigger, he said.

This is part of the January 14, 2011 online edition of The Mountain Enterprise.

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