Downtown Long Beach Faces Third Day Without Electrical Power

Local news reports a couple of nights ago showed manhole covers erupting with fire in downtown Long Beach. Electrical transformers were exploding. Authorities were warning residents to be extremely careful.

It turns out that power has yet to be restored to sections of downtown.

At the Long Beach Press-Telegram, "A third day in Long Beach without power for thousands":

LONG BEACH — Residents near downtown Long Beach face a third day without power after attempts by Southern California Edison to restore its underground power system failed early today.

A City of Long Beach statement said network re-tests Thursday night and early today were unsuccessful, and gave no time for a likely restoration.

More than 3,200 customers were without power at 2:30 a.m. today, according to Edison outage map. Intermittent power outages could be expected throughout today, according to the statement.

The outage will also impact freeway traffic, with northbound lanes of the 710 Freeway closed at the 3rd Street onramp, and southbound off ramps closed at Broadway and 6th Street.

The re-tests were to begin between 10 p.m. and midnight Thursday, Edison said. Broadcast reports showed footage of smoke and steam rising through manhole vents at about 2 a.m.

At the last update, at 2:23 a.m., 3,221 customers remained without power, Edison said.

The fires in three underground power vaults were reported about 3:40 p.m. Wednesday and initially cut power to around 4,800 customers, Edison said...

Updates here.