Power Crews Make Progress After Overnight Outages

Thousands remained without power Wednesday after a day of record energy demand

Utility crews continued to work on restoring power Wednesday morning to thousands of customers as record heat and power demand taxes Southern California.

At 7 a.m., the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power reported 634 customers without power. The majority of the outages, which come during a heat wave that began late last week and pushed temperatures into triple digits, were in the Los Angeles metro and valley service area.

About 6,000 customers were without power Tuesday, when the DWP reported an all-time record energy demand of 6,396 megawatts. That broke the record set Monday of 6,196 megawatts. The usage taxed power lines and triggered transformer fires.

"This actually started Saturday, the heat, so we've been busy all the way through," said Juan Esparza, LADWP district superintendent.

Southern California Edison reported 1,800 customers without power Wednesday morning because of extreme heat and heavy power usage, utility officials said. That figure is down from 3,500 customers Tuesday night.

Southern Californian's can expect a slight drop in temperatures Wednesday. The NWS forecast highs of 80  in San Clemente; 82 in Avalon; 83 in Newport Beach; 85 at LAX; 88 in Laguna  Beach; 91 on Mount Wilson; 94 in downtown L.A. and Long Beach; 95 in Anaheim,  Irvine, Fullerton and Yorba Linda; 96 in Mission Viejo, San Gabriel and  Burbank; 99 in Pasadena; 100 in Lancaster; 101 in Palmdale; and 102 in Saugus  and Woodland Hills. Friday's highs will be lower -- 11 degrees lower in  downtown Los Angeles and 12 degrees in Woodland Hills.

Heat advisories expired for several areas late Tuesday, but flash flood watches remained in effect for parts of Los Angeles, Riverside and San Bernardino counties.
 

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