Residents near downtown Long Beach were without power for a third day after attempts by Southern California Edison to restore its underground power system failed early Friday.
Power to most of the area had power restored around 10 p.m. Friday night, according to Southern California Edison.
A City of Long Beach statement said network retests Thursday night and early Friday were unsuccessful, and gave no time for a likely restoration. More than 3,200 customers were without power at 2:30 a.m. Friday, according to SoCal Edison.
Those numbers were reduced Saturday morning with SCE estimating 200 customers remained without electricity, restoring power to nerly 90 percent of the downtown area.
Power restoration has been stalled mainly due to the fact that the complicated underground system broke off into three sections, and crews have so far only been able to restore power to the east and notheast sections, while the southwest section remains dark.
SoCal Edison said that it had not experienced complications to this extent since the 1950s.
"It's been crazy. People here are panicking because they don't know what to do," a Long Beach resident said. "We just had to clear out our (refrigerator) from work, a lot of food wasted. It's horrible."
SoCal Edison set up 25 generators to power parts of Long Beach still in the dark Friday afternoon, and an emergency shelter was opened at 401 Golden Ave. for residents who were without power at home and in need of bed, food and a shower.
About a dozen family gathered at the shelter Friday night, including Long Beach resident Kasey Behrschmidt.
"I'm exhausted and I'm hoping there are no more setbacks," Behrschmidt said.
The outages come days after an underground electrical fire sent manhole covers flying into the air, steam still rising from the ground more than a day later.
The day after the underground fire knocked out power, officials say flames erupted in a Long Beach apartment complex because of an unattended candle.
"Southern California Edison continues to experience challenges with the underground utility. SCE crews worked throughout Thursday night to restore power to downtown Long Beach. The City experienced periodic restoration throughout the evening and early morning hours," read a city statement issued Friday morning.
The outage forced the closure of the city's Mission H2O LB Kickoff Event set for Saturday at Promenade Square, according to the Long Beach Water Department.
Those without power can pick up flashlights, ice and water at 730 Pacific Ave. in downtown Long Beach starting at 10 a.m.
"We will resupply until the outage is over," SoCal 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.
Local
Get Los Angeles's latest local news on crime, entertainment, weather, schools, COVID, cost of living and more. Here's your go-to source for today's LA news.
The vaults were beneath the 400 block of Third Street, and near the intersections of Pacific Avenue and Ninth Street and Pine Avenue and Nardo Way, Jake Heflin of the Long Beach Fire Department said.
Jane Yamamoto contributed to this report.
