State officials look into prolonged outages

The California Pubic Utilities Commission wants to know why it's taken Southern California Edison so long to get everyone back on line. From press release:

The CPUC is examining the cause of the outages, including pole failures and any other potential safety factors that contributed to the outages or their duration, as well as staffing levels and the length of time it is taking SCE to respond to safety related calls from its customers and the accuracy of information being conveyed. In an open letter today to its customers SCE acknowledged failure to meet its own goals for service restoration and provide accurate information to customers. "We will determine whether SCE met all safety requirements and did all it could to prevent outages, and that it is now doing all it can to restore power and communicate with its customers," said [CPUC Executive Director Paul Clanon]. "If we determine that SCE has violated safety rules, it may face fines and penalties."

At last check, more than 2,000 San Gabriel Valley customers of Socal Edison were still without power almost a week after the windstorm. That includes Altadena, Arcadia and Temple City. From the LAT:

Officials at Southern California Edison said they understand their customers' frustration but noted that the windstorm produced damaging "hurricane-like" winds. At its peak, gusts reached 97 mph, toppling trees and poles and downing power lines. More than 1,200 trees were toppled in Pasadena, while 250 were downed in San Marino. Officials estimated more than $10 million in damage in Temple City and $1 million in South Pasadena.