July 30, 2004
By Lois Gormley and Benjamin Spillman
The Desert Sun
Cathedral City -- It was back to basics Thursday for Denny Burt when the lights went out in Cathedral City.
His electric clippers were useless and he sent his employees home, but he stayed on at Denny’s Barbershop in Date Palm Plaza to finish out the day, answering the phone and greeting customers who dropped by.
"I did a few (haircuts) just by scissors," he said. Business suffered some but he wasn’t concerned. "Most of our customers, they’ll come back. That’s why I (stayed around and) explained to them why we closed."
Burt was one of just a few shop owners who stuck it out Thursday when a power outage shortly before noon left more than 14,000 people in Cathedral City and Rancho Mirage without electricity and baking in the 106-degree heat.
Though power was restored to most users by 4:30 p.m., electric crews planned to work through the night to bring service back to the last 90users.
Burt was one of the 90 still without power Thursday evening, but he was more concerned about some of the other businesses in the plaza.
"There are some little grocery stores with freezers," he said, sweat glistening on his brow as he brought his wrought iron and wood bench in for the night. "I don’t know what they’ll do."
Paul Klein, a spokesman for Southern California Edison, said an equipment failure in an underground vault knocked power from an 11-circuit substation in the city, plunging 14,319 customers into the dark.
By 1:45 p.m., the utility giant had restored power to nine of the circuits but 1,933 customers remained powerless, Klein said.
The boundaries of the ongoing outage were Dinah Shore Drive in the north, Gerald Ford Drive in the south, Plumley Road in the east and Cathedral Canyon Drive in the west, he said.
By 4:30 p.m., all but 90 small commercial customers directly adjacent to the intersection of Date Palm Drive and Converse Road had power restored, Edison spokesman Gil Alexander said.
That intersection was the site the of underground failure, Alexander said.
Burt said his employees were sitting outside on the bench and heard an explosion from underground at the corner of Date Palm Drive and Converse Road.
"Smoke came up twice," he said. "It happened twice."
He said power was out until about 3:30 p.m. when it flashed on briefly before going out again.
Closing up for the night, Burt was hopeful the electricity would be flowing again by morning.
"Crews are going to work through the night," Alexander said. "It might take until 5 in the morning. We do expect to have power restored by the morning."
All through the plaza closed signs were displayed in storefronts. Across Date Palm Drive Nicolino’s Italian Restaurant and La Gran Fiesta had signs in their windows as well.
"It’s too bad because it was right at lunch time for them," Burt said.
Residents were left to cope with the aftermath of four hours without air conditioning in the desert heat.
David Supornick said he was teaching at Cathedral City Elementary when the power went.
It was hot and uncomfortable for the students but staff tried to make it into an adventure for them.
"For them it was just an exciting change in daily routine," he said.
The school, which holds year-round classes, took every precaution -- keeping students inside during recess and making sure they drank plenty of water, Supornick said.
They regained power at about 3:30 p.m. and when he arrived at his Harmony Place home a few blocks away the power was on there, too.
Since the house had been closed up, it wasn’t too warm inside -- only about 81 degrees, he said.
Tim Brown said his home on Tamara Avenue didn’t lose power and he only learned of the outage when he tried to pick up a prescription at Albertsons.
The store was closed, doors locked, and of course the lights were out, he said.
The sign out front at a Date Palm Drive bar says Mike’s but that’s because the new owner -- who’s had the business just two months -- hasn’t changed it yet.
Patti Hawkinson said her bar, Patti & Beav’s, closed about an hour into the outage and the employees were sent home.
She reopened just before 5 p.m. and began powering up portable fans to help the air conditioning cool things down.
"The beer’s still cold," she said as she served her first customer.
Having lived in the desert for 50 years, Hawkinson said it would take more than this to get her down.
"This is normal," she said. "Nothing to be upset about. It’s just going to take a while to cool this place down."
Edison officials said it is always best in extreme heat to take action to move to safety rather than simply wait for the power to return.
Edison recommends that people -- especially those with older people in the residence -- have an emergency plan.
In the case of a power outage in the intense desert heat, people can "go to a mall, go to a restaurant," any place that has power and cool air, Alexander said.
Edison has "the Critical Care program, where we identify customers dependent on medical equipment," Alexander said. There were seven Critical Care customers in the affected area, he said.
"We talked with all seven personally to make sure they were OK," he said.
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