Southern California Edison to shut off power indefinitely to 140 Rancho Palos Verdes homes
The city issued an evacuation warning due to concerns about the recent land movement.
RANCHO PALOS VERDES, Calif. (KABC) -- An evacuation warning was issued Saturday in Rancho Palos Verdes after Southern California Edison announced it would be shutting off power to 140 homes due to the recent land movement.
According to an alert from the city, the warning is for the Portuguese Bend Community Association neighborhood.
SCE said the land movement is now considered a public safety threat and will be disconnecting service to 140 residential customers on Sunday at 12 p.m.
"We know this is a difficult time for Rancho Palos Verdes and we've been looking for ways that we can keep the power flowing," said Gabriela Ornelas, a spokesperson for SCE. "At this point land movement in Rancho Palos Verdes has created such a dangerous situation that we must make the difficult decision to disconnect power indefinitely to keep that community safe."
According to SCE, a spot fire broke out Thursday near Narcissa Drive that was ignited by one of their electrical lines that fell due to the land movement.
Ornelas said the fire showed SCE "cannot mitigate the public safety risk from the land movement in the area we are disconnecting."
"Since the accelerated land movement continues to damage our electric equipment, we need to turn off power to keep the public safe," she said.
During a community meeting Saturday evening, many residents expressed frustration. Some have even rushed to buy generators for their homes.
"Yes, I'm frustrated," said resident Justin Monzon. "I think that if Edison's infrastructure was posing an imminent safety risk then that would necessitate an immediate shutdown ... but they're giving us 24 hours."
"If their commitment truly is to this neighborhood then I think they could have very easily given us more warning," he added.
SCE said they notified customers on July 30 that due to the conditions in the area, a power shutoff was a possibility.
Meanwhile, a customer care vehicle will be in the area near Fruit Tree Road and Narcissa Drive through the weekend to provide residents with water and charging stations.
The city said the zones that will be impacted by the SCE power shutoffs include RPV-E0160, RPV-E0115-A, RPV-E0155-B, and RPV-E0150.
In July, 135 homes had their gas service cut off as a result of the movement.
Last week, geologist Mike Phipps said Rancho Palos Verdes is dealing with more land movement from a larger slide plane than what was previously reported.
"What we've now confirmed with about 10 borings on the site, at least in the Portuguese Bend area, is that there is a landslide that's almost twice as deep as what had been modeled," he said.
You can get more updates from the city here.
