Thousands of customers were left without power Thursday in Long Beach, California, for the second time in weeks.
It quickly became clear, however, that this wasn't any ol' outage — at least 30,000 people were affected.
UPDATE: At least 30,000 customers are without power in @LongBeachCity at this time. The outage appears similar to the previous outage.
To add insult to injury, the outage came just two weeks after a previous outage that left 6,000 people without power for more than two days.
Thursday's outage covered all of downtown, as well as extending north, and the city urged people to stay away.
Map of #lbPWRout2. Red shows affected area. Pls stay out if you do not need to be in the red area. @RobertGarciaLB
According to a statement from the city, the outage was caused by an underground utility vault fire. There were also no injuries reported as a result of the outage, although city officials warned residents to avoid the area and carry flashlights.
In addition to homes and businesses, the outage knocked out power to traffic lights.
Keep our crews safe! They are putting back-up generators for major X-ings. Slow down! #lbpwrout2 @LongBeachCity
City crews scrambled to bring generators to the busiest intersections.
Traffic was a nightmare.
710 fwy #LongBeach backed up to 405. Traffic lights PCH not working. Treat as 4-way stops. Pls drive patiently. @councildee @lenagonzalezlb
The mayor was pissed.
Power out again in Downtown. Just spoke to @SCE Prez - his teams are on site. Police & fire assisting. No info yet. This is unacceptable
@grobaty Tim, you have no idea how pissed I am. Unacceptable.
UNACCEPTABLE https://t.co/gvsav3tsb5
So was everyone else.
@SCE I can't do this again! Work faster!#lbpwrout2
I was stuck in our work elevator when I was leaving home for over an hour because of the power outage 😖 @LongBeachPost #LBPwrOut2
#LongBeach residents Linda Roberts & Vita Williams #lbpwrout2 "We just went grocery shopping...food's going to spoil"
@kingisjim @SCE yep...once again we are in the dark! This is crazy! #lbpwrout2
WTF #LongBeach !? #LBpwrOUT2
I KNOW PEOPLE ARE OBSESSED WITH SEQUELS BUT I AM NOT INTERESTED IN #lbPWRout2
Though some people managed to keep a positive attitude.
Currently affected by power outage in long beach. Tonight's agenda: drink hot wine and actually talk to my husband. #longbeach #lbpwrout2
An explosion and a vault fire prompted the electricity shut down.
Here's a look at damaged caused by the explosion near 10th and Locust #lbpwrout #LongBeach
Officials warned the outage could last until Friday.
Necessary repairs mean that impacted #LongBeach customers will likely be without power through the evening and into tomorrow.
Although power started to come back online Thursday evening.
Power partially restored @sce reports they have re-energized network. 7,500 customers still w/o pwr. Down from 30,000 affected earlier.
Some people seemed to be luckier.
WAIT HOLD EVERYTHING! The power's back :o #lbpwrout2 is it too soon to get excited? They said tomorrow?
Love the sound of cheers from the power coming back on! #lbpwrout2
By Thursday night, power had mostly been restored, the city announced.
As of 9:15 p.m. local time, just roughly 1,000 customers remained without power. Anticipating that the outage may extend through the night, however, city officials planned to open a shelter and bolster firefighting services.
Stay strong, Long Beach!
