2,000 Lose Electricity After Backhoe Hits Cable
An estimated 2,000 customers, including South Coast Medical Center, were without electric power for more than 2 1/2 hours Wednesday after an underground cable accidentally was ripped up by construction equipment.
Beverly Schulman, acting administrator for the hospital, said emergency generators automatically switched on when the outage began about 11:30 a.m., “so there were no problems in any of the patient-care sections, including operating rooms.”
Tom Larimore, spokesman for San Diego Gas and Electric Co., said a backhoe cut through a cable near Ocean Way and Pacific Island Drive. The backhoe was being used by a private construction firm in the Pacific Island Village community in the hills above Pacific Coast Highway,
Some traffic signal lights on Coast Highway were affected, but Larimore said power was restored just after 2 p.m.
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