Irvine Power Outage Leaves 2,500 in Dark

Lights in a wide area of Irvine flickered and sporadically went dark Tuesday.

The blacked-out area--affecting 2,500 customers--was generally bounded by Culver Drive southeast to Laguna Canyon Road in the south; from Trabucco Road to the San Diego Freeway. Some areas of Woodbridge remained dark for much of the evening.

Many residential streets within that area were dark from just before 5:30 p.m. to about 9:30 p.m., although telephone service was not interrupted.

The cause of the blackout was a problem at the Santiago substation, near the intersection of Sand Canyon Avenue and Irvine Center Drive, according to Susan Peterson, a spokeswoman for Southern California Edison Co.

Larger facilities within the blacked out area, including Irvine Medical Center on Sand Canyon Avenue and Mervyn’s on Culver Drive, functioned almost without interruption with back-up generators.

“Our lights flickered, but the hospital is running normally,” said spokeswoman Ericka Waidley. “We are monitoring our emergency services. We’re still open and functioning.”

Normal power was restored at about 8:15 p.m.

Irvine police deployed more than 25 officers throughout the area, and called in officers from other shifts, reserve personnel and even some civilians.

With traffic signals out, many officers stood in intersections, directing traffic, according to Lt. Vic Thies.

There were no serious traffic accidents as a result of the blackout, Thies said, or any incidents of break-ins or looting.

Power to the police department, located outside the blackout area.