LAGUNA HILLS : String of Blackouts Frustrates Residents

The gods of electricity appear not to have been smiling kindly on this city in the past two months. Unhappy residents and business owners have had their power go out four times since April 23.

“I could understand maybe once a year,” said a frustrated Stacey Futterman, whose inactive garage door opener prevented her from taking her 17-month-old daughter to physical therapy during the latest blackout three days ago. “I can handle that, but not four or five times in a few months.”

Tom Larimore, San Diego Gas & Electric’s Orange County spokesman, said that the string of blackouts is unusual but that they are all unrelated.

The first Laguna Hills power outage occurred April 23, when an underground cable malfunctioned, cutting electricity to 487 customers for six hours, Larimore said.

On May 3, a connection in the underground circuit system failed, shutting down power to 3,350 customers for 3 1/2 hours.

Those same 3,350 customers also lost power on May 21 for two hours, when wires connected to a power pole sagged, Larimore said.

Tuesday’s blackout was the longest, with the lights going out on 3,350 customers at 9:40 a.m. and not being fully restored until midnight. A faulty underground cable caused that blackout, Larimore said.