Countywide : Power Snafus Put College in Dark

A power failure over the weekend left parts of Golden West College without electricity Monday.

For the 4,600 summer school students, that meant many canceled classes, but others went on as scheduled--some under the trees outside on campus.

College spokeswoman Wendy Weber said 25% of daytime classes were called off and all evening classes were canceled.

About two dozen college employees were dismissed early because the telephones, fax machines and computers didn’t work.

“There were no major disruptions except for students calling in for registration information and applications for the fall semester,” Weber said.

Some buildings had power and others didn’t. Because a paper folding machine in the print shop was without electrical power Monday, Weber said, employees pitched in to fold 4,000 brochures for the college’s international student program. “The job had to be done,” she said.

Weber said KOCE-TV, which has its studio on campus, was off the air for seven hours Saturday. An emergency generator has kept the station on the air since, she said.

Jerry Dominguez, a region manager for Southern California Edison, said electrical power was expected to be restored to the entire college campus by 9 p.m. Monday.

Dominguez said that the college initially lost power about noon Saturday after a wire burned out at the nearby intersection of Golden West Street and Bolsa Avenue. He said about 2,000 other Edison customers in homes and businesses also were affected.

Edison workers repaired that wire and restored power to the area by Saturday afternoon, he said.

But the campus had another power failure Saturday, apparently because of problems with its electrical cable equipment.

“The problem is with the wiring,” Dominguez said.