2,400 Still Lack Power as Repairs Continue

More than 2,400 people throughout Ventura County were still without power Thursday, more than a day after lightning struck the area, downing power lines, sparking more than half a dozen fires and knocking out 911 service in Santa Paula.

It could be sometime tonight before electricity is completely restored, Southern California Edison officials said.

“We have every available person out there working on repairs,” Mike Montoya, Edison regional manager, said Thursday. “We’ve even borrowed manpower from neighboring areas and from Sacramento. But people can see the destruction, so most are being patient.”

Among the repair crews’ top priorities: 12 power poles that came crashing down along Thousand Oaks Boulevard on Wednesday afternoon, blown over by downbursts--intense wind gusts that rush to the ground during a thunderstorm.

The normally bustling boulevard was blocked off Wednesday between Westlake Boulevard and Duesenberg Drive while crews worked nonstop to restore power to residents and more than 250 nearby businesses.

But for most merchants along the damaged road, the repairs aren’t coming fast enough.

“We heard that the power was going [back on today],” said manicurist Lani Mai, who opened her salon on Thousand Oaks Boulevard briefly to give a pedicure. “If not, they’re going to kill me.”

Santa Paula police were nearly back to normal Thursday after losing their telephone service for six hours Wednesday night when lightning struck the department’s radio antenna just before 5 p.m.

The bolt seared the department’s telephone lines, leaving police without a way to receive 911 calls.

The downed lines delayed their response to at least one emergency, said Santa Paula Cmdr. Bob Gonzales. A woman who came home to a burglar in her residence tried to call 911 as the intruder ran off, but she only reached a ringing phone.

Her son later arrived at the police station angry because no one responded to his mother’s calls for help, Gonzales said.

“But as helpless as they felt, we felt just as helpless because we’re not able to get out there and respond,” he said. “So I told the officers to just get out there so people who need help can flag us down.”

The bolt also knocked out the station’s radio communication, forcing the department to switch to a portable backup system. One dispatcher, Belinda Croswhite of Santa Paula, felt the jolt through her phone line. But she declined immediate medical treatment, deciding instead to work through the rest of the storm, Gonzales said.

“She’s a real trooper,” he said.

Street crews around the county spent much of Wednesday night and Thursday cleaning up the debris left behind by the erratic winds and rain.

In Thousand Oaks, crews cleared more than 15 large trees and toted away limbs and brush that covered Thousand Oaks Boulevard between Duesenberg Drive and Westlake Boulevard.

Despite the debris, fire officials say the county weathered the storm very well.

“It could have been a lot worse,” said Ventura County Fire Department spokesman Joe Luna, who noted that his department responded to eight fires in one 15-minute stretch Wednesday afternoon.

The largest was a 51-acre brush fire on Williams Canyon Road in the foothill area of Ventura.

Lightning was cited as the cause for each of the blazes.

“Judging by the lightning strikes, we were pretty lucky,” Luna said. “It’s one thing if we lose some property. Mother Nature displayed her awesomeness, but no one was killed. No one was hurt.”

National Weather Service officials say the strange September rains may not be over. A 30% to 40% chance of thunderstorms are predicted for Ventura County late this afternoon, with temperatures in the upper 80s to mid-90s. The same is expected Saturday, with less chance of rain Sunday, meteorologists said.

Times Community News staff writers Jennifer Hamm and Holly J. Wolcott contributed to this report.