Power out for 805 Southern California Edison customers in eastside Costa Mesa

Power went out for thousands of Southern California Edison customers Wednesday morning in the area of Newport Boulevard and 17th Street due to a blown transformer, according to law enforcement officials.

Costa Mesa police said officers are monitoring traffic at the intersections along 17th Street and have placed stop signs in the area. Officials at Southern California Edison were notified this morning, though spokeswoman Diane Castro said that the outage reportedly began at around 1:27 a.m.

The outage initially affected about 3,470 customers, a number that has declined to 805.

The original boundaries of the incident were Walnut and Dover streets, Cape Andover and Monrovia Avenue.

The outage was blamed on Mylar or metallic balloons making contact with power lines.

“If metallic balloons come in contact with power lines, they can damage equipment, down power lines and cause outages. These results represent extremely dangerous risks to public safety, damage equipment and can be dangerous,” said Castro.

People are encouraged to weigh down metallic balloons and to keep those balloons inside whenever possible. Residents should also cut the knot or puncture the balloons prior to disposal and never release metallic balloons outside, according to Southern California Edison.

The utility expects power to be back on by 3:30 p.m.

Police advised drivers to find alternate routes and avoid the area.

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