Power outage in Huntington Beach leaves as many as 15,700 Southern California Edison customers in the dark

Southern California Edison engineers were looking into the cause of an outage that left as many as 15,700 of its customers without power for hours on Sunday night.

People who heard loud noises in the area of Brookhurst Street and Atlanta Avenue at about 8:20 p.m. told police they thought a vehicle collision had happened, Huntington Beach spokeswoman Jennifer Carey said. But when officers responded, they saw no signs of a crash and what appeared to be a blown power transformer.

Southern California Edison officials on Monday were unable to confirm whether a transformer was among the equipment damaged Sunday or suggest a cause for the outage. However, several spans of power lines were brought down, leaving thousands in the dark, utility spokesman David Song said.

Residents reported seeing bright blue flashes in the sky before lights went out. Some said they found electrical lines littering the street in posts to local social media groups. Police had to direct traffic at intersections after stoplights lost power, Carey said.

Electricity was restored to all customers by 1:15 p.m. Monday, Song said.

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