[Updated: 2:55 p.m.] Mark Olson of Southern California Edison states that all power is “restored as of about 2:30 to all except one customer.” The outage was the result of a “high voltage underground cable that failed” and the cable will need to be replaced.
[Updated: 2:07 p.m.] Southern California Edison updated their outage center as of 1:30 p.m. stating that 78 customers are still being affected and that they are currently analyzing the problem and testing the lines to minimize the number of customers affected.
Power was out to 2,267 customers in the Point Dume neighborhood of Malibu on Wednesday morning, as Southern California Edison (SCE) staff investigated the cause of the unplanned outage.
The outage also affected traffic signals at the intersection of Pacific Coast Highway and Heathercliff Rd. and PCH and Zumirez Cyn Rd.
As of 12:15 p.m., power had been restored to all but 309 customers, according to SCE spokesperson Mark Olson. These remaining customers are all located between Winding Way and Latigo.
“Now … troubleshooters are looking at that section between Winding Way and Latigo to see if they can restore power and see what the actual trouble was that caused the outage on the line,” Olson told The Malibu Times.
The temporarily darkened traffic signals were also back up and running Wednesday afternoon, according to Malibu/Lost Hills Sheriff Sgt. Watters.
As of 12:30 p.m. Wednesday, SCE gave an estimate of 2:30 p.m. for when power would be fully restored to the Point Dume area.
“Two thirty is just an estimate because until they find the problem… sometimes they can isolate the problem and get all the customers up and sometimes they need to make a repair and [it takes a little longer],” Olson said, adding that the majority of customers have been returned to full power.
There is as of yet no indication of what caused the outage, though sheriffs mentioned they were unaware of any traffic accident.
When asked if weather, which was rainy and windy in Malibu Wednesday, could be a cause, Olson reiterated “we have no indication of what the outage was at all.”