Southern California Edison cut off power to 140 homes in the Portuguese Bend neighborhood of Rancho Palos Verdes on Sunday as persistent earth movements created unsafe conditions and triggered an evacuation warning.
This was another blow for the residents of the district, who had already been without gas supply weeks ago.
“The earth movement there has created such a dangerous situation that we have had to make the difficult decision to shut off power indefinitely,” said David Eisenhauer, a spokesman for SoCal Edison.
“We never want to have to turn off power unless it’s absolutely necessary,” he said. “In this case, we absolutely have to. We have an obligation that goes beyond providing power, and that obligation is safety: the safety of the community and the safety of our teams.”
Eisenhauer did not want to speculate on whether and when power could be restored to the affected houses.
“Conditions are constantly evolving,” he said. “Our commitment is that safety comes first.”
The city has issued an evacuation warning for the neighborhood, meaning residents must prepare to leave.
“If you have animals or children or need more time to evacuate, now is the time to leave,” the city said on social media platform X. An evacuation order would mean residents would have to leave the area immediately.
“If and when we do have to evacuate because it is too difficult for our residents to stay there, we will work with the Sheriff’s Department, going house to house and making sure the people who are staying there are safe,” said City Councilman Dave Bradley.
Pat Burt, a 52-year resident of the Portuguese Bend community, is preparing for Sunday’s evacuation warning. Burt and many of his neighbors are not evacuating, but are instead gathering supplies to continue living in their homes.
(Jason Armond/Los Angeles Times)
Recently, the region has continued to experience earth movements at unprecedented rates: up to 30 centimeters per week, posing increasing challenges to residents, emergency responders, city administrations and utility companies as damage to infrastructure and safety concerns increase.
The households that lost power were notified of the impending shutdown on Saturday. They are the same residents who had their gas supply cut off almost a month ago.
Portuguese Bend resident Mike Hong said Saturday he had only learned of the impending closure an hour earlier.
“They are giving us even less time than the gas company,” said Hong, who is cooking on hotplates, an option that ends on Sunday. “Don’t let us down. Where is the humanity?”
Moving containers sit outside a home in the Portuguese Bend community in Rancho Palos Verdes, where an evacuation warning has been issued due to power outages.
(Jason Armond/Los Angeles Times)
SoCal Edison had warned residents that this was a possibility after the gas service was cut off. Eisenhauer said there was no specific reason that led to the decision, but it was made to “ensure the safety of the community.”
A small fire broke out near Narcissa Drive in Portuguese Bend on Thursday. Eisenhauer said it started when a power line fell and ignited surrounding vegetation. Although the fire was quickly extinguished, the incident highlighted the dangerous situation, he said.
“We know this is a difficult time for Rancho Palos Verdes, and we have been looking for ways to keep power on,” Eisenhauer said. “At this point, earth movements have created such a dangerous situation that we must make the difficult decision to shut off power indefinitely.”
Eisenhauer said there are currently no plans to extend the power outage to neighboring residential areas that are also experiencing earth movements, but he added that the situation is fluid and is being “continuously monitored” by the utility.
He said SoCal Edison will have a “community crew vehicle” in the neighborhood through Sunday, providing residents with water and information. He said the utility is not providing generators because the ground in most locations is not stable enough to set them up.
City officials have said a power outage would create new safety problems because electricity is critical for telecommunications lines, the sewage system and the pumps that help contain the ongoing earth movements by displacing groundwater that geologists believe are causing them.
The neighborhood still has a functioning sewer system because the city installed portable generators procured by the Portuguese Bend Community Assn. to power the sewage lift system, said City Manager Ara Mihranian.
Officials with the California Water Service, which supplies water to the region, have said there are no plans to shut off supplies, but it is not yet clear whether that may have changed in recent days.
In order to respond effectively to the landslide, external help is needed, said City Councilor Bradley.
“This is much larger than the city itself and without the help of our partners at the county, state and federal levels, we cannot find real solutions to slow the movement of land,” he said.
Southern California Edison, which shut off power in Portuguese Bend on Sunday due to landslides, set up a community resource center in the neighborhood.
(Jason Armond/Los Angeles Times)
