Power Outages Leave Many Sweating In The Dark Across SoCal

LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) — Scattered power outages affected tens of thousands across southern California Monday night.

For some, the heat is so bad inside with the outage — they'd rather be outside with the mosquitos in the balmy fresh air. That's the case David Kalendarian and his family, who spent more than five hours outside on Monday night as he and thousands of others in Altadena and across the region were without power. Temperatures inside his house remained in the mid- to upper-90s throughout the night.

Kalendarian knows it might be a long, sleepless night in the heat, but he and his siblings are making the most of it now.

"We got the casseroles, the backgammon, the beers, the music, the light, so we're good. We got the generator going on so we're just making the best of what we can," he told KCAL.

Power failed earlier in the day as temperatures climbed well into the triple digits, straining the power grid and setting a June record for demand.

The LADWP peak demand hit a new June record of 6,080 megawatts, beating a previous record set in 2008.

Southern California Edison was reporting scores of outages late Monday afternoon, stretching from Ventura County, east to Palm Desert and as far south as Murrieta.

At the same time, Los Angeles Department of Water and Power's map of outages showed about 40 in Los Angeles County alone.

Both utilities blamed equipment failure, and said crews were working to restore power as fast as possible, but some residents will be without electricity throughout the night.

The LADWP is urging customers to be prepared, with fresh batteries, flash lights and phone chargers that can be used in vehicles. Also recommended; non-perishable food and a cooler for temporarily storing food that needs refrigeration.