Los Angeles residents frustrated with LADWP after days-long power outages

Silver Lake residents without power for days

Silver Lake residents shared their frustrations with LADWP after they were left in the dark for multiple days during a heatwave.

LOS ANGELES - As he sits in his dining room with the power restored, Anthony Cerceo says he feels great having things back to normal. The Silver Lake attorney and resident, however, isn’t happy with the LADWP.

He waves an envelope in the air, saying, "I've already prepared my complaint for reimbursement for the expenses I've incurred over the last couple of days due to the power loss." Inside the envelope are receipts for a three-night stay—"about $600."

When the power in his home went out on Saturday around 4 p.m., the heat became unbearable, so he headed to a $200-per-night hotel. He says, "I had to rent a pet-friendly hotel because I couldn’t stay here. I have a medical device I use at night, and without electricity, I can’t run it."

He blames LADWP for not having redundant systems and for not being prepared for a heatwave, knowing full well one could happen. He believes the infrastructure is inadequate. "I think they should take responsibility for this," Cerceo said. "I do think this reflects some negligence on the utility’s part because this was not an unpredicted event."

Nonetheless, it has affected thousands, like Jason Thomas, who suffered through two days of misery in a house filled with what he describes as "stagnant air, like heat building up throughout the day..."

On Sunday, after crews fixed the blown transformer in the Sherman Oaks neighborhood where Thomas was house-sitting for his dad, who had been hospitalized, the power came back on. However, crews returned today, explaining they had to turn off the power again to fix something they hadn’t fully addressed the day before.

Back in Silver Lake, veteran electrical worker and supervisor Frank Cardenas said, "This is my fifth straight day. Sixteen-hour shifts... every day."

That’s been the reality for electrical workers spread across the LADWP landscape, including the hills above Silver Lake, where another transformer blew. The culprit? Hot days and hot nights. "If the temperature doesn’t drop, our equipment doesn’t get a chance to cool off," says Cardenas.

Cardenas also notes that sometimes they meet customers who are as hot-tempered as the weather. So, how does he deal with that? He says he "answers the questions to the best of my ability and asks to let us continue our work to shorten the outage." Ultimately, he tries to remain courteous "as best we can."

LADWP issued the following statement to FOX 11 on Monday:

"LADWP is at the highest response possible level — as of Sunday, September 8, 2024, at 10:30 a.m., meaning that customers experiencing an outage can expect that it may take longer than 24 hours for a crew to respond to your electric service outage. This is necessary due to the high number of smaller outages and is meant to help set expectations for our customers that reflect operating conditions and response times. Be assured that we are utilizing all available resources to support our restoration efforts at this time. Our crews have been working around the clock since the heat storm began on Thursday and they continue to prioritize the restoration of longer-duration outages as well as large circuit outages. We have invested significantly in our equipment and it is well-prepared to handle normal high heat, but when we have extended periods of extreme heat, without cooldown at night, our system does not have the chance to catch up."