Power Outage Strikes Long Beach Airport Area

A brief power outage turned out the lights to 1,005 Southern California Edison customers that included the Long Beach Airport and other East siders, a utility spokesman and police official said.

The outage was reported at about 11 p.m. in an area bounded by Tanglewood Street on the north, the airport on the west, South Airport Plaza Drive on the south and Palo Verde Avenue on the east, said Edison spokesman Charlie Coleman.

That area encompasses the Long Beach Airport, where the watch commander, who did not want to give his name, said auxiliary power was keeping the terminal and tower open. Commercial flights are to be in by 10 p.m. Crews restored power to all but 85 customers, including the airport, by about 11 p.m., Coleman said.

When a circuit goes out, it trips other circuits, causing an outage wider than the broken circuit, the SCE spokesman explained. "Repair crews keep restoring power until they get to the circuit that needs repair,'' Coleman said. The boundaries were reduced to Conant Street on the north, the airport on the west, South Airport Plaza Drive on the south and Clark Avenue on the east, Coleman said.

The cause of the outage was unknown, he said. It could not have been a lightning strike, because equipment in the area is underground.

-City News Service contributed to this report.