With less than 24 hours’ notice, Nikki Nouskam learned Sunday that Southern California Edison would be shutting off her power indefinitely.
“I have to leave my house where I lived (in) about 20 years,” Nouskam said at a special Rancho Palos Verdes City Council meeting Tuesday to discuss the latest blow to residents of the beleaguered community: the loss of electric service. …
Nouskam is one of more than 200 homeowners in the Portugal Bend and Seaview neighborhoods whose power was cut off by Edison over Labor Day weekend. She and her neighbors are now struggling to continue daily tasks — cooking, showering, doing laundry — with no certainty of when their utilities will be back up and running.
Nikki Nouskam makes emotional call to action as Seaview resident attends special meeting to discuss power outages and evacuation plans for Rancho Palos Verdes neighborhoods affected by landslide.
(Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times)
Noushkam feels desperate and helpless as she struggles to save her home.
“(You all) left me homeless,” he said. “Help me.”
The Palos Verdes Peninsula has been mired in coastal landslides since the early days of real estate development. But rapidly deteriorating conditions in the town have raised questions about how to help residents and how severe the landslide will be. The town’s impressive Wayfarers Chapel is in disrepair and will need to be dismantled this year to save it.
Residents of the black zone feel isolated. And those who live in the neighbourhood wonder whether their homes will be cut off by the landslide.
In this case, the earth moves on average 9 to 12 inches per week.
According to Edison officials, the closure is intended to reduce the risk of rapid and sustained ground movements that could lead to wildfires if power lines are damaged.
The potential dangers have been highlighted by a small fire that broke out last week near Narcissa Drive on Portugal in Bend when a power line fell and burned vegetation.
At a special board meeting, Edison officials said line repairs and maintenance in those areas had increased over the past year, but their efforts “sometimes failed once the repair was completed.”
George Mundorf, Edison’s vice president of distribution operations, said the continued ground movement made it impossible for crews to assess the damage. The shifting terrain, combined with the area’s rugged terrain, also complicates crews’ ability to inspect areas to find problems before they occur, he said.
“More (the) infrastructure is not accessible to cranes or trucks due to road and terrain conditions,” Mundorff said.
This means that a quick solution to the crisis is unlikely.
Concerns for the safety of crews and their customers prompted Edison to shut off power to the Bend neighborhood of Portugal indefinitely about a month after the gas outage. The city also warned neighborhoods to evacuate.
Extensive landslide damage on Dauntless Drive near the Portuguese Bend neighborhood, where an evacuation notice was issued on September 1, 2024 due to a power outage.
(Jason Armond/Los Angeles Times)
On the highest hill, north of Portuguese Bend, power was cut to 34 structures for one to three weeks in the Seaview neighborhood, and 30 homes were out indefinitely. Edison officials predicted another 41 homes that were previously without power will be restored this week.
Officials are also considering cutting off power to the Portuguese Bend Beach Club. Edison officials said they could not say definitively whether power would be cut, and that the decision would be based largely on changing ground conditions. Officials have warned that the community should be prepared for the club’s possible closure.
“While (Edison) engineers are exploring solutions that may restore power service, expedited, uninterrupted traffic for months is not the playbook,” Mundorff said. “Therefore, we cannot provide a timeline for restoring power in some cases.”
Seaview residents living in such uncertain conditions are forced to turn to neighbors who have power for help.
“When we talk about our neighbors, we’re talking about people who share refrigerators and help each other move aquariums, cook for each other and those who have electricity for our neighbors, who share laundry rooms across the street,” Seaview resident Ann Cruz said at the council meeting.
City officials and residents have sought temporary utility solutions like neighborhood-scale generators or microgrids, but Edison said it’s not safe to do so because both methods require stable ground.
Southern California Edison is establishing a community resource center in Portuguese Bend.
(Jason Armond/Los Angeles Times)
Earlier Tuesday, Gov. Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency for Rancho Palos Verdes after the threat of severe ground movement disrupted utilities and prompted an evacuation alert.
City officials say the announcement frees up state resources, including emergency personnel, equipment, services and financial aid for the city as it responds to homes without power.
What the governor’s announcement does not do is provide financial assistance to affected residents. Rancho Palos Verdes Mayor John Cruikshank said he is writing to the Governor’s Office of Emergency Services to extend the state of emergency to provide financial assistance to residents.
Meanwhile, the city approved Edison’s retroactive permit application to install a temporary power pole at Ladera Linda Community Park to provide electricity to Seaview.
It also extended a moratorium on construction in the landslide zone until October 2025 and approved an emergency order to help residents in the landslide complex stabilize their homes and relocate temporary housing on the same site as their homes.
Following a statement from California Governor Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta released the consumer. Warning Wednesday inform residents about the risk of rising prices for housing, gas, food and other basic goods.
If consumers see that the value of an item is more than 10% higher than the price charged before the emergency was declared, Bonta said, they are encouraged to file a complaint. complain online.
