Rainstorm Triggers Electric Outages in SM, Shutting Down Retailers

LOS ANGELES–About 2,000 office buildings, businesses and homes in Santa Monica still had no power at noon today, nearly 36 hours after a bizarre series of rain-related explosions at an electrical substation blacked-out several city blocks.

The 2,000 customers still without power were in a two-block radius of Lincoln Boulevard and Colorado Avenue, where water from the Southland’s first major storm of the season soaked into electrical equipment in pre-dawn hours yesterday and triggered an ear-splitting explosion. The blast sent green flames shooting from a manhole cover and shattered several windows, injuring two and knocking out power to 16,000 customers.

Though most office buildings and other customers had regained their power by late last night, officials at Southern California Edison Co. say power won’t be fully restored to the area until Friday evening, at the earliest.

Among those that were forced to shut down yesterday were several businesses inside Third Street Promenade and the giant mall owned by locally based shopping center REIT Macerich Cos. Most of those businesses were operating at full capacity again by this morning.