In the wake of two major storms hitting the Imperial Irrigation District service area on Sunday, Aug. 24, and torrential rains and winds brought into the area the afternoon and evening of Monday, Aug. 25, the California public power utility has been working around the clock to return power service to customers, it said on Aug. 27.
During the peak of the storms, which occurred on Monday afternoon, more than 8,459 customers were impacted for more than 5 minutes. IID has restored power to 8,311 customers, the bulk within hours. As of 3:35 p.m. on Wednesday, 148 customers were out of power and will be restored as soon as possible.
“The reach of the storm was quite extensive,” said IID General Manager Jamie Asbury. “Nearly every corner of our service area was impacted. We want to thank our customers for their patience as we attend to all their calls, and please know that we are out in full force working to bring everyone back online as quickly as possible.”
Bringing customers back online continues to be the District’s first priority.
IID has responded with an “all hands on deck” approach, putting all of its Power Department personnel on the job, working 24 hours a day. All of IID’s Imperial and Coachella Valley line and equipment crews have been rolling out to each outage site; however, in some cases, accessibility has been difficult as dirt roads, soaked by rain, have delayed some restoration efforts.
The District has onboarded additional crews from outside the service territory to expedite restoration. Crews have also been delivering new poles to sites where poles went down. The storm knocked down 302 power poles in the Imperial Valley. Staff is also bringing in needed machinery to the sites and working with IID’s Water Department to clean up areas to gain access.
IID also remains in constant contact with the Imperial County Fire Department and its Emergency Services Office, as well as California’s Office of Emergency Services.
In water matters, the District lowered all main canals and individual laterals in anticipation of runoff water from the storm, which it was able to handle.
