Thousands Lose Power in Point Dume

Thousands lost power Tuesday in the Point Dume area of Malibu when Southern California Edison equipment failed.

The outage, which at first impacted 2,242 customers, was reported about 1:15 p.m. Tuesday across the Point Dume area, according to Southern California Edison.

Crews worked overnight in a manhole near Zumirez Drive and Pacific Coast Highway and restored the power in the early morning hours, according to Edison.

"We had a failed component in a manhole on PCH," said Edison spokeswoman Lois Pitter Bruce of the cause of the outage.

The traffic signal at Pacific Coast Highway and Zumirez Drive was malfunctioning due to the power outage through about 9 a.m., according to the City of Malibu. Sheriff's deputies were sent to direct traffic through the intersection.

Following the initial outage, power was restored by 2:44 p.m. to 76 customers, leaving 2,166 customers without electricity between Heathercliff Road and Sea Vista Drive on Pacific Coast Highway. 

As of 5 p.m., 559 customers were without power, according to Edison's website.  However, at 9 p.m. 191 remained without power around Zumirez Drive and were not expected to get back their power until 6 a.m. Wednesday at the latest.

The original outage impacted customers from Heathercliff Road to the north, Sea Vista Drive to the south, Hillview Drive to the east and Pacific Coast Highway to the west. 

Initially, SCE reported that electricity would be restored to most customers by 3:30 p.m, but that was pushed to 6:30 p.m., and then early Wednesday morning, according to SCE's website.

Ann Lambert Vannoy, manager of Bank of Books at the Point Dume Village, said the power was out all afternoon, but the store remained open.

"All of a sudden we have to use our low tech battery powered machine to check out customers," Lambert Vannoy said. " ... It’s kind of like Little House and the Prairie and it’s kind of fun."

She said several people read books and hung out in the store, which had "ambient lighting coming in from the windows."

"It's not terrible," she said. "What's spooky is over at Pavilions. It's all dark and you can only hear the registers. They have the registers on a generator."