Bird Knocks Out Power for 24K Customers in Mid-City: SDG&E

A bird flew into a San Diego Gas & Electric substation Tuesday afternoon, knocking out power to about 24,000 customers in the Mid-City area, according to the utility. 

The power went out at 11:57 a.m., according to SDG&E spokesperson Denice Menard and hours later, about 11,00 customers remained without electricity.

By 9:40 a.m., SDG&E had restored power to all but 41 customers but not before the long-term outage forced schools in the area to cancel classes. 

We are working to restore power to approx. 24,000 customers in the Mid-City and College area after a bird made contact with equipment feeding one of our substations. Thank you for your patience as we work to turn power back on as quickly and safely as possible #poweroutage

— SDG&E (@SDGE) November 12, 2019

SDSU decided to cancel all classes on Tuesday, and said it would delay the start of classes Wednesday until 10 a.m. The outage was also impacting water supply on campus, the alert said.

The Calpulli Health Center, Conrad Prebys Aztec Student Union, Love Library, Little Theatre, Student Services and several other facilities were impacted in the outage.

Student Chase Ishino lives in Tenochca Hall and said the bathrooms were not working, the restaurants were closed and nothing was working.

POWER OUT: Bit of a traffic mess in Mid City/Talmadge area as the power goes off in spots. ~24,000 without power after it seems a bird came in contact with a substation per @SDGE. #NBC7 pic.twitter.com/26klaQNa9i

— Danny Freeman (@DannyEFreeman) November 12, 2019

The affected communities included Rolando, E. State College, W. State College, La Mesa, City Heights, Chollas Creek, Oak Park, Kensington, Talmadge, and City Heights, according to SDG&E's power outage map.

Power was also out for at Carver, Euclid, Fay and Ibarra elementary schools, Mann Middle, Crawford High, Iftin Charter and the Language Academy, according to the San Diego Unified School District.

Power at some schools was restored just before 2 p.m. 

SDG&E is reporting several neighborhods impacted by the power outage: Rolando/ E State College/ La Mesa/ City Heights/ Chollas Creek/ Oak Park. SDG&E is assessing the outage to determine the cause, reported at 11:57 a.m. If you are in need of assistance, please call 911.

— San Diego State University (@SDSU) November 12, 2019

No other information was available.

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