Commercial Flights Resume at John Wayne Airport
Commercial Flights Resume at John Wayne Airport
by Contributing Editor
John Wayne Airport resumed all commercial flights Saturday, ending a full operational stop due to a power outage that affected more than 28,000 Southern California Edison customers at its peak.
Airport officials said the flights resumed at about 6:30 a.m.
The outage was reported just after 7 p.m. Friday at the airport in an unincorporated area of Orange County surrounded by Irvine, Newport Beach and Costa Mesa, and prompted all inbound commercial flights to be diverted and all outbound flights canceled.
Airport officials tweeted at 9 p.m. that “All Terminal power slowly coming back online. General Aviation flights unaffected and Air Traffic Control Tower is open. The full operational stop is in effect until 7 a.m. (today). For flights departing (today), please check with your airline for more information.”
At the height of the outage, 28,028 SCE customers, mostly in Irvine and Newport Beach, were affected, according to SCE’s Lois Pitter Bruce.
As of 8 a.m., 10,500 customers were offline, SCE spokesman Ron Gales said.
“We don’t have an estimate restoration time, but crews are working around the clock,” Gales said. “Some customers should expect to be without service for a while.”
The cause of the outage was a substation fire that forced it to be de-energized. The fire has been extinguished, Pitter Bruce said. No injuries were reported.
“I urge residents who have power to conserve energy as Southern California Edison works to resolve this issue,” said Irvine Mayor Christina Shea.
The Orange County Fire Authority tweeted that the vault fire was near Jamboree Road and Michelson Drive.
Irvine City Councilman Anthony Kuo tweeted that about 100 residents from an apartment building on Palatine were temporarily evacuated due to smoke.
A care and reception center was set up at Northwood High School in Irvine and was available as a cooling center for those who need shelter, according to the Irvine Police Department.
Residents were urged to exercise caution during the outage by using flashlights and treating all intersections as four-way stops, Pitter Bruce said.
As of Saturday morning, 17 intersections in Irvine are affected by the outage, down from 50 on Friday, the Irvine Police Department reported.
“I am closely monitoring the situation with the power outage. I have been in contact with Police Chief Mike Hamel and other key staff,” Shea said. “The City Council will provide whatever support is needed to our public safety officials.”
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All credit goes to Contributing Editor
Originally published on https://mynewsla.com
