Power goes out multiple times in Westwood amid rains, flash flood warnings
Apartments on Ophir Drive are pictured. Parts of Westwood experienced power outages Thursday evening. (Zimo Li/Photo editor)
This post was updated Feb. 14 at 1:30 a.m.
Parts of Westwood experienced multiple power outages Thursday night.
Parts of Kelton Avenue and Ophir Drive were impacted by the outages, at least two of which were reported between 9 p.m. and 10 p.m. Thursday. The power remained out on Ophir Drive as of 10:50 p.m. Thursday.
A Los Angeles Department of Water and Power employee at the intersection of Kelton Avenue and Ophir Drive said around 9:50 p.m. that the department was working to determine the cause of the outage. Workers also blocked off the right turn from the east side of Ophir Drive onto Veteran Avenue.
The employee said around 11 p.m. they believed it would take approximately six hours for power to be restored.
Fourth-year chemistry student Dian Amini said the outages prevented him from being able to complete homework on his desktop computer.
“It’s definitely going to make it take a lot longer – I still got something due at 12,” Amini added.
A spokesperson for LADWP said the department was neither able to identify a cause for the power outages nor provide an estimated time of power restoration as of 10:28 p.m.
The outages follow a day of heavy rain, including severe thunderstorm and flash flood warnings placed on Los Angeles, according to the National Weather Service. The severe thunderstorm warning affecting parts of West LA remained in effect until 6:30 p.m., and the flash flood warning affecting Westwood remained in effect until 8 p.m.
Multiple outages on Saturday also affected parts of Westwood, including Glenrock Avenue, Levering Avenue and Midvale Avenue.
Crews are currently working on at least one outage that affected an estimated 1,771 people and is expected to be resolved later tonight, according to the LADWP website.
An LADWP crew appeared to be draining water from a storm drain at the intersection of Kelton Avenue and Ophir Drive around 10:45 p.m. A LADWP truck carrying a water tank was also seen parked on Veteran Avenue.
Contributing reports from Tyler Cho, Zimo Li and Dylan Winward, Daily Bruin staff.
