City Council to Hear Comprehensive Report on Impact of Heat Wave

The City Council on Monday will hear a comprehensive report on the impacts of the recent heat wave.

The item will be the first item on Monday’s agenda when the public meeting begins at 6 p.m.

The soaring heat reached temperatures well over 100 degrees.

Last Friday, Pasadena Water and Power was forced to institute rolling blackouts after temperatures reached 107 degrees Fahrenheit.

The intentionally engineered rolling blackout halted the delivery of electricity for short, non-overlapping periods of time to different parts of the city.

In other words, although about 8,800 people experienced a power blackout, they did not experience it all at once. Different areas were shut down for short periods of time and then when the power was restored in that area, another portion of the City was shut down.

In a statement, Pasadena Water and Power said that the extremely high heat caused an equipment failure at the power plant shortly after 4:00 p.m.

During the blackouts, the Pasadena Fire Department responded to three elevator rescues, seven fire alarms and two transformer fires. It is not known if any of these incidents was related to the outages. No structure fires were reported.

Most customers only experienced a one hour outage.

On Pasadena Now’s Facebook page, many complimented Pasadena Water and Power’s handling of the emergency last week.

“As a resident who was affected, the response and support that PWP supplied was EXCELLENT,” S. Deming wrote.

“PWP is vastly better than Edison. You’d be waiting days for Edison AND they don’t respond. PWP is pretty responsive, I’ve called in the past, a human answered, gave me an estimate of the outage & were pretty right on,” D.P. Wetrich commented. “Thank you line crews!!!”

L. Brewer pointed out “remember it’s our responsibility to be prepared for disaster including power outages.”

The comprehensive report will include representatives from the Pasadena Water and Power, Public Works and the City’s health department.

Mayor Victor Gordo announced last Monday that the City Council would be holding the discussion.

“Given the current situation, it is crucial for us to understand and address these challenges comprehensively,” Gordo said. “We need to ensure that both the Council and the community are well-informed and prepared.”

The briefing aims to provide both the Council and the public with insights into the heat wave’s impact, including the recent blackout in Pasadena.