South LA residents frustrated as heat-fueled power outage leaves over 3,000 in dark

SOUTH LOS ANGELES () — Frustration grows in South Los Angeles as some residents face the heat without power, which they say went out Wednesday.

Neighbors are questioning what is going on after a sleepless night in the sweltering heat as temperatures rise into the 90s.

Without power for a full 24 hours, Jason packed up his son in the car to try and cool off. He’s one of over 3,000 people currently without power.

“It’s miserable. Couldn’t sleep last night,” he said.

The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power reported several outage spots throughout South L.A.

On 41st Street Place, just off South Main Street, cars navigate intersections without power as residents seek cooler options in the streets.

“Yesterday I was almost getting a heat stroke that’s how hot it was,” South L.A. resident Julie Maciel said.

Neighbors say they’ve called for help from LADWP several times.

“I even tried calling yesterday. Even in the middle of the night. I called. I was upset already and I was like ‘what’s going on?’ and I called. You can’t even get through,” Jason said.

The LADWP attributes the outage to the extreme heat and humidity, which has strained equipment.

Businesses like Carnicería Sanchez meat market were left completely in the dark and facing a massive product loss.

“It’s been terrible because we’ve been without power for the last two days and we have a lot of items that are stored cold and are refrigerated and now they’re potentially going to go bad including meats and whatever is here in the freezer,” said the businessowner in Spanish.

“We have a bunch of food in the fridge so all of that is gonna go to waste now,” said South L.A. resident Jalyn Erazo, who was left scrambling with her family to place food in an icebox to preserve it. “I’m sure all of that is gonna be thrown out, which is very unfortunate.”

It’s unknown when the power will be restored.

The LADWP urged customers Thursday to continue conserving energy as extreme heat and humidity drive high electricity demand across the city. The utility company said more than 90 field crews have been deployed across the city to respond to power outages. Crews worked overnight to restore power to neighborhoods affected by localized outages, prioritizing the oldest outages first.

They also encouraged residents to visit city cooling centers to reduce their reliance on air conditioning.

Power outages can be reported at 1-800-342-5397 or at ladwp.com/Outages.

City News Service contributed to this report