Residents go another day without power

Public Health Department to check on Canyon View Estates as outage hits fourth day, heavy rain looms

Public Health Department officials are expected to check on the well-being of more than 200 residents of Canyon View Estates this weekend as the power outage enters its fourth day and as expected heavy rains move into the area.

Since Wednesday, residents of the mobile home park in Canyon Country have been without electricity.

“We are going to ensure the health and well-being of these people are intact,” Erick Matos, of the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, said Friday.

The welfare checks would tell public health officials what residents need — aside from obviously needing electricity.

“First things first,” he said. “We’re going to see what they need.”

Staffers at Supervisor Kathryn Barger’s office elicited the help of the Public Health Department after learning of the protracted power outage.

“We are deploying a team of public health officials to assure the health and wellness of the residents,” Barger spokesman Chris Perry said Friday.

County officials in talks with city of

Santa Clarita counterparts initially tried to elicit help from the Red Cross.

“We have all these people facing horrible incoming weather and, ultimately, health risk scenarios,” City Councilwoman Laurene Weste said Friday.

“I feel badly for them,” she said, noting she tried Friday to get help for residents from the Red Cross.

Red Cross officials said they are keeping close tabs on the Canyon View Estates outage, but the organization’s resources in the area are stretched.

On Friday, almost all of the local Red Cross resources were being assembled to help victims of the Woolsey Fire, who face the prospect of mudslides with the incoming rain.

“We’re pretty stretched but we are not necessarily maxed out,” said one Red Cross official Friday.

Barb Mariscal, who represents the Red Cross in the Santa Clarita Valley, said she was in touch with Donna Nuzzi, Santa Clarita emergency services supervisor.

“We are going to have Southern California Edison provide the city with updates,” Mariscal said, noting her office has not yet received a formal request for help. “If any further action is needed, she (Nuzzi) will call us.”

Edison, meanwhile, has only one customer in the Canyon View Estates area

— the property management company that owns and operates Canyon View Estates and its hillside solar panel field, which normally supplies power.

“We had our troubleman inspect the location and SCE equipment checked OK,” Edison spokesman Robert Laffoon-Villegas said Friday.

“The troubleman indicated that the problem is in the primary metering cabinet on the customer side of the meter — needing an electrician to address the issue. Customer would be responsible for that.”

The Edison “customer” is Managing Partner Kerry Seidenglanz.

Chris Hammerstad, spokeswoman for Canyon View Estates, said Friday afternoon that Seidenglanz was preparing an official statement on the efforts taken to restore power.

As of 6 p.m., no statement was received by The Signal.

The only official update on repairs came from Edison.

“The troubleman that was sent out yesterday replaced the fuses on our equipment so everything would be ready to go once the customer completed their repairs,” Laffoon-Billegas said.

“In terms of the latest information on the outage — since it’s on the customer’s equipment, we do not have visibility to the work their electrician conducted. You would have to reach out to the community’s management to determine their status and what repairs were completed.”