The winds were amazing! Even well maintained infrastructure with a good safety margin wasn't going to have enough safety margin for that. However, years ago one circuit's cables in my area were moved underground. That circuit stayed up when the others here failed. It's expensive to bury the wires, but that expense might be a better bet in the long term than maintaining an inherently vulnerable pole network.

If I had only one thing to tell Edison, it would be for the execs and all the field crews to take a crash course in communication. The crews did not have the same info as HQ, the info posted online was inaccurate, and reverse 911 was not activated.

I would tell Edison how much I was inconvenienced. How dare they not be better prepared. Even though we have never had winds this powerful in the SGV in my lifetime. I think the should have known better. Why don't the hire psychics? Who do they think they are using old looking wood poles? Their poles break when giant trees fall into them. I even had to light candles at night, and pollute the environment. I lost all the food in my freezer because I was too lazy to buy ice.

But seriously I would say thank you to SCE. I did in fact say thank you to many of the field crews. I think they did a great job. My house was without power for five nights. We got to check our emergency supplies and see how we would cope with a disaster. I know that Pasadena got hit hard also. The Pasadena Power crews were busy as well. Al in all I was happy that it did not take longer.

I filed a claim with SCE for the food I discarded. They ignored the claim so I filed a complaint with the PUC. Had SCE communicated better than "your power will be restored soon," I would have taken my food to a friend or family member home refrigerator unaffected by the outage. By the time I realized that power would not be restored soon, it was too late for my food which had reached unsafe temperatures.

Whatever incompetence might have been involved on the part of So Cal. Edison, it is again, a good time to remind people to be prepared with a generator, extra canned food, water, batteries, propane heater, coleman stove, ice chests, extra gas, etc., - essentially basic camping equipment. WTSHTF, you cannot count on City, County or State 'officials' to take care of you, rather, you have to take care of yourself and your own, by being prepared! It was truly amazing driving around after the power was out in both La Canada, Altadena and Pasadena (4 days) to see how many homes had no generator power or lights (along with no street lighting). A good 3500 watt generator can easily power an entire house with extra watts to spare and costs around $500.

Ok, I've heard enough whining and hand wringing. Yeah, our power was out for days. Yeah, it was inconvenient. We sucked it up and went out and bought a generator at Harbor Freight all the way down in Lakewood. They had several while the Pasadena store was naturally out. We bought bags of ice and put them in the fridge to save most of our food. Rather than sit around and fret and wait for someone else, be it government or SCE, we took care of ourselves. Every day I saw crews working to clear trees, then restring wires. Face it, anything of this magnitude takes time to fix. This was hardly of the magnitude of Katrina or the earthquake/tsunami in Japan, so stop whining about how 'tough" it was. Did SCE make some mistakes? If what I hear and read is that no one told you personally just when your power would be on, that's a pretty minor problem. Truthfully, everyone had more important things to do. The only thing I wish had happened is at major intersections where the signals were out, the police/sheriffs should have had people directing traffic to smooth the flow. That's not SCE's job. May be city/county officials could have taken on more responsibility and stepped it up. Makes me wonder what you folk will do in a REAL disaster!

I'm not going to spend $500 on a generator. Ridiculous! Generators pollute the environment. They run on gas and are noisy. What is this survivalist nonsense talk? We live in a big city, not Montana! This was not an earthquake! (I am prepared for that!) What I wasn't prepared for is SCE's incompetance! SCE is a state mandated monopoly that is required to provide electricity, required to have an emergency plan in place, and it is required to maintain its equipment--including replacing frayed wires and trimming or removing trees that are growing into the wires. SCE fell down on the job in these areas. But that's okay people, live in your fantasy world that SCE did nothing wrong and this is our fault for not being prepared. Geez.

@ Jill and others:
The claim I submitted to SCE has nothing to do with being prepared for an emergency. I was prepared! I'm ready! I have food and supplies for two weeks--with no refrigeration. I had no problem with no electricity for five days.

@ Jill, read your homeowners insurance policy: the claim has to exceed the deductible amount before the insurance company will pay! A 72 hour window? Where did that come from? Too short!

@ Laura. Thanks for the info.

SCE worked from the source side out to the end user side. This is the only logical way to bring power back to as many is possible in the least time. If you repair lines in one neighborhood but supply is cut off closer to the source it does no good to anybody. As for generators polluting, so too does burning gas in your home for heat or wood in a fireplace. That is a ridiculous statement. As far as living in a big city and not Montana! I would rather live in Montana when a huge disaster strikes! It will be pure mayhem when disaster strikes. There will be millions not prepared. Starving people will do almost anything to survive. I think that looking for a payday when disaster strikes is pathetic. You should be thankful that life is back to normal for now.

@ Christopher. Looking for a payday? Are you kidding me? I am a PAYING customer of SCE. SCE is mandated by the state to provide service, have an emergency plan in place, keep its equipment in good repair, and communicate with its customers. SCE fell down on the job so I have a legal claim. San Diego gas and Sempra energy were sued by the insurance companies in San Diego for their negligence by not repairing power lines that may have led to California’s Witch, Guejito and Rice fires in 2007. It's the same principle. This has nothing to do with asking for handouts. Your insinuation that I am a looking for a handout is offensive.

My family was without power for five days. As I have said before here, Katrina was a big wake up call for me. I don't live in hurricane country, but I do live in earthquake country. Lived through the last big one here, and in San Francisco. Those pale by comparison to what the expected big quake will be.
I don't want to depend on ANY agencies or buracracy, because over and over again that proves to be foolish, I decided to be self sufficient. And no I am not a survivalist.
My family has enough food, water, medicine, first aid supplies to take care of us for a month. And we have a generator, maybe the greatest money saving device I own.
I spent 500 to save 3000 in food. We didn't power our house with it, we didn't watch TV with it, we ran it periodically for about 20 minutes, to keep safe temps in our fridge and dedicated freezer.
You can get one on Craig's List for $100.
Earthquake country.

I have an upright freezer. In it, is a 6 month supply of meat, a years supply of frozen home grown tomatoes, strawberries, blueberries, peppers, peaches, beans. There is also home made pasta, tomato sauce, there is bread, puff pastry, soups, chicken and vegetable stock, biscuits, pie dough, cookie dough, butter, chocolate, herbs.
Essentially food for my family for a year.
So, yes, about $3000 - not counting the labor involved of growing, processing and cooking.

I agree about having $3,000 in food. People who aren't married and do not have children have no idea what some families do in regards to buying food in bulk to save money, freeze and store many of their food items. So yes, it's an accurate number, sorry if you don't believe it but it's true my dear. That's only for a family of 4, can you imagine if it were more? That was my biggest beef in the whole nightmare, losing our families food supply that we had so painstakingly ($$$) put together... ;(

The generator cost $90. I relied on my own resources. It was enough to get the fridge going for a bit. This is not Survivalist Nonsense, this is common sense. BTW, next time, get some dry ice and load up the freezer. That will save a lot of food. As for directing traffic, you guys sure weren't in evidence down here in Sub-rovia. As usual.

SCE made obvious errors that MUST not be ignored. But I don't have a lot of confidence that the matter will be addressed in a fruitful manner. Did you know that after that shooting at the Irwindale location, the security at other local SCE branches was stepped up, but in the following manner: Prior to the shooting, all employees gained access to the building with a swipe of their I.D. cards. After the shooting, from managers on down, security personnel now must visualize that the badge matches the person wearing it when entering the building. For executives, the entire floor they're on is virtually locked down when the top brass is in. The execs are extra-protected. Keep in mind that the gunmen targeted his two MANAGERS.

How to Make Friends and Influence People, hmm, SCE?

Would you like food stamps with your generator?