Los Altos power outage

Los Altos power outage on Thursday

A local electrical "switch" problem at an electrical substation caused a power outage for about 1 hour on Thursday 3/17/16 to the Abbeyfield Neighborhood of Los Altos. Over 1130 homes and one business was affected. 

AT 7:12 PM, The lights flashed off then on, then off and stayed out for an hour in the neighborhoods west of  Bellflower to Atherton and northeast of Atherton to approximately the eastside of Greenbrier to the southside of Abbeyfield. 

The only local business affected with a power loss was the Los Altos TacoBeach at 2099 N Bellflower Blvd.

The power to businesses on both sides of the Bellflower Blvd. in the South Los Altos Center did not go out.  

While the outage was inconvenient,  the power outage also completely shut down the traffic light at Abbeyfield/Britton and Bellflower Blvd. With no flashing lights because of the complete power outage dozens of near accidents occurred because cars (especially traveling northbound on Bellflower)  did not stop at the lightless intersection as required by law.  Near misses of people crossing Bellflower and cars exiting the South Los Altos Center at Britton; and exiting the neighborhood at Abbeyfield were observed by neighbors as well as workers and patrons of Taco Beach.

Councilman Daryl Supernaw took to posting on Nextdoor with an update and warning about the traffic light situation. He posted:

Traffic signal out at Bellflower & Stearns... use extra caution. Power outage in the area southwest of the intersection. SCE crews are on scene and LBPD has been notified.

A long time neighborhood resident reported when they called 911 to report the dangerous condition at the traffic light, the police dispatcher stated that they were aware of the situation.  A police patrol went by the traffic light impacted area twice, but did not stop as cars continued to buzz at high speeds through the intersection.