BRIEFLY

-- Stefanie Frith

Ten people in custody at the Newport Beach Police Station had to be

transferred to the Huntington Beach Police Station during a planned power

outage that took place from 11 p.m. Friday to 6 a.m. Saturday in Newport

Beach, police said.

The power outage, which Southern California Edison has been planning

for a few weeks, affected the area between San Joachim Hills Road and

Santa Barbara Drive. Sgt. Mike McDermott said this mostly affected the

police and fire stations, as well as a Chevron station nearby.

Because state law says that there is to be no one in a jail where

there is no air-conditioning, Newport Beach police had to transfer the 10

people in custody to Huntington Beach via a bus, said McDermott.

“It went very smooth,” McDermott said. “It showed us that we have to

fix certain things . . . some minor bugs. But now we will be better

prepared.”

During the power outage, McDermott said that the computer systems did

not work the way they had thought they would on their emergency power

generators, therefore affecting the phone system as well.

“The phones are connected to the computers and they were acting kinda

goofy,” he said. “People could call in, but internal lines were a little

off. It was a good drill for us.”