Tangled balloons black out nearly 4,000 homes, businesses

Deepa Bharath and Jennifer Kho

COSTA MESA -- Metallic balloons caught in power lines Thursday morning

left 3,962 homes and businesses without power for about half an hour,

officials said.

The brisk Santa Ana winds blew the balloons, causing them to become

tangled in the lines at Canyon Drive, north of Banning Avenue, said Paul

Klein, spokesman for Southern California Edison.

The outage that began at 9 a.m. lasted between 20 and 30 minutes in

most areas, he said.

“The balloons are a constant problem for us,” he said. “They can cause

some serious trouble.”

Affected communities included those areas north of 18th Street, south

of Adams Avenue, east of Brookhurst Street and west of Harbor Boulevard,

Klein said.

The Waldorf School of Orange County, a private institution on Canyon

Drive, was most affected because it was close to the tangled lines.

Students and teachers managed without power for three hours.

“It was quite an adventure,” said Debbie McCormick, the school’s

development coordinator. “Computers were out, and we went back to the

good old days of paper and pen.”

Students were still able to work in their classrooms, she said.

At Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf on 19th Street, the power outage brought

more people into the shop, backing up and causing people to wait a little

longer for their coffee.

“I’m just waiting,” said Eric Drageset, who came to the shop when the

power turned off. “I work on computers, making video games, so nothing

can be done until the power comes back on.”

At 24 Hour Fitness, people were evacuated after the outage lasted

longer than five minutes, canceling an aerobics class and cutting

people’s workouts short.

Armand Castellanos, a Costa Mesa resident, was doing a leg workout and

said he was frustrated with the interruption.

“I went home, got a good night’s sleep, planned this and they kick you

out,” he said.

Mark Wright, also a visitor to the gym, said he almost got into an

accident at Harbor Boulevard and 19th Street because the traffic lights

were out.

“Everyone was confused,” he said. “I was halfway through the

intersection when a car went right through, not realizing it was red.”

The wind did not seriously affect life in the rest of the community

but did make its presence felt.

At John Wayne Airport, airplanes flew north instead of south -- the

direction in which they usually take off. There were no wind-related

flight delays or cancellations, spokeswoman Yolanda Perez said.

Santa Ana winds are somewhat unusual for this time of the year, said

Stan Wasowski, a forecaster for the National Weather Service in San

Diego.

“Santa Ana winds usually hit in October or November,” said Wasowski.

“But having them early May is not unheard of.”

Winds reached 35 mph at John Wayne Airport, and a wind advisory issued

Thursday morning was canceled by 2 p.m.

Wasowski said the winds are expected to diminish by Friday morning.