A massive power outage in Ventura, which began at approximately 10:15 a.m. and ended at roughly 11:55 a.m., caused stores and offices all over the city to suddenly close their doors to customers.

Many homes and apartment complexes lost power as well, due to an unknown problem, including the entire Ventura Del Sol apartment complex along Telegraph Rd.

Stores along major roads such as Telegraph and Victoria briefly displayed closed signs in their windows; their employees and managers did not know how long it would take for the stores to reopen.

“Everybody’s power went out for about an hour and a half. But the refrigerators will stay cool for at least three hours,” said the manager of Brio Bake Shop who asked to remain anonymous. 

Several customers chose to wait outside the doors for the power to come back on, obviously annoyed with the inconvenience. Various employees lethargically wandered around the stores, their jobs temporarily stunted by the dilemma.

Southern California Edison, the company who experienced the outage, is attempting to fix the problem that is continuing to leave some homes and businesses without power. However, the company does not yet know what happened.

“We currently have 4,900 customers without service, but we don’t have a cause yet.  It could be numerous things…we haven’t been able to confirm what caused it,” said Diane, who is representative # 3611 for the power company. Due to company policy, representatives do not give out their last name.

Customers of the company who called in to report their lack of power were asked for further information, including whether they witnessed any loud explosions, smelled anything strange, or knew of any unreported traffic accidents in the area.

The manager and only staff member on duty at Dippin’ Dots, an ice cream shop affected by the outage, frantically tried to keep the store cool with fans and a portable generator. He also wished to remain anonymous but was relieved, to say the least, when the power finally came back on.

Photo: Many local businesses were forced to temporarily close due to the large power outage that hit Ventura this morning. Photo by Chrissy Springer of The Foothill Dragon Press.