Power restored at North Hollywood senior living center after nearly five days
After nearly five days, hundreds of seniors living in North Hollywood finally have power again.
Magnolia Towers, a senior living complex with more than 200 units, has not had power since late Friday, leaving many living by candlelight and struggling to adapt. More than 300 people live in the building.
A backup generator has distributed power to common areas of the complex, including the lobby, elevators, group-living areas and hallways.
Units remained in the dark Tuesday morning without power to refrigerators, electric stoves or heating sources, forcing residents to resort to unusual measures like charging their phones and various items using outlets in the hallways and all but living in common areas that still have electricity.
"No one knows," said one woman whose mother lives at the complex when asked when power could be restored. "Everyone's worried. All of them are adults — seniors. Lots of them moved to their kids' houses, but who knows, it's a huge building. Some of them are very lonely, they have no place to go."
Those close enough to a hallway outlet have plugged-in space heaters and coffee pots to stay warm. At least two dozen people left the complex to stay with family and friends as crews try to restore power.
"My apartment is very cold," said resident Larissa Kirakosyan. "I have two, three blankets I put on."
Los Angeles Department of Water and Power officials arrived at the complex Tuesday afternoon to restore power as volunteers prepped lunch for the seniors in need.
"The members have been working together to watch out for each other as they always do at a co-op," said the complex's spokesperson Darla Huttinger. "We have some volunteers working in the kitchen right now, getting ready to provide some meals this afternoon for those who want to come down and have something to eat."
LADWP had to shut off the power completely to remove the blown transformer believed to have caused the outage. However, crews were able to restore utilities at about 6:15 p.m.
Thousands of Angelenos remain without power in the wake of the powerful winter storm.
At the height of the storm, more than 140,000 homes had lost electricity. At last word, there are presently 10,000 LADWP customers impacted by the power outage, according to the LADWP.
