Updated 1:45 p.m. July 16, 2014
About a thousand San Diego Gas & Electric customers still were without power Wednesday afternoon, a situation that officials said was due to a ruptured metallic balloon.
The Mylar balloon struck power lines in City Heights, sparking the outage that left about 4,800 surrounding homes and businesses without power.
The blackout hit in stages over a roughly half-hour period beginning shortly after 10:30 a.m., affecting neighborhoods in the immediate area as well as south toward Chollas Creek and Oak Park, according to SDG&E.
Metallic-coated balloons hit overhead lines at Polk and Van Dyke avenues, causing one of them to overheat to the point that it ruptured, SDG&E spokeswoman Allison Zaragoza said.
By 1:45 p.m., an SDG&E online outage map estimated that about 1,100 customers still were without power.
Service was expected to be restored to all the affected areas by 3:30 p.m., SDG&E reported.
– City News Service