SDG&E crew working on a power pole
An SDG&E crew works on a power pole. Photo courtesy of the company

Power outages left tens of thousands of utility customers without electrical service Tuesday in the Chollas Creek district, City Heights, the College area, Kensington, Oak Park, Rolando and Talmadge.

The first blackout, affecting roughly 24,000 customers, hit shortly before noon, when a bird made contact with transmission equipment at a utility substation, according to San Diego Gas & Electric.

More than a dozen buildings at San Diego State University were impacted by the outage, according to SDSU public affairs officials, prompting cancellation of all classes for the remainder of the day.

A second blackout struck in the same general area about 2 1/2 hours later, the utility reported. By then, crews had restored power to about 11,000 of the initially affected customers. The cause of the later outage remained under investigation Tuesday evening, according to SDG&E.

As of 6 p.m., roughly 6,400 homes and businesses affected by the blackouts remained without electrical service. All of those customers were expected to be back on line by 8:30 p.m., the utility advised.

SDSU facilities that lost power included the Adams Humanities, Communication, Dramatic Arts, Education & Business Administration, Exercise & Nutritional Science, Music and Student Services buildings, as well as Conrad Prebys Aztec Student Union, ENS Annex, the Little Theater, Love Library, Peterson Gym, the Transit Center and parking garages 1 and 4.

The first outage also knocked out electrical service to the following San Diego Unified School District campuses: Carver, Euclid, Fay, Hardy and Ibarra elementary schools; Mann Middle School; Crawford High School; Iftin Charter School; and the Language Academy.

Updated at 8 p.m., Tuesday, Nov. 12, 2019

— City News Service