Copyright Joliet, IL Patch
A collapsed power pole led to a full day of flashing red lights and road closures on the Temecula/Murrieta border. Here's what happened. MURRIETA, CA — A downed power pole led to a traffic nightmare on Murrieta roadways and left over 250 residents and businesses without power Thursday. Southern California Edison crews spent the majority of the day fixing the downed pole and restoring power to the area, which was not anticipated to be fully restored until after 3 a.m. Friday. Shortly before 9:45 a.m., the pole collapsed near Murrieta Hot Springs and Winchester roads for as yet unknown reasons, according to Murrieta Police Capt. Jeremy Durrant said. There was no collision, Durrant told Patch, but the downed pole caused the road closure. The traffic lights at that intersection, as well as the traffic light at nearby Technology and Trent Jones at Winchester Road, were left without power. As the Murrieta Police reported the outage, residents shared their experience on social media, warning each other to avoid the area if possible. "The signals were out at Technology/Trent Jones, as well," one commenter on social media wrote. "Going north, the signal was out as well," another wrote. "Good thing I'm not leaving home today!" another said. SCE work crews closed the southbound lane of Winchester for over four hours, resulting in heavy traffic delays through the area. Those delays remained in place as of 2:30 p.m. "Repairs are underway, and workers may be outside of the affected area," SCE said. "A total of 271 homes are affected by the outage, caused by equipment problems." Patch has reached out to SCE for further clarification on the incident and repairs, and will update this report when that is received.
