Patrons, at Linko’s Cocktail Lounge in Colton, shoot pool by the light of windows Thursday, August 31, 2017, following a power outage. One of the players said, “We don’t have power but we have cold beer!” More than 50,000 homes and businesses throughout the Inland Empire are without power Friday morning. Some of the outages are due to equipment failure, increased use and storm issues. (Staff photo by Rick Sforza, The Sun/SCNG)

A closed sign hangs in the window of a Boost Mobile store on Thursday, August 31, 2017 in Colton, Ca. The citywide power outage also led several Colton Joint Unified School District campuses to cancel classes Thursday morning. (Micah Escamilla, The Sun/SCNG)

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Captain Santos, from Colton Fire Department, speaks with the media regarding details of a citywide power outage on Thursday, August 31, 2017 in Colton, Ca. The power outage, caused by lightning hitting an Edison substation, led several Colton Joint Unified School District campuses to cancel classes Thursday morning. (Micah Escamilla, The Sun/SCNG)

Signs hang outside of Colton High School after a citywide power outage caused schools to be closed on Thursday, August 31, 2017 in Colton, Ca. (Micah Escamilla, The Sun/SCNG)

Gina Saady, owner of House of Booze on Valley Blvd near 9th was one of the few businesses open in Colton on Thursday.



The Lawrence Hutton Community Center has a cooling center offering water and a shady place to sit during a power outage on Thursday, August 31, 2017 in Colton, Ca. The citywide outage also led several Colton Joint Unified School District campuses to cancel classes Thursday morning. (Micah Escamilla, The Sun/SCNG)

Patrons, at Linko’s Cocktail Lounge in Colton, shoot pool by the light of windows Thursday, August 31, 2017, following a power outage. One of the players said, “We don’t have power but we have cold beer!” More than 50,000 homes and businesses throughout the Inland Empire are without power Friday morning. Some of the outages are due to equipment failure, increased use and storm issues. (Staff photo by Rick Sforza, The Sun/SCNG)



Patrons, at Linko’s Cocktail Lounge in Colton, shoot pool by the light of windows Thursday, August 31, 2017, following a power outage. One of the players said, “We don’t have power but we have cold beer!” More than 50,000 homes and businesses throughout the Inland Empire are without power Friday morning. Some of the outages are due to equipment failure, increased use and storm issues. (Staff photo by Rick Sforza, The Sun/SCNG)

The school day was cancelled at Colton High School Thursday, August 31, 2017 after the city lost power. More than 50,000 homes and businesses throughout the Inland Empire are without power Friday morning. Some of the outages are due to equipment failure, increased use and storm issues. (Staff photo by Rick Sforza, The Sun/SCNG)



On the day when temperatures in Colton were expected to hit 107 degrees, a lightning strike caused 50,000 homes and businesses in Colton to lose power, causing businesses to close and forcing the closure of the school district’s classes.

By 5 p.m., a majority of customers were back up and all city services were in operation.

Elsewhere in the Inland region, Southern California Edison reported thousands of customers without power from Grand Terrace to Rialto to Corona.

The outage in Colton began about 6:30 a.m. Authorities initially guessed the outage would last eight or 10 hours.

The lightning struck an Edison substation that the Colton Electric Utility uses to essentially power the city, said Colton fire Capt. David Santos. Colton increased staffing to deal with the outage.

Citywide power outage. District office and sites affected. We will keep everyone posted as we get more information. — Colton Joint Unified (@ColtonJUSD) August 31, 2017

Conserve energy — and water

Officials also urged residents to conserve water – as the outage also knocked the city’s 13 water wells offline, said Dave Kolk, utilities director for the city.

While they were down, city officials purchased water from neighboring municipalities until service was restored, he said. As of noon, all but one well was up and running, he said. However, he cautioned residents to conserve both electricity and water.

“Now as the power is coming back we’re asking everyone to conserve,” Kolk said following a noon press conference. “We still have to be very careful over the next three hours.”

Colton has its own electric company, Colton Electric Utility, which owns and operates its own power plant and four substations. It serves about 16,000 residential customers and 2,500 commercial and industrial customers, according to its website.

The city opened the Lawrence Hutton Community Center as a cooling center. There was no electricity at the center, but it felt at least 10 degrees cooler inside, where about three dozen people had gathered just before 11 a.m.

Riverside County Animal Services opened a cool center for Colton residents and their pets at 6851 Van Buren Blvd. in Jurupa Valley. Pet owners were required to stay with their animals.

In the initial stages of the power outage, traffic signals were blinking red. In some intersections, there were stop signs.

‘Trying to stay cool’

By 9 a.m., pockets of power were returning. And by 10 a.m., authorities said they had restored power to Arrowhead Regional Medical Center and the west end. By noon, power had been returned to the north end of the city, Santos said.

Customers whose power returned were asked to conserve.

Nevertheless, 10 schools in the Colton Joint Unified School District, including San Salvador preschool, Rogers and Grant elementary schools, Colton Middle School and Colton High School, remained closed. The district also noted that classes are expected to resume Friday.

Among the facilities within the outage area? Arrowhead Regional Medical Center. Power at the hospital, however, remained on, said Justine Rodriguez in an emailed statement.

The medical center is self-sufficient in such incidents, she said, with a water storage tank on site and generators that can provide power for four days, she said, adding that the hospital has bottled water and food stored on site for emergencies, she said.

Some residents made the best of the outage.

Karina Acosta and her family had just come home from buying two coolers of ice when the power kicked back on.

“What a relief,” she said pulling a blue rolling cooler behind her.

If the power hadn’t been restored, they planned to stay in Rialto with family.

Colton resident Limones, who lives on Grand Avenue, said in a Facebook message on Thursday morning her family had planned to take showers to stay cool.

“My family is here with me, we are just trying to stay cool,” she said. “It’s getting tougher though, because the temperature is slowly climbing.”

Her power returned just after 10 a.m.

Many businesses – including a Starbucks and the Hair & Company Barber Shop – closed their doors.

Other businesses, like the House of Booze on Valley Boulevard near 9th Street, remained open – without power.

The outage didn’t stop Edward Jones, 67, from trying to buy lottery tickets from House of Booze owner Gina Saady, but her machine was down; he instead decided to head back home.

Other outages

Storm conditions and the heat contributed to other outages in the Inland region.

In Grand Terrace, more than 3,400 Southern California Edison customers were without power.

Also in Grand Terrace, Southern California Edison reported an overnight outage that was affecting more than 5,800 customers.

Among those affected was Highgrove Elementary School in the Riverside-Grand Terrace area.

More than 2,400 customers on Thursday were hit in Riverside by a 45-minute outage near UC Riverside after a tree fell on wires, Riverside Public Utilities said.

On a smaller scale, Rialto saw an outage that knocked out power to 628 customers Thursday morning near Riverside and Randall avenues. That outage was expected to be fixed by 1 p.m. Thursday.

Smaller pockets of lost electricity were reported in San Bernardino, Grand Terrace, Rialto, Mira Loma and Corona due to a variety of reasons, including storm conditions and equipment failure.

Outages have been reported since Wednesday night, some because of increased use of electricity as people try to stay cool during the heat wave, Edison officials said.

About 3,000 people in La Verne lost power in the area of Base Line near Emerald Avenue, north up to Golden Hills Road on Wednesday night. Service was restored by Thursday morning.

Check back later as further information is made available.