At approximately 12:25pm this afternoon, electricity was lost in many areas of the Big Bear Valley. Upon investigation, Bear Valley Electric reported four sheared power poles were downed on Baldwin Lake Road near the Baldwin Lake stables. High winds, gusting up to 60 miles per hour, are believed to have created the problem. Power was briefly restored to all Valley residents, with the exception of Baldwin Lake, around 3:30pm this afternoon; however, electricity was lost, again, a short time later for much of the Valley. As of 5:50pm, power should be completely restored, once again, to Bear Valley residents excluding Baldwin Lake. Crews continue to work to re-set the power poles which are expected to take many hours. Crews are ready to go but their efforts were redirected by the second power outage so Baldwin Lake residents can now expect power to be restored in the early hours of Tuesday morning. Additionally, during the latest troubleshooting efforts by Bear Valley Electric, they were unable to determine what caused the second power outage but assume that the problem was weather related.
