East Sacramento Neighborhood Power Turned Off For Maintenance Despite Hot Day

SACRAMENTO (CBS13) - Neighbors in an East Sacramento neighborhood are concerned after their power was shut off as part of a SMUD maintenance project on one of the hottest days of the year so far.

The area, off Moddison Avenue, felt the heat on Thursday.

"If you live in Sacramento, you avoid summers," said Earling Klein, one of the many without power on his block. He was one person unable to shake the summer sun with his air off and fridge out for the day.

"Every time you step outside, open up the refrigerator, all these things," Klein said.

His power was out for hours as SMUD replaced a rotting power pole around the corner. Though some of his neighbors wonder - on a day with a high of 110 degrees - was it the right move?

"It's kind of a weird coincidence that it happened on one of the hottest days this year," said Walter Rozewski, who also lost power.

Lindsey Andrighetto also dealt with the outages on Thursday, before escaping to her mother's house for the day.

"Three kiddos at home, and it's the last day of school today," Andrighetto said. "A little rough with no power today."

CBS13 asked SMUD, is there was a point when it's too hot to shut off power for maintenance work? A spokesperson for the company said no, they work through all weather conditions. Though they do have a policy in place to be done by 2 p.m., before temperatures hit their peak.

Neighbors were notified a week ago of the planned outage, but some in the neighborhood feel it could have waited.

"I don't see why this couldn't have been pushed to next week or another time when it's not as hot," said Andrighetto.

She was especially concerned for her older neighbors.

"They can't have access to go or move as freely as we can," she said.

Meanwhile, others like Klein simply accepted their fate.

"Some things you stop, some things you can't stop," said Klein.

SMUD said this particular pole was marked as a priority, so they wanted to get it done before it had the potential to fail and leave a more lasting outage in the area.

The East Sac neighborhood power was back on before 1 p.m. on Thursday.