by Jason Wells and Joe Piasecki
Pasadena Sun
In response to a state probe that determined Southern California Edison hampered a safety investigation into poles that snapped in the fierce windstorm of 2011, the utility on Monday night defended its actions, saying in a statement that restoring power “had to take precedence” given the sheer magnitude of the damage.
In a report released earlier on Monday, the California Public Utilities Commission found that at least 21 poles were unstable because of termite destruction, dry rot or other damage before tumbling over in wind gusts of up to 120 mph on Nov. 30 and Dec. 1, 2011.
But more than 75% of the 248 Edison poles that were knocked down in the storm were destroyed by the utility before they could be inspected, a violation of commission rules that hampered the investigation.
