UPDATE: Power Nearly Restored In Palm Desert

UPDATE ON 2/16: Power has been restored to all but 18 customers in Palm Desert, according to Edison.

UPDATE ON 2/16: Some 223 customers remain without power in Palm Desert, and power will be restored by 4 p.m. Thursday, Edison reports.

ORIGINAL STORY: Power went out for about 30 minutes Wednesday at the Westfield Palm Desert mall as rain and winds pelted the area, and some 2,000 Southern California Edison customers also lost electricity nearby.

The power went out at the Westfield Palm Desert mall, which is located on the corner of Highway 111 and Monterey Avenue, just after 6 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 15, according to Jenna LeMaster, a spokeswoman for the mall.

"It is back on and we are business as usual until 8 p.m.," LeMaster said.

A woman, who works at the mall and wished to remain unnamed, said that the experience was scary.

"People screamed and gasped. The mall stayed open, and Macy's still had power, but most of the stores closed until the power came back," she said.

Elsewhere in Palm Desert, 2,101 Southern California Edison customers lost power at 5:30 p.m., and 154 customers were still in the dark, according to Mashi Nyssen, an Edison spokesperson.

The cause was weather related, Nyssen said, adding that power will be restored at 7 a.m. Thursday.

"It’s related to the wind and rain. We had a wire down," Nyssen told Patch.

The power for the remaining customers was out from Guadalupe Avenue to the south, Santa Rosa Way to the north, San Pablo Avenue to the East and Monterey Avenue to the west, she said.

Nyssen encouraged residents to steer clear of down power lines.

"If you see any power lines down, do not get near them. Do not attempt to touch them. Stay away," she said, adding that safety information can be found on the Southern California Edison website.

An additional 133 customers lost power at 8 p.m. on Hedgehog Street in Palm Desert, according to Edison's website.

In Desert Hot Springs, 2,500 customers lost power at 4:30 p.m., Nyssen said, adding that all but 295 had their electricity restored by 7:30 p.m.

She said the outage was called by a down power line, and that there was no immediate time frame on when power would be restored.

Tell us your experience in the comments or send us photos of the storm by e-mail at palmdesert@patch.com. You can also upload photos directly to the story above.