Power out for about 3,000 SCE customers

COSTA MESA — More than 3,000 Southern California Edison customers in Newport-Mesa were without power Wednesday morning after an underground piece of equipment failed, company officials said.

About 9:41 a.m., equipment in a vault underneath East 18^th Street and Newport Boulevard in Costa Mesa failed, knocking out power to 3,708 customers.

By 11:30 a.m., power was restored to all but 190 Edison customers, officials said.

They were expected to get power back by 2 p.m., said company spokesman Paul Klein.

The power outage was between Center and 19^th streets to the north, 17^th Street to the south, Kenwood Place to the west and Orange Avenue to the east.

—Joseph Serna