More than 4,500 customers in Palo Alto lost power for about an hour on Friday afternoon in an outage that began shortly after 2 p.m. and that was caused by a Mylar balloon hitting power lines, according to the city.
The outage spanned a major portion of south Palo Alto west of Middlefield Road. This included homes and businesses in the Ventura, Barron Park and Charleston Meadows neighborhoods. It is affected several areas north of Oregon Expressway, including the California Avenue business district and the Evergreen Park and College Terrace neighborhoods, according to the Palo Alto Utilities outage map.
The outage was caused by a Mylar balloon that became entangled in power lines, according to Palo Alto Utilities. As of 2:55 p.m., power was restored to all impacted customers.
In a tweet, Palo Alto Utilities advised to the public to consider alternatives to Mylar balloons, which "are a major cause of power outages and should always be kept away from overhead power lines and utility equipment."
Comments
Registered user
Another Palo Alto neighborhood
on Feb 18, 2022 at 4:26 pm
Registered user
on Feb 18, 2022 at 4:26 pm
This time it was a balloon again and yes we know they should be kept out of powerlines. But we can't tell the squirrels, the geese, the seagulls to do the same. They have to stay out of our powerlines too.
Registered user
South of Midtown
on Feb 18, 2022 at 9:58 pm
Registered user
on Feb 18, 2022 at 9:58 pm
Mylar balloons are OK as long as they are not filled with helium. Those filled with air will not rise and float away into power lines. Let's make sure we are clear on exactly what the problem is.
Registered user
Embarcadero Oaks/Leland
on Feb 18, 2022 at 10:14 pm
Registered user
on Feb 18, 2022 at 10:14 pm
Can the balloons disable the $23,000,000 fiber-to-the-home system?
Registered user
Another Palo Alto neighborhood
on Feb 18, 2022 at 11:05 pm
Registered user
on Feb 18, 2022 at 11:05 pm
Bystander
You’re joking, right?
Maybe it’s time for a city ordnance against helium filled Mylar balloons. They have enough structure they really don’t have to be filled with helium to be fun. The other possibility is figuring out how to automatically fill them to be neutrally bouyant. Might make a good science project (and patent) for someone. There have been way too many power outages from Mylar Ballons though. It’s not a benign cost.
Registered user
Another Palo Alto neighborhood
on Feb 20, 2022 at 12:08 pm
Registered user
on Feb 20, 2022 at 12:08 pm
By banning the sale of mylar balloons in Palo Alto, you will only send people to other cities or counties to buy them. Helium tanks for filling balloons can be bought on Amazon and probably in party stores!
The problem is basically that things fly around in Palo Alto even when there is no wind. We have had occasions when power outages are caused by geese, seagulls and squirrels as well as helium filled balloons that are not mylar. The problem is not the things that fly around but the powerlines are overhead and in the way of lots of things including tree branches. Banning balloons would be as useful as banning geese, seagulls and squirrels. It just isn't going to happen.
It is time that our overhead powerlines were dealt with properly. They are outdated and susceptible to damage and could easily be a target for some nefarious group who wanted to cause some type of mayhem.
Registered user
Midtown
on Feb 22, 2022 at 9:38 am
Registered user
on Feb 22, 2022 at 9:38 am
This is the third mylar balloon outage at our Midtown address in the last few years. Power outages is one problem, another is that they never degrade in the environment.
It's time to just say no to mylar balloons.