Power Protection FEATURED ARTICLE

It has been a long week for Long Beach, California, businesses and residents.

Three days of electrical outages plagued up to 90 percent of downtown Long Beach after an underground electrical fire disrupted power and sent manhole cover flying into the air, according to NBC affiliate, Channel 4.

Southern California Edison (News - Alert) worked over the weekend to fix the power issues, which began in the middle of last week. Power restoration has been stalled largely because the complicated underground system broke off into three sections.

“It's been crazy. People here are panicking because they don't know what to do," a Long Beach resident told Channel 4. "We just had to clear out our (refrigerator) from work, a lot of food wasted. It's horrible.”

"Southern California Edison continues to experience challenges with the underground utility. SCE crews worked throughout Thursday night to restore power to downtown Long Beach. The City experienced periodic restoration throughout the evening and early morning hours," read a city statement issued Friday morning.

SoCal Edison said that it had not experienced complications to this extent since the 1950s.

While bad for residents, the outages have been devastating for businesses. Computer systems are down, lights are out for restaurants, and it definitely isn’t business as usual—with the economic losses that entails.

One event that was disrupted was the city’s Mission H2O LB Kickoff Event set for Saturday at Promenade Square. The event had to be canceled.

While Long Beach certainly has had a rough week, its troubles at least can serve as a reminder for the rest of us. Generally, we take power for granted. But what happens to your business if the power goes out for several days in a row? Are there backups of key computer systems that may be damaged by electrical spikes? Are there workarounds if workers cannot come into the office for work? Is there backup power to keep basic operations functioning?

Many businesses don’t consider loss of power. But as Long Beach shows—they should.