UPDATE: Power Restored Near Lake Mission Viejo

Editor's note: Until the end of 2011, Patch will be republishing some of the year's biggest news stories in Mission Viejo.

Update, 11:37 a.m. Thursday: Southern California Edison reports power has been restored to all homes in Mission Viejo as of 8:30 this morning. The cause of the failure is still being investigated.

About 5,000 Mission Viejo homes around Lake Mission Viejo and south of the lake are without power tonight since 4:47 p.m. after the year's most intense storm damaged an underground circuit, according to the electric company.

Various traffic lights on the major corridors Los Alisos and Alicia Parkway are blinking red, causing traffic to snarl from I-5 as holiday shoppers return home.

A piece of equipment failed beneath the Olympiad Road and Alicia Parkway intersection in Mission Viejo, and Southern California Edison has given no estimated time the power will be restored, spokesman Paul Klein said.

The year's biggest storm caused the damage, he said:

"They're weather-related outage."

Since the electrical vault is underground, it will take more time to repair, Klein said.

Underground vault parts are more difficult to locate, he said.

The failure is part of a larger equipment failure of three circuits, which mostly affects residents of Lake Forest, Klein said.

The boundaries of the failure are Canterbury to the north, Lope de Vega Drive to the south, Buena Vista to the east and Los Alisos Boulevard to the west.

Another failure began in Mission Viejo at 2:04 a.m. Wednesday and deprived 1,227 homes of power, Klein said. Power was restored at 8:30 a.m.

Klein said to avoid the Olympiad/Alicia intersection, as workers may have the underground vault open and it could be dangerous.