From Mother's Day to Graduations, Don't Let Metallic Balloons Inflate Power Outages
With proms also celebrated, keep the colorful gifts tied down and never let them float away to help prevent property damage and serious injuries
May and June are usually the highest months for balloon-related outages, with SCE experiencing 37 percent of its annual balloon disruptions in those two months over the last five years.
SCE lineman Robert Rocha demonstrates why metallic balloons should be kept away from power lines during a Mother’s Day balloon safety program at the Southern California Flower Market, where SCE-sponsored balloon weights were also handed out to raise awareness about keeping balloons tied down.
Metallic balloons can damage power lines, disrupting power to hundreds or thousands of customers.
Metallic balloons should always be tied to weights like these to prevent them from floating away as required by California law.
When finished with them, metallic balloons should never be released. Instead, they should be punctured or the knot should be cut before they are thrown into the garbage.
