Residents Bring Generators, Fuel to Keep Ramona Grocery Store Running

The good news is: the dark-chocolate-covered frozen bananas survived.

"We had so many calls from people asking about them," Robert Bradley, co-owner of said with a tired chuckle Friday morning.

Not such good news for ice cream lovers though.

"We lost about $500 worth of ice cream," Bradley said.

On Friday morning, staff and friends were unpacking all the frozen food out of the store's refrigerated truck parked in the adjacent alley and putting it all back in the freezer section after . The outage affected all of SDG&E's 1.4 million customers—some of them for about 11 hours.

"We taped the doors of the frozen section closed last night," Bradley said. "Frozen stuff will last for 24 hours if you don't open the doors. But after 10:45 p.m., we began transferring it to the truck. The truck only goes down to about 25 degrees but it will slow the thawing process considerably."

Bradley said staff stayed late Thursday night, during the power outage. He said power came back on at the store at about 1:30 a.m. and he returned at about 2 a.m.

Among neighbors who showed up to help the Bradleys was Jenny Peckham.

"I just wanted to be with people during the outage," she said. "I figured they could use the help."

Getting fuel in town became a problem after a while, because gas station pumps are computerized. Bradley needed fuel for his diesel truck. He said he'd like to thank Rick Rieling of Horizon Trees, who filled the tank. He'd also like to acknowledge Rick of House Calls for bringing in 15 gallons of diesel fuel and Mike Jensen, who owns Subway stores in El Centro, and the Jensen family for helping transfer the frozen food.

"Pastor Paul Nelson from brought in a gas generator," Bradley said.

One family, the Houcks—parents of —dropped off their generator for the Bradleys to use while they took their son out of town.

"They took him up to the UCLA area where he could continue his dialysis," Bradley said.

Thanks to the contributions, the store was able to keep its register going. Staff erected halogen "shop lights" on stands so people could shop.

"We had people here until about 9:30 p.m.," Bradley said. They shut down then due to reports of looting in other towns, he said.

The Sheriff's substation in Ramona had no reports of looting in town this morning.

"People were very civilized and polite," Bradley said of his late night customers.

He was grateful for the community's help.

"My wife (Victoria) likes to say, 'Ramona is the family in Ramona Family Naturals.'"

Staff at Albertson's supermarket on Main Street were also busy managing their dairy section on Friday morning to make sure everything was in order.