news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20050912/us_nm/energy_losangeles_dc
Reuters Widespread power outage hits Los Angeles 1 hour, 51 minutes ago LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A widespread power outage hit Los Angeles on Mond ay, knocking out electricity to thousands of customers, snarling traffic and stranding high-rise office workers in elevators or trains as offici als scrambled to determine the cause.
Click Here There was no immediate evidence of foul play, but authorities declared a state of emergency shortly after the 12:35 pm PDT (3:35 pm EDT) blac kout, which struck a wide swath of the city in seemingly random patches. "The city is on a tactical alert and obviously traffic is going to be imp acted," said Los Angeles Police spokesman Kevin Maiberger as lines of ca rs jammed the city's freeways. Maiberger described a tactical alert as "what happens when the city goes into a state of emergency. Police officers will only be responding to ca lls where there is a threat to life." There were no evacuations planned and no reports of injuries. Within abou t an hour of the initial blackout, power was restored to some of the aff ected areas. The power failure jangled nerves in Los Angeles one day after a suspected Al Qaeda associate made threats against America's second-largest city i n a videotape aired as the US marked the fourth anniversary of the Sep tember 11 attacks. Los Angeles officials and police chief William Bratton had said there was no credible evidence of any planned attacks.
Homeland Security spokesman Russ Knocke said the authorities there were monitoring the situ ation but, "At this time there's no indication of a nexus to terrorism." Early indications were that the outage was caused by the accidental sever ing of a power line. "LADWP is indicating it's a construction break of someone cutting through an electrical line that tripped two switches," said Ray Riordan, acting executive director of the nonprofit California Utilities Emergency Asso ciation. Los Angeles International Airport reported losing power briefly but said back-up power had averted flight disruptions. A Los Angeles Department of Water and Power spokeswoman said it was not i mmediately known how many homes or businesses lost electricity, but it w as in the thousands. Outages were reported across downtown Los Angeles, Koreatown, North Holly wood, Burbank and the San Fernando Valley. Television stations showed confusion at major traffic intersections as mo torists tried to navigate through stoplights that were out. Freeway traf fic was jammed as stoplight outages caused backups onto exit ramps. In the financial district of Los Angeles, office workers huddled in group s, many stranded outside their buildings as the outage struck during lun ch, stalling elevators in high-rise office towers.
Cars are lined up at a inoperative traffic signal at an intersection in the Studio City section of Los Angeles as a power black out interrupt ed electrical service to many parts of the city September 12, 2005. Offi cials at the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power indicated one of their employees accidentally cut a power cable which lead to major power outage knocking out electricity to thousands of customers.
Republication or r edistribution of Reuters content is expressly prohibited without the pri or written consent of Reuters. Reuters shall not be liable for any error s or delays in the content, or for any actions taken in reliance thereon .
|
http://csua.com/feed/