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Widespread power outage hits Los Angeles

Posted on: Monday, 12 September 2005, 16:36 CDT

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A widespread power outage hit Los Angeles on Monday, knocking out electricity to thousands of customers, snarling traffic and stranding high-rise office workers in elevators or trains as officials scrambled to determine the cause.

There was no immediate evidence of foul play, but authorities declared a state of emergency shortly after the 12:35 p.m. PDT (3:35 p.m. EDT) blackout, 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 impacted," said Los Angeles Police spokesman Kevin Maiberger as lines of cars 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 calls where there is a threat to life."

There were no evacuations planned and no reports of injuries. Within about an hour of the initial blackout, power was restored to some of the affected 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 in a videotape aired as the U.S. marked the fourth anniversary of the September 11 attacks.

Los Angeles officials and police chief William Bratton had said there was no credible evidence of any planned attacks.

Department of Homeland Security spokesman Russ Knocke said the authorities there were monitoring the situation but, "At this time there's no indication of a nexus to terrorism."

Early indications were that the outage was caused by the accidental severing 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 Association.

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 immediately known how many homes or businesses lost electricity, but it was in the thousands.

Outages were reported across downtown Los Angeles, Koreatown, North Hollywood, Burbank and the San Fernando Valley.

Television stations showed confusion at major traffic intersections as motorists tried to navigate through stoplights that were out. Freeway traffic was jammed as stoplight outages caused backups onto exit ramps.

In the financial district of Los Angeles, office workers huddled in groups, many stranded outside their buildings as the outage struck during lunch, stalling elevators in high-rise office towers.

Source: REUTERS

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