Large Swath of Southern California Without Electricity - Don't Worry, LA's Fine

[BWYuko]

SOURCE!

Spoiler: show

PALM DESERT, Calif. -- A massive power outage hit a wide area of Southern California on Thursday afternoon.

Callers to News Channel 3 reported a loss of power hitting around 3:45 p.m. in an area from Sun City in Palm Desert to the north all the way to La Quinta Cove.

At a time when temperatures in the Palm Springs area hovered around 111 degrees, Imperial Irrigation District told News Channel 3 all 150,000 of their customers lost power due to a "major disturbance in parts of the electrical grid."

An IID spokesman said generators kicked in for essential customers, such as hospitals. He said crews are working to get power restored in small sections at a time.

Parts of Indio, including downtown, and areas toward the Salton Sea were affected by the outage. The Indio Police Department confirms major power issues that at one time crippled its 911 system.

The California Highway Patrol and Riverside County Sheriff's Department are helping the city handle their emergency calls.

Some callers to News Channel 3's newsroom reported hearing a loud explosion near North Shore at the Salton Sea shortly before the electric interruption.

In La Quinta, the Walmart Supercenter has been evacuated due to the power failure.

On Twitter, people from all over the southland are reporting power issues. Some in San Diego reported a loss of power and cellphone issues.

KGTV reports San Diego Gas and Electric crews are trying to determine the cause of the outage, which has affected various cities around the county, from the South Bay to downtown, to cities in the North County and into areas as far east as El Centro.

Police spokeswoman Andra Brown told the Associated Press that 13 police stations were without power but were able to continue operating and taking 911 calls by using generators.

She said power is out across San Diego County. It wasn't immediately known how many people were without power or what the cause was.

SDG&E representatives say they are looking into the issue and currently do not know what caused the outages.

Locally, customers with both Southern California Edison and Imperial Irrigation District were affected by the outage.

The outage appears to have spread to Arizona, where people are reporting outages in the Yuma and Phoenix areas.

One person even reported an outage to @KESQ in New Mexico.

News Channel 3 is investigating the cause of the outage and will post updates as soon as we get them.

Apparently it's causing havoc in OC and San Diego downtown since it's the middle of rush hour. Those "working on it" still have not come forward with any ideas as to the cause. Don't know how true the rumors of outages as far east as Phoenix and New Mexico are, though. Sucks it's been like 110 degrees in the whole area all day!

[Psion]

I can testify to the horrid conditions of the roads. Whats even worse is that it's not consistant, a few of the streetlights are still working, some are blinking, and the rest are completely out. And of course, the only ones that work are those that AREN'T on the biggest intersections. Here in aliso viejo, CA, the Crown valley, moulton, parts of margurite, and alicia roads are all out. Took me over 2 hours to get to school instead of 25 minutes, and about an hour and 15 minutes to get back. (I took the marguarite > alicia route on the way back, was still horrible but cut my time a lot.)

But my home has power, despite the roads 2 streets down being out! :D

[Cail]

SAN DIEGO (AP) — An employee removing a piece of monitoring equipment that was causing problems likely caused a massive outage that left more than 2 million people without electricity across the Southwest and northern Mexico.

Dan Froetscher (FRO-shur), a vice president at Arizona Public Service Co., says it wasn't a deliberate act that knocked out power at a substation in North Gila northeast of Yuma, Arizona. He would not say whether it was mistake or how much experience the employee had.

Power officials say the outage should have been limited to the Yuma area. They were investigating why it wasn't contained. Froetscher says they're not absolutely certain the outages are related.

The outage extended to southern parts of Orange County and San Diego and cities south of the border.

Oops!

[Ksandra]

An employee removing a piece of monitoring equipment that was causing problems likely caused a massive outage that left more than 2 million people without electricity across the Southwest and northern Mexico.

I need to find this guy and thank him. School was cancelled last night and today so extended weekend!


Also thank god our apt has gas grills XD

[Cephius]

Oh no now people in San Diego get to miss work/school and have to go outside and enjoy their perfect weather for a couple days, the horror

[Ksandra]

Oh no now people in San Diego get to miss work/school and have to go outside and enjoy their perfect weather for a couple days, the horror

continuing to prove, SD is the best place evar.

[Lyn]

No air conditioning in 111 degree weather? Eww. I'd rather go to school then that.

[Ksandra]

perfect pool weather, but not sure where you got that number from, it's only going to be in the like 80s today and this weekend.

[Lyn]

but not sure where you got that number from, it's only going to be in the like 80s today and this weekend.

Sucks it's been like 110 degrees in the whole area all day!

.

[Cephius]

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How will they survive

[Ksandra]

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don't believe exaggerations

[Lyn]

Damn, wtf op. That's nice weather.

[Melena]

OP must have moved there recently from Siberia.

[quannum]

he was talking about arizona right?

[miokomioko]

Don't Worry, LA's Fine

Damn.

[archibaldcrane]

San Diego is right on the water, obviously it's temperate. A place like Palm Springs is indeed looking at a high of 108 today.

[Tonko]

Nothing compared to the entire city that burned to the ground here in Texas.

[Avinor]

Further inland areas were in a bit more trouble, since the temperature there was in the 90s (or 100s towards Yuma). So retirement communities and such were on alert. Adding to the problems was that the power outage knocked out water pumping stations, so higher elevation areas needed to conserve water as much as possible, and it also knocked out the ability for most gas stations to pump gas, which stranded people without much in the tank. And while the weather is back to perfect today, for the past few days SoCal was having a minor heat wave. We're talking high 80s in the coastal region of SD. No doubt the grid was stressed from all the ACs turning on to escape the brutal, unrelenting warm.

Traffic was a giant bitch though. People turning left on big streets seem to have no concept for waiting your goddamn turn.

[BWYuko]

Damn, wtf op. That's nice weather.

Oh, sorry. Got first word of the outage from when it happened to my folks in La Quinta, where it's been that hot (105-115) every day, like the rest of Coachella, since like late May. At the time of OP I understood the problem to be from southern OC, south to SD along the coast, all the way east through most of Mojave to Arizona (where it's really, stupid, double hot).

People were making up all sorts of stories. Reported explosions at power plants and centers. My Mom thought terrorists attacked the Salton Sea. She was wrong, it was a retard from Arizona like I thought.

[Psion]

It was indeed hot, there was a heat wave in orange county that had been going on for at least a week, with mid 90 temps. It was at its worst yesterday, it hit 108 at 2 PM in Aliso viejo, though it quickly cooled down somewhat when the sun went down. Fortunately it was also the last predicted day of the heat wave, and sure enough, it's only in the 80s this afternoon.