O
ONEZERO
Guest
LA just got hit with a massive power outage. Who was affected? It went from north hollywood to glendale and burbank and downtown LA(well from what I know of. It could have gone out even farther).
BobbyJ_for3!
Bench
wow...like, just now?
I'm suprised I havn't heard from my grandma about it, she lives in LA...wait...
jk
Anyways, sheesh...I wonder what effects it will have.
I'm suprised I havn't heard from my grandma about it, she lives in LA...wait...
jkAnyways, sheesh...I wonder what effects it will have.
O
ONEZERO
Guest
Right after I made my post, the power came back. And I was gonna convince my dad to close up so we could go home early. I have to work til 9 so I got my hopes up for nothing. Oh well.
Mad D
Starter
The blackout came a day after ABC aired a videotape of a purported al Qaeda member making terrorist threats against Los Angeles and Melbourne, Australia, on the fourth anniversary of the September 11 attacks. http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/09/12/alqaeda.tape/index.html
L.A. Brian
G-League
Some Department of Water and Power goob cut a cable in the San Fernando Valley, and a domino effect took place.
I made the major mistake of trying to go out in the traffic, thinking it was an isolated outage. If anything, I've now become far more acquainted with the local side streets. Oddly enough, one of my errands was to go to my closest DWP office to pay my power bill, but I thought better of it.
EDIT: Now the DWP is saying that the wrong wires were connected during an installation. These DWP spokespeople need to get their story straight.
I made the major mistake of trying to go out in the traffic, thinking it was an isolated outage. If anything, I've now become far more acquainted with the local side streets. Oddly enough, one of my errands was to go to my closest DWP office to pay my power bill, but I thought better of it.
EDIT: Now the DWP is saying that the wrong wires were connected during an installation. These DWP spokespeople need to get their story straight.
Last edited:
gotpitbull
G-League
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2005/09/12/state/n145302D58.DTL
Major portions of Los Angeles were blacked out for more than an hour early Monday afternoon, trapping people in elevators and snarling traffic after utility workers accidentally connected the wrong wires.
Roughly two million people were affected by the resultant power surge and outages, which were reported from downtown west to the Pacific coast and north into the San Fernando Valley. Because of the region's patchwork utility system, pockets of power remained on even as nearby areas were dark.
The problem began at 12:37 p.m. when several workers who were installing an automated transmission system accidentally connected the wrong wires, according to Ron Deaton, general manager of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power.
"They connected it to another line that was not expecting that much electricity," he said. No one was reported injured in the accident.
Many of the blackouts were due to "shedding," meaning they were dropped automatically as the system sensed its power dropping.
Much of the power was restored just before 2 p.m.; Deaton said he expected all power to be restored by 5 p.m.
Calm prevailed on the streets of downtown Los Angeles, where office workers took the outage as a chance for an extended lunch on a mild afternoon as police and fire sirens echoed in the background.
Inside some of the high-rises, office workers were stuck in elevators.
Albert Vasquez, 27, a customer service representative, was returning from lunch when he boarded an elevator — and the doors closed and the power went out.
"It was bizarre," he said. "It went completely dark. The elevator just had no power."
Vasquez pried open the doors with his hands and left the building.
Across the city, traffic was snarled at intersections when stop lights went dark.
Katie Cerio, a stylist for TV commercials, said traffic lights were out in the valley's Torrance neighborhood.
"They've got people directing traffic, but it's definitely a bit chaotic," said Cerio as she drove. "But now I just entered West Hollywood and the traffic lights seems to be on."
Gas station pumps stopped working, car washes stopped in their tracks, assembly lines ground to a halt and restaurant machinery quit in middle of lunch hour.
At Bob's Big Boy restaurant in Burbank, power was out for about 90 minutes.
"All we could serve were salads and cold sandwiches, no hamburgers," manager Frank Rodriguez said.
At the downtown YMCA, staff used flashlights to help usher exercisers from the pool and other areas to locker rooms so they could dress before evacuating.
Residents of some areas said they didn't lose power because Los Angeles operates its own power utility, which serves 1.4 million electricity customers. Neighboring cities including Burbank and Glendale also were affected but customers of Southern California Edison, the region's largest utility, weren't affected, according to spokesman Gil Alexander.
Los Angeles International Airport officials said they were not affected.
Deaton estimated that about 2 million people were affected, though he wasn't sure how many of the department's 1.4 million customers lost power. About 42,000 customers remained without power as of 3:15 p.m., Deaton said.
Before its power was restored, UCLA Medical Center was on backup generators and reported no problems with patient care. Childrens Hospital of Los Angeles was on backup power and doctors planned to conduct six scheduled surgeries but suspend all unneeded operations the rest of the day, a spokesman said.
Downtown resident Jacqueline Robles, 23, was at Children's Hospital with her 1-month-old son, Jakob, when the power went out. Even when electricity was restored, she was in no hurry to return home by subway.
"I was afraid of taking the Metro because of the lights going off again. I don't want to be stuck on the train with my baby," she said.
The city's transit trains were running during the outage, but with major delays.
"I walk faster than that," said commuter Jennifer Crocker, 27.
___
Contributing to this report were Associated Press writers Alex Veiga, Jeff Wilson, Solvej Schou and Jeremiah Marquez in Los Angeles; Jennifer Coleman in Sacramento; Robert Tanner in New York; and Erica Werner in Washington.
Major portions of Los Angeles were blacked out for more than an hour early Monday afternoon, trapping people in elevators and snarling traffic after utility workers accidentally connected the wrong wires.
Roughly two million people were affected by the resultant power surge and outages, which were reported from downtown west to the Pacific coast and north into the San Fernando Valley. Because of the region's patchwork utility system, pockets of power remained on even as nearby areas were dark.
The problem began at 12:37 p.m. when several workers who were installing an automated transmission system accidentally connected the wrong wires, according to Ron Deaton, general manager of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power.
"They connected it to another line that was not expecting that much electricity," he said. No one was reported injured in the accident.
Many of the blackouts were due to "shedding," meaning they were dropped automatically as the system sensed its power dropping.
Much of the power was restored just before 2 p.m.; Deaton said he expected all power to be restored by 5 p.m.
Calm prevailed on the streets of downtown Los Angeles, where office workers took the outage as a chance for an extended lunch on a mild afternoon as police and fire sirens echoed in the background.
Inside some of the high-rises, office workers were stuck in elevators.
Albert Vasquez, 27, a customer service representative, was returning from lunch when he boarded an elevator — and the doors closed and the power went out.
"It was bizarre," he said. "It went completely dark. The elevator just had no power."
Vasquez pried open the doors with his hands and left the building.
Across the city, traffic was snarled at intersections when stop lights went dark.
Katie Cerio, a stylist for TV commercials, said traffic lights were out in the valley's Torrance neighborhood.
"They've got people directing traffic, but it's definitely a bit chaotic," said Cerio as she drove. "But now I just entered West Hollywood and the traffic lights seems to be on."
Gas station pumps stopped working, car washes stopped in their tracks, assembly lines ground to a halt and restaurant machinery quit in middle of lunch hour.
At Bob's Big Boy restaurant in Burbank, power was out for about 90 minutes.
"All we could serve were salads and cold sandwiches, no hamburgers," manager Frank Rodriguez said.
At the downtown YMCA, staff used flashlights to help usher exercisers from the pool and other areas to locker rooms so they could dress before evacuating.
Residents of some areas said they didn't lose power because Los Angeles operates its own power utility, which serves 1.4 million electricity customers. Neighboring cities including Burbank and Glendale also were affected but customers of Southern California Edison, the region's largest utility, weren't affected, according to spokesman Gil Alexander.
Los Angeles International Airport officials said they were not affected.
Deaton estimated that about 2 million people were affected, though he wasn't sure how many of the department's 1.4 million customers lost power. About 42,000 customers remained without power as of 3:15 p.m., Deaton said.
Before its power was restored, UCLA Medical Center was on backup generators and reported no problems with patient care. Childrens Hospital of Los Angeles was on backup power and doctors planned to conduct six scheduled surgeries but suspend all unneeded operations the rest of the day, a spokesman said.
Downtown resident Jacqueline Robles, 23, was at Children's Hospital with her 1-month-old son, Jakob, when the power went out. Even when electricity was restored, she was in no hurry to return home by subway.
"I was afraid of taking the Metro because of the lights going off again. I don't want to be stuck on the train with my baby," she said.
The city's transit trains were running during the outage, but with major delays.
"I walk faster than that," said commuter Jennifer Crocker, 27.
___
Contributing to this report were Associated Press writers Alex Veiga, Jeff Wilson, Solvej Schou and Jeremiah Marquez in Los Angeles; Jennifer Coleman in Sacramento; Robert Tanner in New York; and Erica Werner in Washington.
Similar threads
