San Diego hit by major power failure

[jaxx]

SAN DIEGO — Failure of major transmission lines on Thursday cut power to millions of people in Southern California and northwestern Mexico.

The problem extended from San Clemente, Calif., in southern Orange County south to San Diego, the nation's eighth-largest city, and on to Mexico's Baja peninsula, and east to Yuma, Ariz. It cut electricity to millions of people, including 1.4 million served by San Diego Gas & Electric.

<..> The utility officials told a news conference that they were unsure how long it would take to restore power but said electricity might be out in some areas into Friday. They said the priority was to get power back into central San Diego, then out to substations and to customers.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44446563/ns/...mlqVux5p7l

That's a lot of people affected by the outage.

[There Is No Spoon]

Wow, I know after loosing power for 2 days after Irene how much we depend on electricity these days. I was SO happy when the power came back on.

[Cha]

(09-08-2011 07:33 PM)There Is No Spoon Wrote:  Wow, I know after loosing power for 2 days after Irene how much we depend on electricity these days. I was SO happy when the power came back on.

We were out of electricity for 3 months after Hurricane Iniki that hit 9/11/92. Got so we were getting use to candles.

[azmouse]

(09-08-2011 07:53 PM)Cha Wrote:  

(09-08-2011 07:33 PM)There Is No Spoon Wrote:  Wow, I know after loosing power for 2 days after Irene how much we depend on electricity these days. I was SO happy when the power came back on.

We were out of electricity for 3 months after Hurricane Iniki that hit 9/11/92. Got so we were getting use to candles.

3 months?! I can't even begin to imagine what that was like.

[There Is No Spoon]

(09-08-2011 07:53 PM)Cha Wrote:  

(09-08-2011 07:33 PM)There Is No Spoon Wrote:  Wow, I know after loosing power for 2 days after Irene how much we depend on electricity these days. I was SO happy when the power came back on.

We were out of electricity for 3 months after Hurricane Iniki that hit 9/11/92. Got so we were getting use to candles.

I think I'd be forced to move in with somebody who had power in that circumstance. I'd go insane otherwise.

[Cha]

(09-08-2011 08:05 PM)There Is No Spoon Wrote:  

(09-08-2011 07:53 PM)Cha Wrote:  We were out of electricity for 3 months after Hurricane Iniki that hit 9/11/92. Got so we were getting use to candles.

I think I'd be forced to move in with somebody who had power in that circumstance. I'd go insane otherwise.

There were a lot of generators but not where I was. No internet then..that I knew about.

Yes, times were simplier then on the Island..bonding time.

[nofurylike]

Arizona utility worker triggers a chain reaction that reaches from Mexico to Orange County, bringing routine life to a halt.
By Mike Anton, Louis Sahagun and Richard Marosi
September 8, 2011

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-...6679.story

A utility worker doing maintenance near Yuma, Ariz., triggered a massive blackout that jammed roads, closed schools and businesses, grounded planes and left more than 4 million people across a large swath of Southern California and Mexico without power.

The blackout Thursday brought routine life to a halt. Many offices closed, but workers endured gridlock getting home because traffic lights were out. Officials said they noticed an increase in fender-benders in some areas as drivers tried to navigate the roads.

People were trapped in elevators and on rides at Sea World in San Diego and Legoland in Carlsbad. Hospital emergency rooms switched to backup generators, while outgoing flights from San Diego were canceled for several hours.

-snip-

"The outage appears to be related to a procedure an APS employee was carrying out in the North Gila substation," an APS spokesman said in a statement. "Operating and protection protocols typically would have isolated the resulting outage to the Yuma area. The reason that did not occur in this case will be the focal point of the investigation into the event, which already is underway."

-snip-

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