UPDATE: As of 4AM PDT, the power is back on in at least our part of San Diego. We still need to update and strengthen the grid!
A major power outage occurred in San Diego county and parts of Orange County today.
More than 1.4 million customers lost power during a blackout in the San Diego area, and utility officials said power might not be fully restored until Friday.
San Diego Gas and Electric said the outage appears to have originated in Arizona and that the agency is working with California power officials to bring the power back. Officials said the outages extended across Southern California and into Arizona and Baja California.
You should see the traffic snarls in town. Miserable.
I heard from the local Los Angeles AM station, KNX, that a power line from Arizona "was severed somehow" causing power generating stations, including the San Onofre facility, to shut down.
Folks, here is your jobs program right here. If a single power line going down can cause such a widespread outage, with such widespread effects, then our free-market-based, private-sector power grid is far too weak and stretched thin. Our grid in San Diego County isn't the only grid in the country that's this close to the edge. We need to rebuild and vastly improve our power transmission capability in this country, and we need to do it now. That would make far more difference in peoples' lives than yet another payroll tax cut.
Update: Some additional information:
An SDG&E representative explains what happened.
View more videos at: http://nbcsandiego.com.
San Diego Gas & Electric's power outages map page
San Diego International Airport (Lindbergh Field) is closed to outbound traffic. Incoming flights can land.
At least two million people have been affected.
Mike Niggli, chief operating officer of San Diego Gas & Electric Co. ruled out terrorism but said the cause is unclear.
“To my knowledge this is the first time we’ve lost an entire system,” he said at a news conference.
Unusually hot weather may have contributed to the blackout:
“It’s 113 degrees right now outside and 75 in my office,” said Yuma city spokesman Greg Hyland, who was sitting in the dark, answering calls.
. . .
“I suspect the system was overwhelmed by too many outages in too many places,” Niggli said.
In the desert heat of the Palm Springs area, the temperature was 111 on Thursday, with the rolling blackouts. The Eisenhower Medical Center will serve as an oasis of air conditioning since it operates on its own power source, said hospital spokeswoman Deborah Johnson.