I don't know if it got any coverage anywhere else (on CNN it has a small header that links to nothing useful), but last night, much of southern California was without power.
At about 3:37 in the afternoon, all power went out from Yuma to San Diego (and bled a little bit into western Arizona), and from San Diego north to southern Orange County (and bled a bit into northern Baja).
This encompasses more area than several eastern states, and several million people. The CNN article says 1.4 Million, but that is a gross understatement. The city of San Diego alone has more people than that.
I work downtown, and by 4:00 my bosses, having checked what they could through twitter and cell phone calls, had found out how big the blackout was, and sent us all home. I'm at the office now, and only about half of the power is back up here. There are still pockets of the blackout area where power is still coming back on. Most came up at about 10:55 last night.
My usual 10 minute commute home took over an hour. Gridlock was the song of the day, but at least it let me listen to AM radio news.
Part of the source of the problem was (and I bet you can guess) failing infrastructure. A switch failed in the stretch between western Arizona and San Diego, and because the power grid is badly designed and maintained, with insufficient backup, the whole thing went down. Even the local power company had no warning.
There were the usual paranoids claiming it was a terrorist act.
There were others saying it was only fitting - we deserved it for being ungodly.
It was over 80 degrees when the blackout hit. Did the old people, and the hospital patients really deserve that?
On the lighter side, other than a pretty much constant background of sirens and horns, people looked at it as an opportunity to relax. Once I got home, and made sure nothing major was awry, I wandered the neighborhood. Impromptu "blackout parties" were organized on lawns and porches throughout the area (it was too bloody hot to stay indoors with no fans). people other than me were walking the streets, checking things out.
As the sun set, myriad stars faded in overhead - far more than is ever visible in such a light-polluted area, and I had some fun pointing out stars and constellations to some neighbors.
The moon was bright enough that those of us walking the neighborhood had plenty to see by, and the few houses with emergency generators stood out like a sore thumb. The bright blue-white light of electricity is garish compared the the usual orange candlelight I saw. It was actually very pretty, though, as the homes where I live are all old anyway, and the candlelight fitted in very well with the atmosphere.
And the people also fit in. Everyone walking the streets was friendly and somewhat amused by it all. Everyone had a smile and a "how ya doin'?", and I talked to people I have just seen before.
I have no idea what kind of coverage it got in the rest of the country (if any), but it was an adventure!