[FINAL UPDATE] Please unrecommend this diary. It appears that all is well on the ground here after all. The radio is now saying that there are spots of power outages here and there, but nothing terribly serious.
[update 2] Power appears to be back up in my area around Miracle Mile. Traffic lights are back up, and shopping malls appear to have power, from what I have heard. However, power is apparently still out in downtown.
[update 3] The Drudge Report is saying that
'Dept of water and power snapped a power line'; grid jolted... Does anybody know why Drudge gets his news faster than anyone else? At any rate, looks like they may know what the problem is, and have contained it just about everywhere but Downtown...no big worries...
[Update 4] hearing reports from several people that power is back on Los Angeles. My girlfriend's office has requested that people come back to work. Situation appears to be normal now.
We've lost all power.
It's a little bit crazy, actually. Fire trucks are everwhere. LAPD is on tactical alert. People are all over the streets. Business has essentially ground to a halt.
The reports you are hearing that nobody is obeying traffic lights and it's every man for himself are correct. It's very weird.
My girlfriend's office has let all their employees go for the day. A little nerve-racking here.
According to CNN:
LOS ANGELES, California (AP) -- A large portion of Los Angeles was hit with a blackout Monday afternoon.
The city was investigating the cause and extent of the outage. But Sgt. Catherine Plows, a police spokeswoman, said terrorism was not suspected.
Electrical power was knocked out shortly before 1 p.m. after two power surges, and traffic was snarled at intersections throughout the city when stop lights went dark. The lights also went out at downtown high-rises.
The Police Department went on "full tactical alert," meaning no officers were allowed to leave duty.
[update] you are no doubt reading that it isn't an unusually hot day in Los Angeles today. While that is true, it is MUCH hotter than yesterday, which means that most people probably had their air conditioners working overtime after not using them at all yesterday...