Blackout Leaves Southern Calif., Ariz., Mexico in the Dark
More than five million people in Southern California, western Arizona and the Baja California Peninsula were left without electricity Thursday after a utility worker in Yuma, Ariz., unwittingly triggered a major blackout.
APS, Arizona’s largest electricity provider, said one of its workers was doing maintenance on a high-voltage power line linking Arizona and San Diego when he did something that caused a series of electrical grid failures.
“Operating and protection protocols typically would have isolated the resulting outage to the Yuma area,” an APS spokesman said in a statement. “The reason that did not occur in this case will be the focal point of the investigation into the event, which is already under way.”
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An estimated 56,000 APS customers lost power Thursday. “We are working hard to restore our customers as quickly and safely as possible,” Don Robinson, APS president and chief operating officer, said.
Meanwhile, millions of residents of San Diego, Orange and Imperial Counties – where temperatures reached the 100s on Thursday – were stuck without electricity to power their air conditioners.
San Diego Gas & Electric warned its customers that the outage may continue Friday and even into the weekend. “Get ready to be in the dark,” said Michael Niggli, the utility’s president and chief executive officer. “Get your emergency precautions ready.”
Niggli’s advice came too late for residents of the nation’s fourth-largest county, who were caught completely off-guard by Thursday’s cascading power outages.
The local airport shut down, canceling flights and stranding travelers. Several businesses, including gas stations, grocery stores and banks, closed their doors. Hospitals were forced to rely on backup generators, but weren’t at full operational capacity.
The blackout wreaked havoc south of the border as well. Though U.S. ports of entry at Otay Mesa and San Ysidro remained open Thursday, vehicular traffic slowed to a near standstill and foot traffic was little better.
