Massive blackout affects California, Arizona, Mexico
A widespread blackout in the Southwest has sent two nuclear reactors offline, interrupted commutes, and left people and food struggling with temperatures as high as 115 degrees.
Deborah Springs shops in a convenience store for food items after a power outage Thursday, in San Diego. A power outage is affecting millions of people across southern California, Arizona and Mexico.
Gregory Bull/AP
A major power outage knocked out electricity to more than 2 million people in California, Arizona and Mexico on Thursday, bringing San Diego and Tijuana to a standstill and leaving people sweltering in the late-summer heat in the surrounding desert.
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Two nuclear reactors were offline after losing electricity, but officials said there was no danger to the public or workers. FBI officials ruled out terrorism while power plant authorities struggled to find the cause of the outage that started shortly before 4 p.m. PDT.
San Diego bore the brunt of the blackout; most of the nation's eighth-largest city was darkened. All outgoing flights from San Diego's Lindbergh Field were grounded and police stations were using generators to accept emergency calls across the area.
The trolley system that shuttles thousands of commuters every day was shut down and freeways were clogged at rush hour. Trains were stopped in Los Angeles, an Amtrak spokesman said, because there was no power to run the lights, gates, bells and traffic control signals.
Police directed traffic at intersections where signals stopped working.
In Tijuana, people wandered out of their hot homes into the street to cool off while restaurants scrambled for ice to save perishable food.
The outage extended from southern parts of Orange County to San Diego to Yuma, Arizona. It also affected cities south of the border across much of the state of northern Baja. Border officials said crossings into California are open.
"It feels like you're in an oven and you can't escape," said Rosa Maria Gonzales, a spokeswoman with the Imperial Irrigation District in California's sizzling eastern desert. She said it was about 115 degrees when the power went out for about 150,000 of its customers.
In San Diego, Blake Albert Jordan, 20, saw a trolley come to a screeching halt as he neared the platform. Dozens of passengers emptied onto the tracks when the doors opened.
Jordan said he called about 20 friends and family to pick him up in San Diego's Mission Valley, where he was visiting a friend, to his home in suburban Lemon Grove. None offered to venture on the roads.
A transmitter line between Arizona and California was severed, said Mike Niggli, chief operating officer ofSan Diego Gas & Electric Co., causing the outage. The extreme heat in some areas also may have caused some problems with the lines.
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