LOS ANGELES, 13 September 2005 — A major power outage hit Los Angeles area yesterday and officials scrambled to determine the cause.
“There’s a major disruption,” Los Angeles Fire Department spokesman Jim Wells said. “It’s a widespread power disruption.”
A spokeswoman for the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power said it was not immediately known how many customers or businesses were without power but that the utility was trying to pinpoint the problem.
“We are trying to get a handle on it,” spokeswoman Kim Hughes said, adding: “We think it’s a transmission problem.” A spokeswoman for the Los Angeles Police Department said outages were reported across downtown Los Angeles, Koreatown, North Hollywood, Burbank and in the San Fernando Valley. Officials said power had not been lost at Los Angeles International Airport.
“The city is on a tactical alert and obviously traffic is going to be impacted,” Los Angeles Police spokesman Kevin Maiberger said.
Maiberger described a tactical alert as “what happens when the city goes into a state of emergency. Police officers will only be responding to calls where there is a threat to life.” Maiberger said there were no evacuations planned and no reports of injuries.
Television stations showed scenes of confusion unfolding at major traffic intersections as motorists tried to navigate through stoplights that were no longer working.
