Utility Error Disrupts Power in Los Angeles

NY Times
Sep. 12, 2005

LOS ANGELES, Sept. 12 - Large areas of Los Angeles lost power on Monday after utility workers doing maintenance work accidentally cut a line, officials said.

The blackout, which occurred just after 12:30 p.m. Pacific time and lasted for less than an hour in most areas, came a day after Sept. 11 and amid reports of threats by Al Qaeda against the city, setting off jitters citywide. During the power loss, television stations broadcast striking images of towering flames at refineries.

But the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, which provides electricity to a 400-square-mile area, blamed workers at a power station in the San Fernando Valley, and the fiery images turned out to be the routine burn-off of gas at the refineries as a precaution after some lost power.

Officials said there was no evidence of foul play, though the Police Department went on high alert for a few hours as a precaution.

Carol Tucker, a spokeswoman for the utility, said an estimated half of the 1.5 million homes and businesses it served were affected.

The failure was spotty, with a flicker of lights in some areas while others, including parts of downtown and the San Fernando Valley, were left without electricity for longer periods. By 2 p.m., 90 percent of the affected areas had been restored after natural-gas backup generators were started, the utility said.

Most residents seemed to take the blackout in stride.

"It gave me more time to smoke is all," said Casey Mitchell, a legal secretary taking a break outside a Wilshire Boulevard office building where his workday was interrupted for about 30 minutes.

The blackout did cause sporadic traffic delays when some signals went dark, and the Los Angeles Fire Department said it responded to several calls regarding stuck elevators. But Jim Wells, a department spokesman, said he was not aware of any "major rescues."

In most cases, Mr. Wells said, emergency power in high-rise buildings allowed elevators to return to the ground level without incident.

The failure hit neighborhoods from Wilmington, at the southern tip of the city near its port, to communities in the San Fernando Valley at the northern end.

Ron Deaton, the utility general manager, said at a news conference that the employees had cut a line and reattached it incorrectly, setting off a chain reaction that shut down a string of generating stations as does a circuit breaker in a home. The failure started at a receiving station, which brings high-voltage power into the city and spreads it to distribution centers at a lower voltage.

On Sunday, ABC News broadcast a videotape purported to have been made by a United States-born member of Al Qaeda, threatening terrorist attacks against Los Angeles and Melbourne, Australia. The man on tape, the network said, was Adam Yahiye Gadahn, a Southern Californian wanted for questioning by the F.B.I.

Mayor Anthony Villaraigosa of Los Angeles, appearing at a community event, said "there was no credible threat" against the city but cautioned that terrorists had previously considered Los Angeles targets. He said a blackout coming in this age of terrorism understandably "created a heightened sense of concern" but that most of the city quickly returned to normal.

"I'm here to assure you that our city is prepared to handle these situations," the mayor said, briefly addressing the failure before an event at the Simon Wiesenthal Center. "Power was restored to the vast majority of D.W.P. customers, 90 percent, within the first two hours."

In 2001, power shortages in the state caused rolling blackouts.