Massive power outage hits U.S.

A major outage knocked out power in a region of almost six million people in the U.S. southwest and Mexico on Thursday, bringing San Diego to a near-standstill and leaving people in the surrounding desert to swelter in late-summer heat.Two nuclear reactors went offline after losing electricity, but officials said there was no danger to the public or workers.More than one million utility customers in San Diego County, parts of Orange County, parts of Arizona and the Mexican state of Baja California all lost power after a line transporting electricity from Arizona power plants to California customers failed, according to the California Independent System Operator.In a press release Thursday night, the Arizona Public Service (APS) said one of its employees was carrying out a procedure at a substation northeast of Yuma that caused the problem. The utility said the resulting power failure should have been isolated to the Yuma area. An investigation into why it was not is under way, the utility said.This was not a deliberate act. The employee was just switching out a piece of equipment that was problematic," said Dan Froetscher, a vice president at APS.The Orange County Fire Authority reported an increase in traffic accidents as drivers attempted to navigate streets without functional traffic signals, the Los Angeles Times reported, adding there had been some reports of people being rescued from amusement parks and elevators.
Extra police were deployed on the streets of San Diego Thursday night and residents were advised to stay at home.