A guest walks out of a downtown San Diego hotel during a massive power outage on Thursday, Sept. 8, 2011. — K.C. Alfred
A massive, unprecedented power outage left 1.4 million residents in San Diego County and surrounding areas without electricity Thursday afternoon and officials say power may not be restored for some until Friday.
The outage, which began at 3:38 p.m., was triggered by a cascade of events that started when a 500-kilovolt high-voltage line from Arizona to California went out, which then knocked the San Onofre nuclear power plant offline. Those are the two major power sources for the region.
Besides the county, affected customers reside in eastern Arizona, northern Mexico and southern Orange County. The power failure led to school and business closures, suspended water service in some areas, flight cancellations, blacked-out traffic lights, silent radio stations and trapped elevator passengers.
While power remains out, authorities recommend residents stay at home and off the roads, conserve water, turn off air conditioners and resist calling 911 unless there is serious emergency. An 8 p.m. news conference was scheduled for emergency and utility officials to give an update on the outage.
Mike Niggli, president and chief operating officer for San Diego Gas & Electric, said the company is working on a restoration plan but warned that electricity may be out for a while.
“We want all of our customers being focused on emergency supply plans,” he said. “We will do anything we can do get the power supply back as soon as possible here in San Diego.”
Niggli said the cause of the power failure has yet to be determined.
“Essentially we have two connections to the rest of the world — one to the north and one to the east — and both of those connections were severed,” he said. “We actually don’t know what happened to the line. All we know is the line went out.”
Officials throughout the county said there was no indication that the event was caused by terrorism.
The power failure threw a wrench in the everyday life of a modern society that is heavily dependent on electricity. Commerce ground to a halt as gas stations and other businesses closed their doors. Residents familiar with breezy San Diego temperatures scrambled to buy ice and other comforts to cope with a continuing heat wave.
Peggy Gimbel, who had to pry open her garage door to get out of her Carlsbad home, called the break from power “peaceful” as she sat at a nail salon. She said the outage shows the fragility of the region’s energy system.
“It’s a fact of life. We are dependent upon things,” Gimbel said. About dealing with the lack of electricity, she said, “You put on your big girl pants and deal with it.”
For some, the outage’s proximity to the 10-year anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks caused worry.
“It’s the worst day of the year. … It’s just freaky that is was so close to 9/11,” said Kim Conway, who was shopping at a San Marcos grocery store. Her cart was filled with beer and alcohol as she and her neighbors prepared for an impromptu block party in the dark.
Transportation in all its forms was hit or miss, depending on if it required electricity to operate.
Heavy traffic was reported throughout the county’s roadways as darkened stoplights slowed traffic amid a mass exodus of drivers headed home.
California Highway Patrol Officer Brian Pennings said gridlock ensued minutes after the outage. He said there were several reports of drivers illegally running through intersections.
“People are forgetting that when power is out at an intersection, it is a stop sign,” he said. “We’re having crashes because people are blowing through these intersections as if it’s a green light.”
Inbound flights are still landing at Lindbergh Field although outbound flights have been halted until power is restored because of an inability to screen passengers. An FAA spokesman said the control tower at San Diego International Airport is operating on backup generators to manage air traffic around the airport.
All 34 trolleys in service have ground to a halt without electricity, Metropolitan Transit System reports. However, every available MTS bus was being put into service.
Coaster and Sprinter trains are running for now as is Amtrak. Track signals are operating on battery backup and only have a couple of hours of power remaining. When they go, the railroad operations will shut down.
Gas stations are closing down, with no power to pump fuel and no means of processing transactions.
Hospitals around the county were operating off backup generators, and officials at several facilities said patients weren’t in any danger.
At the University of California San Diego hospitals in Hillcrest and La Jolla, full power was being delivered to emergency rooms, burn units and other critical areas such as operating rooms that were in use when the blackout occurred, said spokeswoman Kimberly Edwards.
“Everything is super calm,” Edwards said. “We drill for everything from earthquakes and tsunamis to power outages and water loss.”
The outage also left an unknown number of people stranded in elevators across the county.
About 70 elevator rescues were needed shortly after the outage. Maurice Luque, spokesman for the San Diego Fire-Rescue Department, said firefighters responded to calls with medical emergencies first and began responding to the rest about 6:45 p.m. Many of the rescues were requested in downtown and University City areas, where there are taller buildings, he said.
Luque said the department is not responding to ringing fire alarms unless there is a report of smoke and fire, and even then fewer engines may be sent than usual. The city’s contract ambulances have been swamped with calls for service, so patients at traffic accident scenes have been taken to hospitals on fire engines.
“Don’t call 911 unnecessarily,” Luque warned. “Legitimate emergency calls can’t get through.”
Another major concern is water. The supply from the San Diego County Water Authority remains stable and safe, but some San Diego city residents may have difficulty accessing water as several pump stations are without power. City officials said some customers could see a significant drop in water pressure and urged residents to conserve.
Not everyone was left in the dark. Several homes, government buildings and businesses, including casinos and The San Diego Union-Tribune, had power thanks to backup generators.
The power failure also left Friday’s opening of schools, businesses and public facilities up in the air as electricity may or may not be restored to some areas by late Thursday or early Friday. A stream of closure announcements for local schools began early Thursday evening.
The outage occurred on the final day of a heat wave that sent temperatures eight to 12 degrees above normal. Temperatures shot into the upper 90s and low 100s across inland valleys and foothills, and as high as 114 in the local desert. The weather was even stifling at the coast due to the lack of a sea breeze. By midafternoon, the temperature had hit 89 in Chula Vista and 88 in Encinitas.
The heat was produced by a high pressure system that extended from the Sea of Cortez to the deserts of San Bernardino County. The National Weather Service in San Diego, which was still operating on backup generators at 5:15 p.m., said that the ridge was expected to break down overnight, and that temperatures will be moderate on Friday, rising to the mid-80s and low 90s across inland valleys and foothills, the 80s in local mountains, and the low-to-mid 70s at the coast.
The heat was produced by a high pressure system that extended from the Sea of Cortez to the deserts of San Bernardino County. The National Weather Service in San Diego, which was still operating on backup generators at 5:15 p.m., said that the ridge was expected to break down overnight, and that temperatures will be moderate on Friday, rising to the mid-80s and low 90s across inland valleys and foothills, the 80s in local mountains, and the low-to-mid 70s at the coast.
Staff writers Aaron Burgin, Kristina Davis, Robert Hawkins, Karen Kucher, Jen Lebron Kuhney, Lily Leung, Hailey Persinger, Pauline Repard, Gary Robbins and Nathan Scharn contributed to this report.
