More Than 2 Million Southern California, Arizona Residents Without Power Review

Bloomberg reports that more than 1.4 million people in Southern California have been without power since this afternoon. The power outage affects residents in southern Orange County all the way down to Baja. San Diego traffic is snarled, businesses are closed and people are being asked to stay off the roads unless absolutely necessary.

The cause of the blackout is unclear. Bloomberg reports that a 500-kilovolt electric transmission line carrying power from Arizona "went down" according to Don Boland, executive director of the California Utilities Emergency Association. But no one has explained how such a major power line could go down. Other reports say that line was 'severed' which is also pretty vague.

Both reactors at the San Onofre nuclear power plant shut down when the power went out. Gil Alexander, a spokesman for Southern California Edison, said the failure caused no safety problems.

Southern California Edison and the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power are trying to make up for the loss of power. Arizona residents in 56,000 residents and businesses Yuma county are also without power. The power may not be restored until tomorrow and it hit 113 degrees in Yuma today.

Update: More than 2 million people are now without power, from part of Orange County, down to Mexico and Baja California, and as far west as Arizona. There is no estimate of when power will be restored.

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