The 2005 Los Angeles power outage was a widespread power outage in Los Angeles, California on September 12, 2005 that began just before 1:00 PM (Pacific) [1831]. Though the city government says no terrorist involvement is suspected, ironically, an Al-Qaeda member said Los Angeles was a future target in a televised statement on September 11, 2005. No fires due to the outage had been reported in the city of Los Angeles or surrounding areas. 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 Mayor's office said that by 2:30 PM (Pacific) power had been restored to most locations.[1832]

According to the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, the massive power failure was caused by an employee inadvertently cutting a control wire at the Toluca Receiving Station. This caused a signal to be sent to shut down the power transmission system. [1833]
A later report by the Los Angeles Times indicates the cutting correctly followed a work order's instructions, but the work order was incorrect for unknown reasons. [1834]

The outage shut down Internet connectivity in the region, knocking out major hosting services such as DreamHost and social networking site MySpace.

After the blackout, worries arose that people were trapped in elevators in high-rises, especially in downtown Los Angeles. The 72-story US Bank Tower, the tallest building on the West Coast, is located downtown. None of the major government buildings -- including Los Angeles City Hall, City Hall East or various courthouses -- lost power during the blackout. Reports indicate that Parker Center may have been affected, in particular its underground gas pumps.

Television shows and movies who were in production were cancelled, and as a precaution every celebrity in Hollywood were taken to secure locations (many of them were revealed to be in Santa Barbara).

Streets in downtown Los Angeles received power within 30 minutes of the blackout.

All power was expected to be restored as 5 p.m. local time.

CNN also confirmed that this was not the works of Al-Qaeda or any other terrorist group.

References

² Map showing areas without power

³ Bernstein, Sharon. Large Portion of Los Angeles Loses Power. Los Angeles Times. Accessed on September 12, 2005.

See Also

California electricity crisis

List of power outages