The lights went out in office towers, shopping centers, homes and other buildings in more than a dozen Southland cities yesterday, from parts of Los Angeles' trendy Westside all the way down to communities in San Diego. Hundreds of stores and restaurants were forced to close, some people were trapped in elevators, and traffic in many areas ground to a halt as signals stopped working.
The scene was repeated in parts of Northern California, as well. In all, power officials say energy was cut to about 1.3 million customers statewide. The outages ranged from several minutes to more than two hours.
The deliberate blackouts were initiated by the California Independent System Operator, which oversees the state's power supply. Dogged for months by a shortage of electricity, the ISO's order for utilities to unilaterally cut power was reluctantly issued as energy use soared due to unseasonable warm weather—a surprising heat wave that sent temperatures in many Southern California cities soaring above 90 degrees.
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