http://news.yahoo.com/power-back-1-4-million-san-diego-customers-123912712.htmlSAN DIEGO (AP) — Electricity was restored in San Diego early Friday after utility crews worked around-the-clock to make emergency repairs following an outage accidentally triggered by a utility worker.
Parts of California, Arizona and Mexico also were left in the dark.
The restoration of power in San Diego signaled that the blackout was essentially over, with electricity back to almost everyone affected by the outage, though the electrical system was deemed fragile and people were urged to go easy on air conditioning.
San Diego schools and beaches remained closed.
The San Diego area was hit especially hard with power severed about 4 p.m. Thursday to all of San Diego Gas & Electric Co.'s 1.4 million household and business customers, the company said, leaving residents sweltering without air conditioners and paralyzing some San Diego freeway and airport traffic.
Power was restored in San Diego Friday morning. According to tallies provided by officials, power was also restored to 180,000 customers in Mexico and 56,000 in Yuma, Arizona.
The entire region is home to some 6 million people, though it was impossible to say exactly how many had lost power.
The outage occurred after an electrical worker removed a piece of monitoring equipment at a power substation in southwest Arizona, officials at Phoenix-based Arizona Public Service Co. said.
It's possible that extreme heat in the region also may have caused some problems with the transmission lines, said Mike Niggli, chief operating officer of San Diego Gas & Electric Co.
Two reactors at a nuclear power plant along the coast went offline after losing electricity, but officials said there was no danger to the public or workers.
During the night, much of San Diego was in darkness, and all outgoing flights grounded at its main airport, Lindbergh Field. The airfield was open and had power Friday morning but authorities said some airlines may have cancelled individual flights.
The blackout extended south of the border to Tijuana, Mexicali and other cities in Mexico's Baja California state, which are connected to the U.S. power grid, Niggli said.
Police on both sides sent in re-enforcements to prevent looting and other crime in their cities, but none was reported.
In the border city of Tijuana, people formed long lines outside convenience stores Thursday, trying to buy ice or take advance of beer being sold at half price. Many people were drinking that beer on the streets or in parked cars with speakers booming loud music.
Cars also formed snaking lines at the few gas stations with generators that remained open and Traffic snarled street after traffic lights stopped working.
Jose Padilla Flores, who was one of the few people who still had electricity Thursday, was offering to let people watch the telenovela on his television if they bought fried tacos and flavored water from his small restaurant "El Dorado" in the Independencia neighborhood.
"My female neighbors were the first ones to ask if I could let them watch the telenovela," said Padilla Flores, 35. "I thought that was a great idea to promote my business."
The outage came more than eight years after a more severe black out in 2003 darkened a large swath of the Northeast and Midwest. More than 50 million people were affected in that outage.
In 2001, California's failed experiment with energy deregulation was widely blamed for six days of rolling blackouts that cut power to more than 3 million customers and shut down refrigerators, ATMs and traffic signals.
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