Free Republic

A major power outage, which left more than six million people in California and Arizona in darkness, was caused by a single maintenance worker, it has been revealed. The power cut took two nuclear reactors offline, grounded flights, caused major traffic jams and trapped people in elevators and on fairground rides in both states. San Diego bore the brunt of the blackout and most of the nation's eighth-largest city was darkened. The city trolley system that shuttles thousands of commuters every day was shut down and rush hour traffic hit gridlock. APS, Arizona's largest electricity provider, said a utility worker...

SAN DIEGO - A major power outage knocked out electricity to up to 5 million people in California, Arizona, and Mexico yesterday, bringing San Diego and Tijuana to a standstill and leaving people sweltering in the late-summer heat in the surrounding desert. Two nuclear reactors were offline after losing electricity, but officials said there was no danger to the public or workers. San Diego bore the brunt of the blackout; most of the nation’s eighth-largest city was darkened. All outgoing flights from San Diego’s Lindbergh Field were grounded and police stations were using generators to accept emergency calls across the...

<p>A large swath of San Diego County was without power Thursday afternoon as officials investigated the cause of the outage.</p>