I'm in Los Angeles today and there's been a big huge honking power outage. I'm told by neighbors cellphoning friends in other areas of the city that the outage affected a very wide area for up to 3 hours in some locations. Big rolling blackout. Just came back on where I am right now, but areas as far north as the San Fernando Valley were affected, and as far south as the LA airport. WTF happened?
I phoned a pal in the 'hood on my mobile to ask if she knew anything. She didn't, and said "I guess this means I'm paranoid, but the first thing I did when the lights went out was change from heels to sneakers and get ready to run."
People were trapped in elevators, cars bumping into each other, streets are chaotic. When the power goes out, all stoplights are supposed to convert to four-way stop signs — but in Hollywood, nobody can count that high. Ohwaityestheycan, you just have to stick a little dollar sign in front of each number… or precede them with the words "Star Wars Episode."
UPDATE: Whups — LA Times reports that the blackout was "caused by an employee who inadvertently cut a power cable." Link
