City of Los Angeles Watch: Major Power Outage Strikes the City

The ASSociated Press has Large Portion of Los Angeles Loses Power

A large portion of Los Angeles was hit with a blackout Monday afternoon. The city was investigating the cause and extent of the outage. But Sgt. Catherine Plows, a police spokeswoman, said terrorism was not suspected.

Electrical power was knocked out shortly before 1 p.m. after two power surges, and traffic was snarled at intersections throughout the city when stop lights went dark. The lights also went out at downtown high- rises.

The Police Department went on “full tactical alert,” meaning no officers were allowed to leave duty.

The blackout came a day after ABC aired a videotape of a purported al- Qaida member making terrorist threats against Los Angeles and Melbourne, Australia, on the fourth anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks.

Heavy usage on hot days can lead to blackouts. But the weather in Los Angeles was not unsually hot Monday.

Fox News is reporting that an electrical line was accidentally disrupted by a DWP crew.

DWP is still investigating the outage.

Parts of the San Fernando Valley have already had their power restored.