San Diego - A massive power outage left well over a million people without electricity in Southern California and parts of Arizona and Mexico on Thursday, San Diego Gas and Electric said, warning service might not be restored until the next day.
A high-power line supplying electricity to Southern California from Arizona was knocked out of service by an unknown cause.
Minutes later, that led to a blockage at California's San Onofre nuclear energy plant, a second major source of power to the north of San Diego, which shut down, the utility said.
San Diego International Airport said it cancelled all outbound flights, traffic came to a standstill as the city's street lights quit and about 70 people had to be rescued by the city's fire department from stalled elevators.
But police in the second-largest California city, located between Los Angeles and the Mexican border, reported no major problems and hospitals successfully switched to backup power, the Scripps Health chain said.
Local utility San Diego Gas and Electric said in a tweet that all 1.4 million of its customers were without power, while nearby utility Southern California Edison said the blackout had forced its two-unit San Onofre nuclear plant offline.
A spokeswoman said the plant had shut down safely.
Arizona utilities reported about 56 000 without power since about 3.40pm local time.
San Diego Gas and Electric has restored transmission to two major transmission lines involved in the crisis, but the company warned customers that power might not be restored overnight. “Prepare to stay home tonight without power,” the utility, owned by Sempra , told customers.
Stuck without refrigeration, employees at the Cardiff Seaside Market, a grocery and specialty food store in the town of Cardiff-by-the-Sea, north of San Diego, started grilling their inventory of fresh steaks and tuna in the parking lot and selling it cooked to passersby for cash.
Meanwhile, a line of about 50 customers waited at the front door for their turn to be led inside by a clerk to do their shopping in groups of two or three at a time.
“It's real hectic, there's lines everywhere now. But the customers are happy, everyone's patient, everyone's in a good mood, and we're serving them as quickly as we can,” manager John Shamam, 33, said as he served up a plate of tuna.
Many of the Tweets from San Diego residents revolved around air conditioning. “I'm going to die of heat in this house with no AC!” wrote Ashleigh Marie. “What am I supposed to dooo.”
But San Diego resident Kiersten White tweeted that the power outage “makes me glad I don't have air conditioning to begin with… nothing to miss!”
Other people were having a harder time. “Trapped outside of our rooms at the hotel,” tweeted Rob Myers, visiting from Washington. Other members of his party got trapped in an elevator, he wrote.
Blackouts hit Mexico's Northern Baja California state in the afternoon, knocking out power to hundreds of maquiladora export assembly plants in the sprawling industrial powerhouse of Tijuana, south of San Diego.
The blackouts knocked out stop lights at intersections across Tijuana, causing traffic snarl ups, and also cut power to hospitals and government offices. The border crossing at Otay Mesa was closed to all but pedestrian traffic. - Reuters