[Updated at 9:02 p.m. ET] Authorities were investigating a power blackout in parts of southern California, Arizona and Mexico on Thursday that left more than 1 million customers without power and caused widespread traffic jams.
San Diego Gas & Electric said all of its 1.4 million customers were without power. The problem appeared to have originated in Arizona, the utility said.
"This caused our line from AZ and from the north of our region to both trip off," the utility posted on its Twitter account.
Power outages in California stretched from San Clemente to the state's border with Mexico on Thursday, a San Diego County spokesman told CNN.
In Arizona, about 56,000 customers in Yuma, lost power, Arizona Power and Supply said. Parts of Mexico's Baja California and Sonora states were also without power, Mexican authorities said.
The cause of the blackout was unclear. The San Diego utility said greater power usage during hot weather could be responsible.
FULL STORY
© 2012 Cable News Network. Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
| Advertising practices | Advertise with us | About us | Work for us | Help
Why are they talking like its in the past tense?!... the outage happend an hour ago and is expected to last into tomorrow... no power has been restored throughout San Diego all the way to Mission Viejo. The outage is still happening. San Diego Gas & Electric Co. officials said there was a problem with a transmission line between Arizona and California and that two units at the San Onofre nuclear plant went offline.
The utility officials told a news conference that they were unsure how long it would take to restore power but said some places might be without electricity into Friday. They said the priority was to get power back into central San Diego, then out to substations and to customers.
Because 8:23 E.T. (time of update) is in the past.
My question exactly. I am in current contact with my family in San Diego and they are all currently completely without power. This is a CURRENT and ongoing issue. Why indeed are all the reports using a past tense????
Again, because the update was in the past. They're saying all these things are accurate as of that time. This is very normal for journalism.
Currently attempting to eat 2 buckets of ice cream. Aww yeah.
Brain Freeze
That's the can-do spirit!
You sir are a champion.
Woah woah. Correction: ma'am.... although I'm kind of too young to be considered a ma'am.....
Everyone loves to blame Arizona.
Well I will tell you from the 75 hours I was without power (thanks Irene) DO NOT OPEN YOUR FRIDGE ONCE and go top of your cars!! Every gas station was out of gas for 3 days. Hope your power isn't out as long as ours was.
Maybe that part of the country isn't allowed to watch Football?
San Clemente? Try from AZ through the coachella valley and down to Mexico! It's 112 degrees in palm springs right now and I want to know exactly what happened! Please catch up CNN!
@Ali: I think you answered your own question. You said that it is 112 degrees in Palm Springs, so that means it is hot in your area, which means electricity demand is greater for all those A/C units, thus, failure of the elettrical grid in places because things overheat. Happens all the time. Enjoy the downtime by talking ot your family/friends instead of watching the tv or staring at this CNN blog.
Daughter in SD has cell service. Can't get out of her building though. Electric doors!
Manually pull them apart?
You boycott Az, we cut your power off. Have Fun!!
Are you ready for some Fooootball.
a major distraction to do who know what
Hot and sunny, this is why we all live here is Socal.
Go BROWNS!
Just pretend you had a hurricane and be glad it's only a day without power.
California needs Duke Energy from North Carolina
Oh, yes 2012 is nearing! It's all about the Technology we rely on. It is "HOT" here on the West Coast, but the sun is going down and will begin to cool off. We all have cars, use the air conditioning until you can open up your houses. Use your car charges for electonic thing. People, please think outside of the box. We r intelligent enough 2 create technology, we r smart enough to stay cool and ride out the storm!!!!!
No point in going to gas stations. They need electricity to operate their pumps!
Lou