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Power Surge in L.A. Area Apparently Causes Widespread Problems
Detail of LADWP's downtown headquarters | Photo by Mr Gold via LAist Featured Photos on Flickr
Detail of LADWP's downtown headquarters | Photo by Mr Gold via LAist Featured Photos on Flickr
A power surge across Los Angeles this afternoon may have caused two TV stations to go dark while others on Twitter commented about how it affected them. A LADWP spokesperson said the agency experienced a dip in the system around 3:15 p.m. "It has something to do with equipment on our transmission lines," explained Gale Harris. "As far as we are showing, no customers were out as related to that." She said the light flickered in her downtown office at the utility's headquarters.Nonetheless, at the same time problems occurred for many throughout the city even if LADWP cannot confirm they are related.
"You don't see this every day -- two network-owned stations off the air in Los Angeles," reported Kevin Roderick at LAObserved. Finally at 4:18 p.m. KCAL9 went back on the air. "We took a pretty severe power hit," said a newscaster. "We're still trying to..." Then the audio went out and you could only see the picture.
KCAL eventually put a logo on the screen as it fixed audio issues. At 4:22 p.m., the newscast attempted to return, but with more audio problems. At 4:25, audio was back and off again and back again. It looping stock audio and footage of the city as occasional audio problems continueed to persist. At 4:30 p.m., things appeared to be normal.
Mixed Martial Arts fighter Jason Mayhem Miller was on air at the Jason Ellis Show when the power went out. "The radio station had a power surge, we got cut off," he tweeted. Ellis said "No, that wasn't SIRIUS XM taking us off the air for being too awesome. We had a power outage in LA. Sorry y'all."
Blogger Jason Burns tweeted that his phones and that a whole server went down.
[Updated: The LA Times says "more than two dozen intersections" scattered around the city were hit with problems.]
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For the Record: An earlier version of this post quoted someone on Twitter with an unrelated power surge.
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