03/19/01- Elevators ground to a halt and lights winked out Monday in Beverly Hills, Silicon Valley and other communities up and down California as rolling blackouts swept across the state for the first time. Nearly 1 million customers were affected in the worst day yet in California's power crisis. Many fear the blackouts are a preview of what is to come this summer. The blackouts were the first since January, but they lasted four hours, twice as long as those two months ago and were spread across a much wider area, from dairy farms in Chino to restaurants in San Francisco and homes near the state capital.

"The lights went out and it was pitch black," said Bobbi Brislin, assistant manager of a San Diego Wal-Mart that was forced to clear out 600 customers. "I couldn't even find the door."

Power grid managers ordered the outages after electricity reserves fell almost to zero because of a transformer fire, high demand, and a lack of power from idled plants and out-of-state suppliers.

Police officers and sheriff's deputies scrambled to direct traffic at intersections. At the Public Utilities Commission in San Francisco, deputy chief of staff Harriett Burt worked through the outage with a battery-powered lantern.

"I think we'll just carry on as everybody else does with these," she said cheerfully.

In Ventura, several people were trapped in an elevator near the 11th floor of the 22-story Dean Witter Building. Maintenance workers helped the passengers escape through the roof of the elevator car, and employees were led down the stairs by candlelight.

"What scares me is it's not even summer yet," said Edward White, co-owner of Pacific Pawn in West Hollywood. "There is no solution unless they raise rates or build new generators."

Rolling outages were last ordered Jan. 17 and 18, but they were limited to parts of Northern California.

This time, the blackouts stretched from Eureka, 85 miles from the Oregon line, to San Diego and for the first time reached into the suburbs of Los Angeles, which has been unaffected by mandatory outages because it has its own municipal power company.

"Everything has come to a stop," said Joan Tockey, a clerk at Mahogany Smoked Meats and Meadow Farms Country Smokehouse in Bishop, 270 miles north of Los Angeles. "We'll have to lock the door."

The blackouts knocked out power in the busy Los Angeles-area port of Long Beach and affected homes in suburban San Diego and the state capital of Sacramento. At San Francisco Fire Station 15, surprised crews scrambled to get power from emergency backup generators.

At the Raffles L'Ermitage hotel in Beverly Hills, where dozens of designers, hairstylists and makeup artists have set up shop for Sunday's Academy Awards show, many were preparing for the worst.

"We've got hundreds of thousands of dollars wrapped up in this," said Ted Kruckel, a publicist for jeweler Van Cleef & Arpels and Helena Rubinstein's Heather Canavan. "Why Oscar week?"

The blackouts were ordered by the California Independent System Operator shortly before noon after the state fell 1,000 megawatts short of the power it needs. A thousand megawatts is about enough to power 1 million homes.

The ISO declared a Stage 3 alert, the highest level of emergency. It blamed increased demand for electricity because of a warm snap, less power from the Northwest and the loss of 1,400 megawatts because of a transformer fire at a Southern California plant.

It also said 12,000 megawatts were unavailable because of idled plants - including some where officials say they haven't been paid by cash-strapped utilities for months and cannot afford to buy the natural gas they need to operate.

The ISO ordered the state's three largest utilities Pacific Gas & Electric, Southern California Edison and San Diego Gas and Electric to cut a total of 1,000 megawatts being used.

The utilities, together nearly 10 million California customers. SoCal Edison and PG&E officials said power had been cut to roughly 800,000 customers, while the San Diego utility cut power to 41,000 customers per hour.

California is anticipating a summer of power problems. Natural gas supplies are tight, water supplies are down and a true heat wave could drive up demand for power.

SoCal Edison and PG&E say they have lost $13 billion since last year because wholesale electricity prices have soared and because the state's 1996 deregulation law prevents the utilities from passing the costs on to ratepayers.

Gov. Gray Davis administration has committed itself to spending billions of dollars to buy power over the next decade on behalf of the two utilities, whose credit is all but exhausted. Legislators also have worked on ways to spur power plant construction.

At the Bishop meat shop, Tockey said the beef jerky supply wouldn't be affected, but workers worried about the ham and bacon in the freezer.

"All we can do is just make sure we keep the doors closed to hold in as much cold as we can," she said.

http://www.newsdirectory.com/go/?f=&r=ca&u=www.abc7.com

-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), March 19, 2001

Answers

Martin, I can't thank you enough for your hard work and dedication to this board. Please know that I am truly grateful for your posts.

I wish you all the best.

A fan

-- A fan (T1Colt556@aol.com), March 19, 2001.

San Diego hit with rolling blackouts. SAN DIEGO, March 19 – For the first time ever, state power officials ordered rolling blackouts in San Diego because of a critical electricity shortage around the state. San Diego Gas and Electric said that at 11:45 a.m. on Monday state officials ordered it to cut power usage by 37 megawatts, the amount of electricity needed to supply about 37,000 homes. To accomplish this, the utility temporarily shut off electricity to parts of San Diego, La Jolla, Oceanside, Vista, Escondido, San Pasqual, Poway, Rancho Bernardo, La Mesa, Lemon Grove and Spring Valley. The blackouts were to last for about an hour. The power outages are expected to continue into the evening, but they will rotate to different communities, SDG&E officials said. The blackouts cut power to entire neighborhoods. Problems were reported at numerous intersections because the traffic lights ceased to function, and police had not been given prior warning. There's already been a multiple injury accident attributed to one of the outages. It involved a broadside collision at the intersection of Otay Lakes Road and Telegraph Canyon, where the signals were out. An infant in one of the cars was airlifted to a hospital for treatment.

Traffic in many of other communities was impacted by nonfunctioning lights, including Spring Valley, Vista and San Marcos. Police say drivers should treat intersection where lights are not operating as a four-way stop.

A spokesperson for the California Independents System Operator (ISO), the group the manages the state power grid, blamed the Stage 3 power emergency on increased demand prompted by warm weather around the state. Adding to the problems, several smaller energy providers have taken their plants offline because they say they haven’t been paid for power they previously delivered.

The ISO also ordered rolling blackouts in the Los Angeles area and Northern California. Southern California Edison ordered power cut to wide areas of Los Angeles, Orange and Riverside counties. And Pacific Gas & Electric cut electricity to about 105,000 customers in Northern California.

Watch NBC 7/39 News for the latest information on this developing story

San Diego hit with rolling blackouts. SAN DIEGO, March 19 – For the first time ever, state power officials ordered rolling blackouts in San Diego because of a critical electricity shortage around the state. San Diego Gas and Electric said that at 11:45 a.m. on Monday state officials ordered it to cut power usage by 37 megawatts, the amount of electricity needed to supply about 37,000 homes. To accomplish this, the utility temporarily shut off electricity to parts of San Diego, La Jolla, Oceanside, Vista, Escondido, San Pasqual, Poway, Rancho Bernardo, La Mesa, Lemon Grove and Spring Valley. The blackouts were to last for about an hour. The power outages are expected to continue into the evening, but they will rotate to different communities, SDG&E officials said. The blackouts cut power to entire neighborhoods. Problems were reported at numerous intersections because the traffic lights ceased to function, and police had not been given prior warning. There's already been a multiple injury accident attributed to one of the outages. It involved a broadside collision at the intersection of Otay Lakes Road and Telegraph Canyon, where the signals were out. An infant in one of the cars was airlifted to a hospital for treatment.

Traffic in many of other communities was impacted by nonfunctioning lights, including Spring Valley, Vista and San Marcos. Police say drivers should treat intersection where lights are not operating as a four-way stop.

A spokesperson for the California Independents System Operator (ISO), the group the manages the state power grid, blamed the Stage 3 power emergency on increased demand prompted by warm weather around the state. Adding to the problems, several smaller energy providers have taken their plants offline because they say they haven’t been paid for power they previously delivered.

The ISO also ordered rolling blackouts in the Los Angeles area and Northern California. Southern California Edison ordered power cut to wide areas of Los Angeles, Orange and Riverside counties. And Pacific Gas & Electric cut electricity to about 105,000 customers in Northern California.

Watch NBC 7/39 News for the latest information on this developing story

http://www.nbcsandiego.com/ot_pages/popups/pop_mon.shtml

-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), March 19, 2001.

Rolling Blackouts Leave Kern County In Dark

12,500 Customers Affected By Power Outages

BAKERSFIELD, 5:34 p.m. PST March 19, 2001 -- Citizens of Kern County fell victim to rolling blackouts for the first time in history Monday, as the ongoing power crisis in California affected approximately 12,500 area customers.

Your23's Todd Quinones reported that the power outages occurred in Blocks 9 and 11 of the county, closing businesses and disabling traffic lights.

The time that had passed since the area's last Stage 3 power alert allowed many residents to develop a false sense of complacency. The result was a lack of preparation.

Quinones said that Pacific Gas & Electric employees were working frantically inside the command center, trying to remain on top of the situation.

The blackouts were expected to continue through the night.

http://www.newsdirectory.com/go/?f=&r=ca&u=www.kero.com

-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), March 19, 2001.

Tri-County Area Affected By California Rolling Blackouts Email story to a friend

The California Independent System Operator ordered rolling blackouts throughout the state Monday including in the Tri-County area. Customers in Santa Barbara, Montecito, Carpinteria, Oxnard, Lompoc, Los Alamos, Vandenberg Village and the Santa Ynez Valley were in the dark Monday afternoon. The blackouts could last into the evening and affect as many as two million households. A Stage Three Power alert was declared shortly before noon. Customers in Central and Northern California were also affected. The blackouts were the first since January.

http://www.newsdirectory.com/go/?f=&r=ca&u=www.keyt.com

-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), March 19, 2001.

Local businesses struggle to cope when the lights go out. Rolling blackouts hit California on Monday and caught both local law enforcement and Valley residents by surprise. The blackout hit the Tarpey Village area of Clovis in the afternoon. It came without warning affecting businesses and folks at home. Monday's blackouts hit so quickly that local police and emergency crews received no advance warning like they did in January. For the first time, thousands of Cal Edison customers in the South Valley were also left in the dark and did not escape rolling blackouts.

Visalia was hit with sporadic power outages all afternoon. Traffic lights were out and while some businesses had power, others did not. Dozens of stores and restaurants along Main Street were left in the dark and forced to close down.

City officials tell Action News they had no advance warning power was going to be turned off.

http://www.newsdirectory.com/go/?f=&r=ca&u=www.abc30.com

-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), March 19, 2001.

The fear of widespread outages because of
the Y2K bug never materialized. But today
California experience rolling blackouts for
the second time. These blackouts were not
materialized fears about Y2K but materialized
out of nowhere. uh, no - jellyfish ::::-§
uh, no - someone hit a power pole?

-- spider (spider0@usa.net), March 19, 2001.

Can you say, "Be prepared?"

-- Sally Strackbein (Sally@Y2KKitchen.com), March 20, 2001.