LOS ANGELES -- Power returned to West Los Angeles Wednesday night, two hours after an outage affected as many as 20,500 customers in the area.
Los Angeles police in parts of the city's Westside went on a tactical alert, allowing commanders to keep all hands on deck in response to the blackout.
The 7:47 p.m. outage put traffic lights out of commission and caused traffic jams along some of the Westside's already busy thoroughfares. Sepulveda Boulevard, previously made busy by a brush fire in the Sepulveda Pass, appeared to be backed up for miles; the same went for Santa Monica Boulevard. The Department of Water and Power sent a message via Twitter stating that 20,500 customers were without power in the area.
Los Angeles police and city Department of Transportation crews set up throughout the Sawtelle neighborhood in efforts to control traffic. KTLA also monitored reports of city fire units rescuing people stuck in elevators made inoperable by the outage.
Power was restored to all customers by about 9:55 p.m., according to DWP officials.
A bad transformer or relay at a DWP substation at Cotner and Nebraska avenues was said to have caused the outage.
The area affected by the outage was bounded by Wilshire Boulevard on the north, the Santa Monica (10) Freeway on the south, Centinela Boulevard on the west and Overland Avenue on the east.
Los Angeles police in parts of the city's Westside went on a tactical alert, allowing commanders to keep all hands on deck in response to the blackout.
The 7:47 p.m. outage put traffic lights out of commission and caused traffic jams along some of the Westside's already busy thoroughfares. Sepulveda Boulevard, previously made busy by a brush fire in the Sepulveda Pass, appeared to be backed up for miles; the same went for Santa Monica Boulevard. The Department of Water and Power sent a message via Twitter stating that 20,500 customers were without power in the area.
Los Angeles police and city Department of Transportation crews set up throughout the Sawtelle neighborhood in efforts to control traffic. KTLA also monitored reports of city fire units rescuing people stuck in elevators made inoperable by the outage.
Power was restored to all customers by about 9:55 p.m., according to DWP officials.
A bad transformer or relay at a DWP substation at Cotner and Nebraska avenues was said to have caused the outage.
The area affected by the outage was bounded by Wilshire Boulevard on the north, the Santa Monica (10) Freeway on the south, Centinela Boulevard on the west and Overland Avenue on the east.
