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"To my knowledge this is the first time we've lost an entire system,".
The outage started before 4 p.m. PDT extended from southern parts of Orange County to San Diego to Yuma, Arizona. It also is affecting cities south of the border across much of the state of northern Baja.
All outgoing flights from San Diego's Lindbergh Field were grounded and police stations were using gener- ators to accept emergency calls across San Diego County.
Residents in parts of eastern San Diego County and Yuma, Ariz. endured sweltering temperatures with no air conditioning.
"It's 113 degrees right now outside and 75 in my office," said Yuma city spokesman Greg Hyland, who was sitting in the dark, answering calls.
1.4 million customers may be without power until Friday.transmission failure that started at a large switching station in Arizona, where several high-voltage lines come together.
"I suspect the system was overwhelmed by too many outages in too many places,"
In the desert heat of the Palm Springs area, the temperature was 111 on Thursday, with the rolling blackouts.
The Eisenhower Medical Center will serve as an oasis of air conditioning since it operates on its own power source. Hospital welcomed fragile seniors and others affected by the heat to cool off in their lobby.
In southern Orange County, the sheriff's department dispatched deputies to busy intersections because traffic lights were out, said John McDonald, a sheriff's spokesman. Outages were confirmed in San Clemente, San Juan Capistrano and Laguna Hills, he said.