Power Blackout Hits Los Angeles

Two attorneys talk on their cell phones outside a building in Bunker Hill during the blackout.  (Iris Schneider / LAT)

Bunker Hill office workers mill around outside their blacked-out buildings.  (Brian Vander Brug / LAT)

The blackout led to traffic snarls such as this one at the intersection of 3rd and North Alvarado streets in Los Angeles.  (Al Seib / LAT)

Fidel Lemus, a cook at the Don Diego Mexican Restaurant in Burbank, had to work by the light from a kitchen window during the blackout.  (Lawrence K. Ho / LAT)

A Ralphs store in Burbank closed during the power outage.  (Lawrence K. Ho / LAT)

This woman was stuck in the elevator at the Westin Bonaventure Hotel in Los Angeles.  (Francine Orr / LAT)

People wait for a train in Downtown Los Angeles. Metro Rail Trains were delayed because of the blackout.  (Francine Orr / LAT)

A power surge started a fire in the fuse box of this house in Van Nuys. Firefighters contained the fire.  (Carlos Chavez / LAT)

Monday’s power outage occurred when a worker cut the wrong wires at this DWP receiving station in Toluca Lake.  (Carlos Chavez / LAT)