someone shorted out the city of los angeles (LA). millions of customers of the LA department of water and power lost power at 12:30 PM on 12 september 2005, and half the city continued to be electricity free for most of the afternoon. it was a massive power surge that took out the city of los angeles.
this is a cold test of the vulnerability of LA to any type of attack. in a scenario of radiological or biological strike, a blackout event draws people out of their homes and business into the street to find out what happened. in a few short minutes the toxic agent is released, and since a bulk of the community is outdoors, gets an exposure. fortunately, it was not an attack, but shear incompetence. still, it is a terrible test that LADWP failed miserably, that a crossed wire could cripple a city for over three hours, and for some ten hours!