A large portion of Los Angeles was hit with a blackout Monday afternoon. The city was investigating the cause and extent of the outage. But Sgt. Catherine Plows, a police spokeswoman, said terrorism was not suspected. Electrical power was knocked out shortly before 1 p.m. after two power surges, and traffic was snarled at intersections throughout the city when stop lights went dark. The lights also went out at downtown high- rises.
The Police Department went on "full tactical alert," meaning no officers were allowed to leave duty. | Looting in 10...9..8..BANG!.."rosebud"...looting canceled |
The blackout came a day after ABC aired a videotape of a purported al- Qaida member making terrorist threats against Los Angeles and Melbourne, Australia, on the fourth anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks. | I'm sure they'll claim credit |
Heavy usage on hot days can lead to blackouts. But the weather in Los Angeles was not unsually hot Monday. |