DELUGE DIMS VALLEY LIGHTS; SNARLS TRAFFIC.Byline: Jesse Hiestand Daily News Staff Writer More than 100 traffic signals were knocked out Tuesday across the San Fernando Valley San Fernando Valley Valley, southern California, U.S. Northwest of central Los Angeles, the valley is bounded by the San Gabriel, Santa Susana, and Santa Monica mountains and the Simi Hills. , stalling thousands of motorists in intersections and making the water-logged morning commute that much worse. The signals were left flashing or dark because of power outages This is a list of famous wide-scale power outages. 1965
About 14,000 people lost power after 7 a.m., but by 5 p.m. electricity had been restored to all but about 3,500 of them, said Department of Water and Power spokesman Ed Freudenburg. Lingering power outages meant that some signals remained dark or flashing into the evening. As electricity was restored, transportation crews had to fan out across the area to reset each of the signals by hand, officials said. Exactly why the signals cannot be set automatically was not clear to the man in charge of traffic signals for Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. . ``That's just the way these machines were designed,'' said Azzam Jabsheh, an engineer with the city's Department of Transportation. ``There's a circuit breaker circuit breaker, electric device that, like a fuse, interrupts an electric current in a circuit when the current becomes too high. The advantage of a circuit breaker is that it can be reset after it has been tripped; a fuse must be replaced after it has been used in the cabinet, and when it notices a problem with the power it goes into flash mode and then we have to send someone to that location to reset it. ``It's all or nothing - and it's designed that way throughout the United States United States, officially United States of America, republic (2005 est. pop. 295,734,000), 3,539,227 sq mi (9,166,598 sq km), North America. The United States is the world's third largest country in population and the fourth largest country in area. ,'' he added. Jabsheh says he looks forward to the day when the city can install curbside computers that reset themselves. But for now, he says, most municipalities use the same system - one that is inconvenient in outages but protects its electronic innards with a circuit breaker. Storms also bringing future water bounty The storms pummeling California are bringing summertime security for Los Angeles by dropping above-average levels of snow in the eastern Sierras where the city gets most of its water, according to according to prep. 1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians. 2. In keeping with: according to instructions. 3. the first official Department of Water and Power survey. The snowpack snow·pack n. An area of naturally formed, packed snow that usually melts during the warmer months. snowpack 1. , which normally satisfies three-quarters of the city's annual water needs, is about 110 percent of normal and is expected to provide enough water for the city's needs this year, officials said. During the last El Nino of 1982-83, the snowpack measured at 177 percent above normal in the February snow survey. CAPTION(S): 3 Photos, Box PHOTO (1) Residents throughout the Southland broke out the umbrellas and sandbags sandbags small sacks containing sand used to support an anesthetized animal in dorsal recumbency and prevent it from rolling sideways during anesthesia or surgery. as the biggest storm of the season delivered torrents of rain Tuesday. At top, a work crew tires to clean out Pena Creek where it passes under Pacific Coast Highway Pacific Coast Highway may refer to:
Tina Gerson/Daily News (2) Above, Lee Ly gives her daughter, Anna, 6, an assist as they leave Fullbright Avenue Elementary School in Winnetka. Terri Thuente/Daily News (3) At right, a vehicle is stranded in creek waters in Placerita Canyon. Shaun Dyer/Special to the Daily News BOX: Storms also bringing future water bounty (see text) |
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