PULLING THE PLUG BLACKOUT HITS SCV, OTHER LOCAL AREAS.

Byline: ALEX DOBUZINSKIS Staff Writer

SANTA CLARITA -- A power outage hit Monday over a far-flung area that included the entire Santa Clarita Valley -- bringing life to a temporary yet frustrating halt.

Outages ranged from 30 minutes to two hours and were reported in San Fernando, Chatsworth, the center of Simi Valley and in Fillmore.

``I think it pretty much blanketed those entire areas,'' said Rudy Gonzales, region manager for Southern California Edison.

In Santa Clarita, roads quickly jammed, stores closed and offices shut down as computer screens turned black. Then after an hour, electricity was restored grid by grid.

The outage began at about 3:05 p.m., affecting more than 125,000 Edison customers, Gonzales said. By 4 p.m., power had been returned to all but 22,000 customers.

Edison officials were unsure late Monday what caused the outage, though one official with the company said the problem involved a high-voltage transmission line while another said the power went out when 16 substations went down.

Brianne Harding of Canyon Country was stuck at a gas station at a busy Valencia intersection, looking out on eight to 10 lanes of gridlock in all directions. The gasoline pump stopped, but she stayed put.

``I'll stay here and watch everyone honk and freak out,'' Harding said.

The lights went out during the Jewish High Holy Days services at Temple Beth Ami, but the 150 worshippers took it in stride.

``They opened up the door to bring some light into the sanctuary,'' said Joyce Stein, vice president for religion and rituals. ``We've had this happen before on Yom Kippur, so we know what to do.''

In Simi Valley, the power loss lasted just 30 minutes, hitting an area in the center of town, police Lt. Sterling Johnson said.

A traffic collision at a San Fernando intersection was blamed on the outage and a chorus of burglar alarms across Fillmore came with the interruption in electricity, police in those cities said.

And in Valencia, it was a bad hair day for a few unlucky women at Carlton Hair, where some left without benefit of blow dryers and other tools of the trade.

``Yeah, one of our customers had to run out with wet hair,'' stylist Edith Aceves said. Another left with crimson hair dye still saturating her hair.

Nobody was caught under the drill at Valencia Dental Center and Orthodontics, but patients called to cancel their appointments because they were stuck in traffic, hygienist Tena McGrath said.

At Talbots in Valencia, ``customers just put their clothes on hold and ran out,'' a saleswoman said.

With no elevators, UPS driver Ron Leunis climbed three flights of stairs to deliver packages at Santa Clarita City Hall and at another nearby building.

Traffic snarled as many intersections went black, but about 15 major junctions were unaffected, powered by a battery backup system, city spokeswoman Gail Ortiz said.

The city relies on cell-phone technology for communicating in the field during disasters but maintains a redundant radio system if land lines and cell communication are down. The city's radio official, who was heading into City Hall after the outage, said one of the channels in the emergency communications repeater site perched on a local mountaintop had gone off the air.

``I'm a little concerned,'' said Brad Marckwardt, the city's radio officer. ``These are the systems we need when a big earthquake hits. A power outage like this is a good test of our backup system, so when a big incident comes we know we're ready to go.''

Staff writers Judy O'Rourke, Connie Llanos and Carol Rock contributed to this story.

alex.dobuzinskis(at)dailynews.com

[phone]

CAPTION(S):

photo

Photo:

(color) Traffic backs up on Magic Mountain Parkway after a widespread power outage shut down traffic lights in Santa Clarita on Monday. Outages ranged from 30 minutes to two hours and most service was back up by 4 p.m.

David Crane/Staff Photographer