5:28 p.m. PDT, September 8, 2011

SAN DIEGO -- A major power outage hit San Diego County, Imperial County and parts of Orange County Thursday, leaving more than one million residents without power *throughout the region.

The outage knocked out power at the Fox 5 studios at about 3:40 p.m.

San Diego Gas and Electric officials said all 1.4 million of its customers were without power. In addition, southern Orange County and Baja California from Tijuana to Ensenada were also blacked out.


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WEBSITE: San Diego International Airport

Officials said they were scrambling to find out the cause of the outage and restore power as soon as possible, but they did not know how long it would take to. *They said residents should be prepared to be without power for quite some time.

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At a late afternoon news conference, a spokesman said that the outage started with a problem on a transmission line in Arizona. That caused a sequence of events that shut down both generators at San Onofre Nuclear Power Station . *The other two* main power supplies to the region, a transmission line from the north and another from the east, were also down,* the spokesman said.

SDG&E officials said they did not know exactly why the power went out, but there was no indication of terrorism.

Officials advised residents to stay off roads and make sure they have batteries and candles for lights and plenty of water. People should also turn off air conditioning units so that there is not a massive drain on electricity when power is eventually restored.

All flights out of Lindbergh Field have been canceled indefinitely, but inbound flights are being allowed to land, airport officials said. Air traffic controllers are operating on backup power, the Federal Aviation Administration said.

San Diego Trolley service has been suspended. Street lights throughout the region are also out.

Fox5sandieog.com will have additional information as it becomes available.