A Blackout that swept across parts of the Southwest began with a single utility worker

A blackout that swept across parts of the Southwest and Mexico apparently began with a single utility worker and a minor repair job.

The Arizona Public Service Co. worker was switching out a capacitor, which controls voltage levels, outside Yuma, Ariz., near the California border. Shortly after, a section of a major regional power line failed, eventually spreading trouble further down in California and later Mexico, officials said.

And the lights began to go out in a border region of roughly 6 million people.

The outage knocked out traffic lights, causing gridlock on the roads in the San Diego area. Two reactors at a nuclear power plant up the California coast went offline after losing electricity. More than 2 million gallons of sewage spilled into the water off San Diego, closing beaches in the nation’s eighth-largest city.

Many had to spend the night, on both sides of the U.S-Mexico border, struggling to fall asleep in the high temperatures.

Read Full: Washington Times