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Huge blackout darkens Yuma, Southwest
CLASSES CANCELLED: Crane District, District 1, Somerton District, Amerischools Academies, Yuma Catholic High School, Yuma Union High School District have been cancelled for Friday, as school officials expected some campuses to remain without power during the day. Classes at Yuma Catholic High School, Southwestern Christian School and Harvest Preparatory Academy were also cancelled.
An official with the Gadsden Elementary District said a decision about whether to open Friday or not had not been made as of this time.
Friday classes at Arizona Western College and Northern Arizona University-Yuma were also cancelled. Officials have not decided whether or not Friday night football games will proceed as scheduled.
Maintenance conducted by APS on the Gila Substation northeast of Yuma Thursday afternoon caused a cascade effect that led to the loss of power for up to 5 million residents in Arizona, Southern California and Mexico officials stated.
Among APS customers, approximately 56,000 lost service throughout Yuma, Somerton, San Luis and Gadsden. APS was able to restore power to area customers by 10 p.m.
According to APS, at approximately 3:30 p.m., the North Gila - Hassayampa 500 kV transmission line near Yuma tripped offline resulting in a major power outage.
The line connects to the Hassayampa Switchyard, which interconnects the generating facilities in the vicinity of the Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station located approximately 60 miles west of Phoenix, and serves as a major electrical conduit into Southern California.
“From that switchyard, the power goes west out of there on the North Gila - Hassayampa 500 kV line, and that is the only line that goes from Arizona to San Diego County, and it goes through Yuma,” explained Jeff Lane, spokesman for the Salt River Project, which operates the Hassayampa Switchyard.
The outage appears to be related to a procedure an APS employee was carrying out in the North Gila substation, a press release stated.
Operating and protection protocols typically would have isolated the resulting outage to the Yuma area, but did not do so in this case. The reason they did not will be the focal point of an APS investigation into the event, which already is under way.
“We are working hard to restore our customers as quickly and safely as possible,” said APS President and Chief Operating Officer Don Robinson.
“We take great pride in our hard-earned reputation for safe and reliable service, and we will work hard to identify the cause.”
Outages stretched from Yuma Proving Ground south into Mexico, and from the Foothills to Winterhaven, El Centro and San Diego, causing two units at the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station near San Clemente to go offline in California.
According to the city of Yuma, APS planned to first restore power to critical facilities, like hospitals and cooling centers.
Due to the effects of the regional power outage, the city of Yuma and the city of Somerton activated their Emergency Operations Centers to address residents' needs as they arose.
By 6:45 p.m., all city of Yuma services were functioning at full or near-full capacity, officials reported.
During the crisis, the Yuma Civic Center was used as a “cooling center,” or a place residents could go to if they are without power for a prolonged period and needed to get out of the heat. It was closed when power was restored. An additional cooling center was opened in Somerton.
Thursday events at all city of Yuma facilities including Desert Hills, Civic Center and the Art Center were cancelled as a result of the loss of power.
Classes at all schools in the Crane District, District 1, Somerton District, Amerischools Academies and the Yuma Union High School District have been cancelled for Friday, as school officials expected some campuses to remain without power during the day.
Yuma Catholic High School as well as both Yuma and San Luis Harvest Preparatory Academy campuses both cancelled classes as well.
An official with the Gadsden Elementary District said a decision about whether to open Friday or not had not been made as of press time Thursday.
Friday classes at Arizona Western College and Northern Arizona University-Yuma were also cancelled. Officials have not decided whether or not Friday night football games will proceed as scheduled.
Power to the Yuma International Airport was restored Thursday evening, however, flights into Yuma Thursday night and early Friday morning were still canceled, said Gen Grosse, spokesperson for the Yuma International Airport.
Aside from the early morning flights, which were canceled, the rest of Friday's flight schedule was expected to go back to normal.
To rebook a flight, passengers should talk to a customer service representative at the airport. However, if a passenger is not at the airport, they can call 1-800-864-8331.
Although there were a few instances of vehicular collisions reported during the outage Thursday, the city of Yuma remained mostly quiet, said Sgt. Clint Norred, YPD spokesman.
“Shift change was about that time so we had a lot of officers on standby and accepting calls for service along with the fire department. The public safety aspect was handled and folks are being pretty responsible with not bogging us by calling emergency numbers with frivolous type calls.”
The 911 lines were kept open during the power outage through the use of emergency generators, Norred said.
“It has gone on and off a few times at the station but we have back up generator power. The public safety communications center - the police and fire folks - are going to have power. We are there 24 hours a day, and are still functioning.”
Chris McDaniel can be reached at cmcdaniel@yumasun.com or 539-6849.
