San Diego countywide power outage.

From Tijuana to south Orange county, from the ocean to Yuma... Lights out. The lights went out at about 330pm and it's still put at 10pm. Parts of San Diego are slowly coming back online. Everyone so far is safe and in good spirits, and of course... Me and my wife are enjoying the flashlights I "wasted" my money on.

The first thing I pulled out was my EDC 4sevens tactical 1AA at full power. Ushered out everyone from their dark offices and began calling who I can. I tell you..... It's an eerie feeling when you start getting reports that your entire city is out of power. Traffic started to build up as the lights went out and next thing you know it's gridlocked on surface streets. People start freaking out at dead gas stations. Luckily mobile service was on battery backup and my internet service has a battery so I'm able to use my iPad to send this out to the world.

I'm kicking myself with my recent flashlight collection though... They are mostly li-ion based now :duh2: luckily I have some that operate on both 14500 cells and AA so I've scrounged up some alkaline cells to use for now. My li-ion cells are on standby and my car inverter is ready to go to recharge our cells and phones. This is really making me appreciate the dual nature of some of these lights. I think I will buy lights that have the ability to work on common alkaline cells just in case.

Guess what lights I've used the most so far... My headlight and candles. You've heard other members report the same thing in disasters as these. It's not about having the biggest and brightest anymore... In fact, I've had to reprogram most of my lights for moonlight mode because anything more than 30lumens will blast your eyes when they are adjusted... It's almost embarrassing really when you walk by neighbors with a 300 lumen light lol :thumbsup:

Headlights are key. I think I will be buying another zebralight 1aa for my wife. I noticed how you really need both hands when your prepping for emergencies.

I've also put all my flashlights down and am now typing this by candlelight. You start to wonder what if.... This lasts for a few days. I'm not burning through my batteries in one night. I tell you I've got some thinking to do tonight about emergency preparedness.

Well... Like I said parts of the county are slowly coming back online so hopefully this wall be resolved by tomorrow.

Thanks for reading!

I'm back on in National City glad I had my lights.

1045pm I'm in Scripps Ranch and still nothing. I hear Kearney Mesa is up too so hopefully we'll be back up tonight. So far I've heard this entire grid went out because one power station worker in Arizona was changing a monitoring system and took the whole city out. Kinda funny but disappointing at the same time. Can you imagine being that person that pulled the plug?! Disappointing that in this day and age that there isn't a better plan in place.

I remember when the east coast went dark and sdg&e officials swore up and down that our grid was safe from these catastrophes... Now look at us. The nuclear power plant officials here in San Diego said we are safe from a sunami or meltdown... This doesnt make me feel any better.

GLOCK18 said:

I'm back on in National City glad I had my lights.

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Hey I'm in Bonita, yeah power came back same time.

Like LEDagent very true on having low lights and on alkaline too!! started to like EDC on "AA" and "AAA". Got some last wednesday they were cheap and sure did worked great for this event.

I was looking down on the lights coming on over there, but up here in my area of Spring Valley we had to wait until after 1 AM.

I think power came back on in Ramona around 3:30 AM. They are still saying the grid is weak so we need to conserve. Flashlights and batteries obviously weren't in short supply for me. We almost ran out of gas for the generator to run the refrigerator. Insulin for family members and food needed to be cooled. I got the family to fill up jugs with tap water as soon as the power went out. The water supply is dependent on pumps that need electricity, and thanks to the EPA, I knew their diesel backup generators weren't allowed to be stored at the site of the pumps. This outage was probably way worse for the rest of the area than for my family. We were at home and not caught in traffic. We avoided driving knowing there was no point. No power means no gas stations, stores, or restaurants open. For most, the worst part of this event was the lack of notice. If you didn't already have what you needed, there was no way to get. This should be a wake up call to those that think that whenever something bad happens, they can just go to the store to get what they need. Too many people procrastinate when it comes to preparing for disaster and insuring the safety of loved ones. Luckily, I'm not one of them.

Hooked on Fenix said:

If you didn't already have what you needed, there was no way to get. This should be a wake up call to those that think that whenever something bad happens, they can just go to the store to get what they need.

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Unfortunately that seems to be what happens. At the start of our 5 day outage a few months ago, as soon as the storms were gone, there were tons of people that hit the roads to get food, gas, whatever (or just to sightsee!!) Mix a sense of urgency with impatience and lots of traffic with no working signals, and BAD things happen out there!

I'd recommend to people that in the immediate aftermath, DON'T go anywhere (store, gas station, whatever) unless it's really your last resort. Try to wait at least a few days until things settle down a bit.

Looks like the incident might have been triggered by a faulty capacitor at a power station in Arizona, causing a cascade of failed load transfers.

Stress_Test said:

I'd recommend to people that in the immediate aftermath, DON'T go anywhere (store, gas station, whatever) unless it's really your last resort. Try to wait at least a few days until things settle down a bit.

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+1.
When the SHTF, and normal people get a larger dose of reality than they can handle, they often turn into lunatics that should be avoided at all costs. Stay at home. Take care of your own. Take advantage of whatever resources you can while they are available. Stay calm and use your head, and keep the kids busy and having fun so they don't worry about the situation.

I was in this. I was prepared. Everyone in the neighborhood was offering me money for my lights. Uhhh, no thanks. TK41 tailstanding kept the living room well lit all night. LD20 for navigating around the house and neighborhood. TA21 holstered for backup. I had many inquiries about the TK41 the next couple of days.

After this incident, my collection has grown 10 fold and hasn't stopped growing.

Old thread revived! Any other stories from other members that was in the affected areas?

*** BTW, I was in Imperial Beach moving my stuff to Chula Vista prior to moving to Japan. Tons of fun!

buds224 there was another thread here that had a few stories as well.

buds224 said:

Everyone in the neighborhood was offering me money for my lights. Uhhh, no thanks.

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Get some of the cheapie Defiant lights at Home Depot, and when they next ask, say, "sure, here's a light, just buy me a beer sometime." Presto, free beer for days..

And don't forget your battery-powered radio, gotta stay updated.

LilKevin715 said:

buds224 there was another thread here that had a few stories as well.

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Thank you.

The lights flickered here in nj during a pretty exciting thunderstorm. i was crossing my fingers because i got a bunch of new lights since pf20 that i'm dying to do real world tests on. guess i have to wait for a cascade failure since the power grid was upgraded recently. there's something wrong with me...oh yeah. i'm a flashaholic. i did learn to put all the flashlights i'm getting rid of in a shoulder bag, so i'll be ready for a "fire" sale

Although I missed the San Diego/South Orange County power outage by about 50 miles, later that year was the December 2011 windstorm that struck much of the San Gabriel Valley with winds over 90mph. Some of our family friends lived in an area of Temple city that was especially hard hit; their power was out for nearly two weeks.

The person from my church who got me interested in LED lighting also had his area (Pasadena) affected. His power was restored quickly but two of his friends nearby were also out of power for a longer period.

(Old e-mail I saved discussing generators)
"I have the Champion model 46540. I'm thinking of converting it to tri-fuel so I can run it on propane or natural gas as well. I don't plan to use my generator regularly but wanted it in case there's a big power failure due to winds or earthquake. James and Wilson lost power for over a week last year when we had the severe windstorms. Wilson was running his generator for over a week. James did not have a generator but he now wants to get one, probably a 6500w Honda."

I remember that windstorm as well, luckily some of my family members in Monterey Park were not affected. If you wanted to compare the two different outages its kind of a toss up. A large area outage for roughly 12 hours or a smaller outage area for a longer period of time. Either one would be a good time for flashaholics :twothumbs except for the spoiled food in the fridge:sick2:.