Power outage brings "blue screen of death" look and feel to Microsoft conference

Los Angeles (CA) - In what can best be described as an "unscheduled power event," electric power was cut early this afternoon for the Los Angeles Convention Center where preliminary events for Microsoft’s Professional Developers Conference were under way. The Center joined an estimated one million other customers of the L.A. Department of Water and Power, whose power was cut at the same time as a result of an accidentally severed main power cable that triggered a cascading failure throughout the city, temporarily crippling public transportation.

A spokesperson for the DWP told reporters that an employee at a power substation located in West L.A. near Burbank, cut the wrong cable at approximately 12:37 pm local time, during a process where new generator lines were being installed. However, minor power fluctuations were observed in parts of the city as much as one hour earlier. The spokesperson called the cascading power failure triggered by the sudden surge a "power shedding mode" that affected as much as 60 percent of Los Angeles, and much of the surrounding area. At 4:00 pm, DWP reported 40,000 customers remained without power, though their service is expected to be restored by 7:00 pm.

While the "power shedding mode" may have left attendees of PDC’s pre-conference sessions generally unfazed, the outage did genuinely threaten some refineries in San Pedro which rely on electric power to manage the refinement process, and were reportedly without power as late as 4:00 pm local time. Coming a mere day after the fourth anniversary of America’s worst terrorist attack, California government officials reacted to the outage with a heightened degree of awareness and caution. Public transportation, including the city’s Metro Link, slowed to a crawl though not a standstill, as trains ran slowly over lines while inspectors checked the system for sabotage. LAPD was placed on tactical alert, up until DWP admitted the accident.

In a news conference, L.A. mayor Antonio Villaraigosa interrupted remarks to a Jewish community group to state somberly, "There is no credible threat against Los Angeles at this time," although he said the city remains a prominent target of global terrorism. Apparently an al-Qaeda threat, specifically against Jewish Americans, was being investigated today by the FBI, the mayor said. A world away from the questions of Web services platforms and load balancing algorithms, city officials whose psyches have recently been scarred by the tragedy of Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama, had apparently feared for at least a few minutes the beginning of the worst. The mayor’s press office was apparently very well prepared for a day which turned out better than it could have, perhaps in an effort to avoid the semblance of logistical breakdown which currently plagues Louisiana as well as federal officials.

Meanwhile, there is no word as yet as to whether pre-conference proceedings interrupted by the power outage will be postponed or allowed to resume. Conference organizers today were apparently released from duty until tomorrow morning, when full power is expected to be restored. A half-day of events was previously scheduled for this Friday ; theoretically, it could become a "make-up day." Assuming all is well by Tuesday morning, keynote presentations should proceed as scheduled, including from Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates. All the major issues we reported this morning will be back on the table, though for at least a few hours this afternoon, there was an eerie suspension of the world we know, and a bitter taste - albeit only in our minds, thankfully - of a world we are coming to know too well.