We just had our first summer brown out here in CA

[Whoa_Nelly]

Lasted about 30 minutes

Must have taken that long for the stink from Chimpy's butt to get the the Left Coast

[BrotherBuzz]

1. It could have been something as mondane as a vehicle knocking a power pole askew.

The accident could have crossed the lines enough to drain a lot of power, but not enough to trip the breaker. A half hour for the utility company to respond, locate, and pull the breakers to isolate the problem sound about right.

[Whoa_Nelly]

2. You're most likely right...here's the news story

http://www.tulareadvanceregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/J4/20070721/NEWS01/70721005/1002

UPDATE: Outage affected north and central parts of Tulare County; power being restored
Staff reports


Those affected by a widespread power outage late Saturday morning should begin to see their power restored by 12:30 p.m., according to Southern California Edison.

The outage was widespread and has been confirmed to have affected the cities of Visalia, Hanford, Tulare, Exeter, Three Rivers, and Woodlake, said Bill Delain, a spokesman with Southern California Edison.Delain said that customers should expect power to be restored by 12:30 p.m., though some isolated areas could require a field crew to restore power.
As for the cause of the outage, Delain said an electrical system serving the northern part of Tulare County experienced a power interruption. Few details are available at this time, he said.

According to an automated message from Southern California Edison, routine maintenance was expected to cause some power outages in the cities of Visalia and Tulare at approximately 8 a.m. and 8:15 a.m., but Delain said this work was not likely to have caused Saturday's late morning outage.