2,000 Homes Affected, Traffic Snarled : Edison Checking Cause of Costa Mesa Blackout

Southern California Edison Co. workers were continuing their search late Wednesday for the cause of a power outage that affected about 2,000 Costa Mesa homes and businesses and snarled traffic.

The outage, which started at about 5:15 p.m., blacked out an area bordered by 17th and 23rd streets, Newport Boulevard and Irvine Avenue, said Edison spokesman Fred Mickelson.

Power was restored to about half the affected area just before 6:30 p.m., and an hour later all but 60 customers had their power back, company officials said.

The outage snarled rush-hour traffic, however, because it blacked out traffic signals at several busy intersections.

Edison spokesman Gene Carter said equipment failure prompted the outage, but that the source of the failure had not been found in underground systems as of late Wednesday night.