Downey, Norwalk residents, businesses without power on Christmas Eve

LOS ANGELES COUNTY, Calif. (CNS) - A transformer failure at a Southern California Edison substation in the Norwalk/Downey area led to a widespread power outage in the area Tuesday, but a spokesman for the utility said most customers had their power quickly restored.

The outage occurred sometime after 2 p.m., although the cause was not immediately known. SCE spokesman Jeff Monford told City News Service it was unclear how many customers were impacted by the outage or how quickly electrical service would be fully restored.

"We know that every outage is a hardship (and) crews are working as quickly as they can to safely restore power," Monford said.

He said crews were able to re-route power to get most impacted customers back online relatively quickly.

Metro C (Green) Line trains were halted between the Norwalk and Willowbrook/Rosa Parks stations due to the power issue. Buses were brought in to shuttle passengers between the stations, but electrical service on the light rail line was restored and trains began running again just before 5 p.m., according to the transit agency.

There were also reports of traffic lights being out at multiple intersections. It was unclear exactly how far the outage spread, but there were reports of electricity being out in areas including Santa Fe Springs, Bellflower and South Gate.