Heat wave causes California blackouts

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Scorching heat pushed California's electricity supply to the brink Monday and threatened another round of blackouts as utility crews across the state struggled to restore power to tens of thousands of people left in the dark over the weekend.

Authorities warned that the eighth day of the heat wave could drive demand for electricity in California to an all-time high.

Meanwhile, utilities in the St. Louis area and New York City also labored to restore power to hundreds of thousands whose electricity was knocked out by storms and equipment failures.

California energy managers issued a "stage one" emergency, warning they were dipping into reserve supplies to keep up with the demand for power.

"We're not sure we can go as high as the demand is looking like today," said Gregg Fishman, a spokesman for the California Independent System Operator, which manages the state's electrical grid. "It's going to be moment-to-moment through the afternoon."

Monday's forecast called for high temperatures in central and northern California of 111 degrees in Morgan Hills, 110 in Fresno, Stockton and Modesto and 109 in Bakersfield. In Southern California's Woodland Hills, the temperature was expected to reach 106. No relief was expected until at least midweek.

Authorities were looking into at least eight deaths in the smoldering Central Valley that may have been related to the heat. Among the victims was a Stockton nursing home patient who died from heat-related stress on Sunday after the Beverly Healthcare Center's air conditioning stopped working, said police spokesman Pete Smith.

Tens of thousands of homes and businesses lost power in California on Sunday because of heavy electricity use and high temperatures that caused equipment to overheat.

Some 54,000 customers in Northern California still were without electricity, including 14,000 in the San Jose area, according to Pacific Gas & Electric. About 20,000 Los Angeles customers are also without electricity.

In Arizona, heat was believed to have contributed to the deaths of two homeless men in Phoenix over the weekend.

The deaths came during three days of record-breaking temperatures in Phoenix. The temperature soared to 114 degrees Sunday, breaking the record of 112 set in 1906.