Large portion of Los Angeles loses electrical power

A large portion of Los Angeles was blacked out Monday when electrical power was lost.

The power got knocked out shortly before 1 p.m. (2000 GMT) after two power surges.

Traffic lights throughout downtown and the San Fernando Valley were not working, causing major traffic problems, according to video from helicopter news crews.

Downtown high-rises also were darkened.

The city's department of water and power said it was investigating the cause and extent of the outage, AP reported.