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LAX Suffers Power Outage

LOS ANGELES (CBS) — Los Angeles International Airport was hit by a temporary power outage shortly after 7 p.m. Wednesday.

A representative from LAX said it was unclear what caused the outage throughout the passenger terminal area.

The LADWP confirmed they had an incident at one of their power receiving stations, causing the power to go out over a large area including Playa Del Rey, Westchester, and LAX. It appears that the incident was wind-related.

Simultaneous to the power outage was a closure of one runway on the south side of the airport due to debris strewn about by high winds.

LAX officials said they had requested that tenants secure their equipment in advance of the winds. However, some unsecured containers rolled on to the runway. The containers were cleared off and the runway reopened within minutes.

The power returned to LAX around 8:15 p.m.

At least 20 flights were diverted from LAX due to winds reaching over 45 mph.

CBS News' Ben Tracy phone in from a plane on the tarmac.

"For the past hour we've been sitting on the plane and haven't moved," said Tracy, "but the plane has been rocking back and forth because of the high winds down here by the coast and LAX."

Tracy said all the lights went off outside the plane on the tarmac area. "It looks like only the emergency lights are on inside the airport," he said.

The airport said the outage did not seriously affect travel, with some arriving flights delayed by 10 to 15 minutes, and most departing flights taking off on time.

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