TIJUANA Border region residents began returning to their routines after power was restored around midnight.
The "mega apagón," as it was referred to in Spanish, left more than three million people in all five Baja California cities without electricity in an unprecedented outage that stretched to southern Orange County and Arizona.
Particularly hard hit were the residents of Mexicali, who had been roasting in temperatures that topped 100 degrees Fahrenheit.
In Tijuana, authorities reported no major problems across the city. The municipal police department said that 100 per cent of its officers were on patrol Thursday afternoon and night, particularly in the most troubled areas, to head off looting and other crimes.
For their part, the Mexican army and federal police officers patrolled shopping centers and other key facilities.
Just like north of the border, most gas stations were forced to shut down. However, by Friday morning gas stations had begun to reopen.
Tijuana Fire Department Director Carlos Martínez said that eight people had to be rescued from elevators across the city after the power went out around 3:30 p.m.
Schools across Tijuana were open Friday morning. The outage had affected the Thursday afternoon sessions of the schools, which were forced to close early.
A leading researcher for the National Council of Science and Technology, Alejandro Díaz Bautista, said Thursday night that the blackout had already caused millions of dollars to the state's economy.
Most businesses in the state had to close, including maquiladoras that produce everything from tiny parts for medical devices to equipment for airplanes.
A notable exception was the Tijuana Fair at Morelos Park, which stayed open under its own power, and where around 3,000 people attended the Thursday night concert of pop singer María José.
Omar.millan@sandiegored.com
