Crow flies into circuit breaker leaving 15,500 customers without electricity

(CNS/FOX 11) - A crow that flew into a 34,500-volt circuit breaker caused equipment failure at a power distribution station and knocked out electricity to about 15,500 customers in the Studio City and Valley Village areas today.

UPDATE from LADWP:

The outage was reported about 8:45 a.m. at Distributing Station 57, according to the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power.

"As of 4:30 p.m., we've restored power to about 2,500 customers in the Valley Village and Studio City areas," LADWP spokeswoman Christy Holland said.

"But there are still about 13,000 customers who remain without power."

Holland said crews are trying to restore power as quickly as possible and the utility expects to have most of the power back on sometime tonight.

Late this afternoon, there were still numerous traffic signals without power, and Los Angeles Department of Transportation personnel are directing traffic, according to the LADWP.

"As of 7:30 p.m., we've restored power to about 11,000 customers in the Valley Village and Studio City areas," Amanda Parsons of the LADWP said.

"There are still about 4,210 customers who remain without power."

Parsons said crews were working to repair the damage to Distributing Station 57 and restore all power. Full power was expected to be returned by about 11 p.m., she added.