Power Down in Much of City

Just under an hour ago, the power went out in a sizeable area of Manhattan Beach.

Mayor Mitch Ward reported the outage during tonight's interrupted City Council meeting, which went into recess as City Hall receives power from a generator.

Southern California Edison reported to the mayor that the cause of the outage was a blown transformer located near the intersection of Ardmore Avenue and Manhattan Beach Blvd.

Most downtown stores with evening hours are reportedly still open and operating from generated power. Some restaurants are serving a limited menu of non-cooked items.

"Crews have been notified and are currently working to restore power," according to an automated phone message from the utility company. An estimated repair time has not been given.

Editor's note: An early version of this story drew from mistaken reports that the blackout was citywide. Stay tuned for an update on the outage.