Department of Water and Power spokeswoman Stephanie Interiano said the outage started around 7:40 p.m. Wednesday and affected about 20,500 customers. Power was restored shortly before 10 p.m.

Interiano says a failed cable inside the distribution station caused the blackout.

Fire Department spokesman Lauren deRosier says firefighters responded to 13 reports of people trapped in elevators, and traffic across Brentwood, Westwood and other neighborhoods sat snarled as motorists waded through darkened intersections.

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