Power outage shuts down cooling centers in Palm Desert area

As temperatures topped 110 degrees Tuesday afternoon, cooling centers in Indio and La Quinta were shut down by the widespread power outage that has created havoc across Southern California, officials said.

"They just kind of shut down the buildings," Palm Desert Community Center Director George Bautista said of the blackouts.

The one good thing, Bautista said, is that a number of people were already planning to return to their homes in the late afternoon.

PHOTOS: Blackout leaves 1.4 million without power

Officials said blackouts were reported across wide swaths of Riverside County and neighboring Imperial County.

Nearly all of the customers of the Imperial Irrigation District, which provides service to about 145,000 homes in Imperial County and parts of eastern Riverside County, lost power, utility spokesman Marion Champion said.

Champion said power was slowly being restored to some customers.

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