Sometimes as I approach the I-45 South exit from I-10 during my morning commute, I run into a traffic jam that's caused by a long backup in the exit lane. Depending on where I am on I-10 and how bad it looks, I'll sometimes bypass the exit and continue on I-10 to US59 (my ultimate destination is SH288, which is accessible from either highway), or to the Smith Street exit to downtown, where I work my way over to Pierce and enter 288 directly.

I ran into that this morning, and wound up taking the Smith-to-Pierce route. I noticed the failed traffic lights, which had cops directing traffic at a couple of intersections, but didn't give much thought to it. I now know, of course, that there was a major blackout downtown, caused by a fire at a power substation, but as the traffic flowed quite reasonably smoothly, it just didn't occur to me that there was a problem. My compliments to HPD for keeping things moving efficiently. Let's nonetheless hope that a repeat performance is not needed any time soon.

UPDATE: HouStoned has a picture.