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A massive power outage struck parts of central and southern Florida, knocking out electricity to millions, snarling traffic and trapping people in elevators. Preliminary reports showed that the problem began at a substation in Miami-Dade County, leading to the loss of a transmission line and the shutdown of several plants owned by Florida Power and Light. Miami-Dade county mayor Carlos Alverez said the outage did not create a civic emergency. (SOUNDBITE) (English) MIAMI COUNTY MAYOR CARLOS ALVEREZ SAYING "Quite frankly, I wouldn't describe it as a big problem, it's been a massive inconvenience because of traffic congestion. You can't describe this as an emergency because it has not, it's just the fact that we have a traffic problem to begin with, so when power outage goes off and most of our traffic lights go out, then we have some traffic related problems." Florida government officials said the blackout affected two to three million people. Florida Power and Light said it expected to restore power to most Florida customers by early evening. Lindsay Claiborn, Reuters.