Please, Please Let This Be an Urban Legend

Thus the friend of the human race pleads with fate.

"Now we have so much artificial light that after a 1994 earthquake knocked out power, some concerned residents of Los Angeles called the police to report a 'giant, silvery cloud' in the sky above them. It was the Milky Way. They had never seen it before."

—from "Decoding the Science of Sleep."

I'm sure I don't need to explain what a travesty this is.  But for the record: that the residents of any city, however large or sufficient to itself, should not have been able to recognize one of the most glorious and romantic sights earth (or should we say the second heaven?) has to offer is, in my book, incredible.  I await the Journal's retraction ...