Major power outage hits New York, other large cities

Honeykiss1974 · #1 08-14-2003, 05:47 PM

Major power outage hits New York, other large cities
Thursday, August 14, 2003 Posted: 5:23 PM EDT (2123 GMT)

NEW YORK (CNN) -- A major power outage simultaneously struck dozens of cities in the United States and Canada late Thursday afternoon.

Cities affected include New York; Boston, Massachusetts; Cleveland, Ohio; Detroit, Michigan; Toronto and Ottawa, Canada. The power outage occurred shortly after 4 p.m.

State officials said the Niagara-Mohawk power grid was overloaded. The grid provides power for New York and stretches into Canada. The officials said the outage is a natural occurrence and not related to terrorism.

Much of Midtown Manhattan and Wall Street was shut down. All area airports and the Long Island Railroad were also affected.

The Federal Aviation Administration grounded planes at all three New York area airports because the blackout affected security screening facilities. The FAA reported planes also were grounded at the Toronto airport. The airports were operating on backup power, officials said.

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg confirmed the outage was not related to terrorism or an accident.

"The good news is, Con Ed's facilities have shut down automatically, which they're programmed to do," he said. "No damage was done to the Con-Ed facility."

Bloomberg said it was unknown how long the outage may last.

Thousands of people could be seen leaving buildings and walking into the streets. New York subways were reported stopped and people were trapped in the cars.

"We are going to have a situation where people are going to have to walk a long distance. They need to be careful," Bloomberg said. "Our advice is to go home, open up your windows, drink a lot of liquids."

The1calledTKE · #2 08-14-2003, 05:50 PM

Yah I see that on tv. The major cities look like a mess. And no air either in that heat. Sucks to live in the North right now.

AlphaSigOU · #3 08-14-2003, 05:56 PM

As someone on another message board already posted:

"Official sunset in NYC 7:56 PM EDT. Looting begins at sunset. Lines already forming at Tiffany's, Cartier and Best Buy... "

Unless some have gotten an early start...

Anyone wanna place bets on how long the blackout's gonna last?

My bet: at least 24 hours.

Honeykiss1974 · #4 08-14-2003, 05:59 PM

Isn't that area in the middle of some sort of heat wave right now?

And I didn't EVEN think about the possible looting that may happen?

Please pray for the safetly of those people in NYC, especially those that may be stuck in the subway........

ZTAMich · #5 08-14-2003, 06:50 PM

How thankfull am I that I'm in Florida right now and not in NYC?

Two weeks ago at 4pm I was in the Bronx. I cannot imagine trying to get home to Queens on my own with no subway. Eeek!

Good luck to Cream, xo_kathy and others in their journey home tonight!

Sistermadly · #6 08-14-2003, 06:51 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by ariesrising
The Eastern Seaboard is at the mercy of....

OTTAWA!

HEE! That's hilarious, ariesrising.

ZTAngel · #7 08-14-2003, 06:53 PM

I heard on the news that there's a bunch of people stuck in elevators and they're still trying to get them out (2 1/2 hours later). I probably would be hyperventilating by now if I was one of those people.

xok85xo · #8 08-14-2003, 06:54 PM

i'm one of the only people i know right now that has power out here...i'm definately not complaining as i sit here on GC in the nice air conditioner

DeltAlum · #9 08-14-2003, 06:59 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by AlphaSigOU
My bet: at least 24 hours.

Wouldn't doubt that. We had a small outage where we live earlier this week (about 6000 homes), and it took 11 hours to fix.

Talked to my Dad in Columbus, and the problem didn't spread that far South.

Heard on NPR that lots of folks were stuck on rides at Cedar Point. With all of those Coasters, could be a real job getting them all down.

Sistermadly · #10 08-14-2003, 07:15 PM

And just like Ottawa, a statement came from the Prime Minister's office that says that the problem originated South of the Border, not in Ontario.

dzsaigirl · #11 08-14-2003, 07:16 PM

I am in Providence and we have not been affected as of yet. Let's hope it doesn't hit here. It is really hot with no air conditioning (we only have it in the bedroom 'cause the worst is SLEEPING hot). Plus, mu husband is making pork tenderloin for dinner as we speak, which takes electricity!!!!

P.S. A great hint: if you are going out of town and want to make sure that your fridge has stayed on and the power hasn't been off long enough to spoil the food, make sure you have ice cubes in the ice drawer (not the tray) and look at them when you get home from your vacation. If they have melted and you have a little frozen pond in there, you know that the fridge was off for some time. If they are still cube-like, all is well!

smiley21 · #12 08-14-2003, 07:26 PM

it is from canada all the way down to florida!!

NinjaPoodle · #13 08-14-2003, 07:38 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by ariesrising
Hmm, maybe this all started because someone was trying to hook up some free cable lol.

AlphaSigOU · #14 08-14-2003, 07:40 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by smiley21
it is from canada all the way down to florida!!

Beyond the major outage areas, it's very possible there are sporadic outages in certain areas, especially if they're being serviced with power purchased from that grid.

At least Texas ain't affected; it's on its own power grid.

AlphaSigOU · #15 08-14-2003, 07:42 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by ariesrising
Hmm, maybe this all started because someone was trying to hook up some free cable lol.

That's if they didn't fry themselves in the process! (evil grin)