Blackout Strikes Sweltering Northeast Cities

NEW YORK, New York, August 14, 2003 (ENS) - A power failure hit cities in the eastern United States and Canada at 4:15 this afternoon, snarling intersections as traffic lights went out, trapping thousands of people in New York City's stifling subway trains, and sending workers flooding into the streets.

All area airports were closed, and people were trapped in office tower elevators in scorching heat. All stores closed, Grand Central Station was evacuated and the United Nations headquarters was also closed down.

It could take hours for the lights to come back on after what is being called the biggest blackout in history. Cleveland, Detroit, New York, Toronto, and Canada's capital city, Ottawa are blacked out, but the U.S. capital, Washington, DC was not affected.

A U.S. Department of Homeland Security spokesman said the department does not know what caused the power failures, but an investigation is under way.

New Yorkers spilled into the steets around Times Square as power went out across the city. (Webcam image courtesy Webcams Aus Aller Welt)

"We have a careful plan that we've rehearsed and practiced," said Bloomberg, who declined to call out the National Guard. A spokesman for the Office for Emergency Management in New York, where City Hall is operating on a backup generator, said, "We have no idea how extensive it is."

New York Governor George Pataki declared a state of emergency for the state and deployed additional state police.

Bloomberg said that power to New York City would soon come on, and that so far there have been no victims from the evacuation of office buildings and other areas.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), coordinated by Deputy Secretary Kyle McSlarrow, has initiated its protocol for contingency situations, a spokesperson said.

DOE personnel are working with federal agencies including the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and the Department of Homeland Security, as well as entities such as the North American Electric Reliability Council to assess the situation.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission says that seven nuclear power plants in New York, New Jersey, Ohio, and Michigan shut down today due to grid instabilities.

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg (Photo courtesy Office of the Mayor)

The blackout may have been caused by an overload of the Niagara Mohawk Power Grid, some officials speculate.

Stephen Whitley, Chief Operating Officer of ISO New England Inc., the operator of the region's bulk power system and wholesale power exchange, said, "At approximately 4:15 pm today, apparently multiple, major power lines went out of service along Lake Erie, which caused massive power outages in parts of New York, New Jersey, and the Midwest."

Areas of southwest Connecticut lost power as a result, but "no other major portion of New England was affected," Whitley said. "There has been no physical damage to any part of New England's transmission system or any generators. Our system held up well. The part of our system that went down is the part of the system that is closest to New York and is the weakest part of our system."

Whitley said, "We anticipate power to be restored within the next several hours."

That would be good news for Jaime Gennarelli, an elementary school teacher who is sitting in candlelight in the New York suburb of Eastchester waiting for her husband who is stuck in New York City about 20 miles south. "There are no cabs, no cars are leaving the city, and no commuter trains are running," she told ENS. "My husband is in a restaurant on 76th Street where the cook is serving all his best food to keep it from spoiling."

Journalist and university professor Karl Grossman is eating his dinner under an oil lamp in his Long Island home. "The first thing I did was to go to my backup gasoline generator which I have had since Hurricane Gloria in 1986 when the blackout lasted eight days," he told ENS. "I yanked the cord and nothing happened this time after 17 years of just sitting there.

"I just spoke to my father in downtown Manhattan who has one flashlight," said Grossman. "He's on the 14th floor with no air conditioning."

For stranded New Yorkers trying to walk home, the American Red Cross is handing out bottled water and flyers on heat exhaustion. Red Cross workers have been deployed to Penn Station, Grand Central Station, the Port Authority Bus Terminal, the George Washington Bridge Bus Terminal, the Brooklyn Bridge, the Flatbush and Jamaica subway stations in Brooklyn, and LaGuardia and JFK airports.

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

Based on past experience, the insurance implications of the Northeast blackout are likely to be modest, says the Insurance Information Institute in New York. No specific dollar figure is available yet.