(task) Blackout hits New York City and the Northeast in 2003 - NY Daily News

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> http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/blackout-hits-northeast-united-states-2003-article-1.2322074 <http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/blackout-hits-northeast-united-states-2003-article-1.2322074>
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> Blackout hits New York City and the Northeast in 2003
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> Susana Bates
> Looking across the East River from Queens, the New York skyline forms a dark silhouette against the sky as the city is plunged into darkness by the Blackout of 2003.
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> (Originally published by the Daily News on August 15, 2003. This story was written by Joel Siegel and Corky Siemaszko.)
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> New York City and much of the Northeast were paralyzed by a sudden blackout yesterday that stopped 50 million people in their tracks.
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> From New Jersey all the way to Toronto, trains stopped, computers crashed, planes were grounded, air conditioners cut off and thousands of homes and businesses were plunged into darkness by the largest power outage in the nation's history.
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> In the city, rush-hour subway riders were trapped in the tunnels and the streets were gripped by gridlock, forcing thousands to hoof it home through the sweltering evening heat over the crowded bridges.
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> In the blackout region, 21 power plants shut down, affecting Detroit, Toledo, Cleveland, Newark and Ottawa, Canada.
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> It was 4:11 p.m. when the lights went out in New York. Four hours later, the city's famed skyline formed an eerie silhouette against a moonlit summer night. Stars could be seen for the first time in recent memory.
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> By 11 p.m., lights flickered sporadically in some city neighborhoods, and Mayor Bloomberg said there should be power by this morning - but no subway service until later.
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> His advice for today? "Treat it like a snow day: Get up and listen to the radio," the mayor said.
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> Still, he added, "It wouldn't be the worst thing to take the day off."
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> Unlike the 1977 blackout, which was marked by riots and looting, the city was mostly calm. In the most serious incident, a police SWAT team besieged a bank in Harlem after an alarm went off, and some looting was reported in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn.
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> Officials quickly ruled out terrorism. Canadian officials blamed a lightning strike that knocked out a power plant upstate, on the Canadian border. But the cause was far from clear.
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> Automatic shutdown
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> "Like most New Yorkers, we were taken by surprise," said Con Edison spokesman Michael Clendenin.
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> He said computers automatically shut down the system when when the flow of outside electricity into Con Ed's power lines can't keep up with demand.
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> New York Daily News
> Blackout in New York City, published August 15, 2003.
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> "The system reacted as it should," he said. "It protected itself, and it shut down."
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> Shortly after the power went down, Bloomberg tried to allay fears in a city still scarred by the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attack.
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> "There is no evidence whatsoever of terrorism," he said. "With a lot of luck, later on this evening, we will look back on this and say, 'Where were you when the lights went out?' "
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> President Bush warned that it could take time before life in the region gets back to normal.
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> "Slowly, but surely, we're coping with this massive, national problem," he said.
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> The blackout triggered a set of NYPD security precautions that were put in place after the World Trade Center attack, and within minutes heavily armed teams of special counterterror officers were dispatched to city landmarks and other sensitive locations.
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> Fighter planes creased the sky as the military sent up an extra air patrol in the East as a precaution. Flights into area airports were diverted.
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> But there was remarkably little panic as New Yorkers dealt with the latest calamity to befall the city - and carried on.
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> Relaxing in park
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> "How often does New York City come to a standstill?" said Phil Gormley as he and two pals stretched out on a blanket in Bryant Park and sipped red wine.
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> Millions of workers were ordered to evacuate their buildings and forced to flee down flights of stairs because the elevators had stopped working - trapping many for hours.
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> For those in the subways, it was the start of a harrowing exodus through the steaming darkness of the train tunnels.
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> Maria Hiller of Madison, N.J., was on the uptown A when the train stopped, stranding her and hundreds of other riders between Canal and W. Fourth Sts. for an hour.
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> Todd Maisel </photos/dn-photographers/photographer?author=Todd-Maisel>
> The blackout had a big impact in Brooklyn. People cross train tracks after evacuating train on Williamsburg Bridge.
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> "We sat there for an hour, suffocating," she said. "People started getting out. I jumped off the train with everybody else. . . . It was terrifying."
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> Trains to Long Island, Westchester and New Jersey also came to a halt as the blackout plunged commuter terminals into darkness, forcing riders to find their way out by the glow of cigarette lighters.
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> Outside, Red Cross workers handed bottled water to the parched and treated dozens of people who were overcome by the stifling heat.
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> On the streets, chaos reigned after the lights stopped working, and traffic snarled into knots. As the din of honking cars rose, some drivers tried to helped overwhelmed police officers by directing traffic themselves - often adding to the confusion.
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> The bridges and tunnels were closed, and the sheer volume of so many cars trying to get out at once slowed the exodus to a crawl. Many bus riders were trapped when the Port Authority closed its terminal at Eighth Ave. and 42nd St.
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> "I got to get back to Jersey," said Abbas Muhammad, 45, an accountant from Teaneck. "I'll walk across the George Washington Bridge if I have to. I just can't stand out here in the heat all night."
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> Some bargains
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> Thousands of other commuters simply threw up their hands and headed for the nearest bar or restaurant, many of which reduced prices to clear their refrigerators of perishables.
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> Broadway canceled all shows - to the dismay of tourists - because theaters literally did not have the juice needed to raise the curtains.
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> In Times Square, no steam rose from the Cup of Noodles billboard and there were no news flashes on the Dow Jones news zipper. But it was business as usual for the postcard sellers, photo vendors and bejeweled men hawking incense to the trapped tourists.
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> The blackout also forced the evacuation of workers and players from Shea Stadium hours before the Mets were to take on the San Francisco Giants. The game was postponed.
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> Across the city, lines formed outside bodegas and grocery stores. Some grocers cut the prices on fruit, vegetables and meat for fear they might spoil. But a few tried to profit from adversity by jacking up the prices on bottled water, batteries and other necessities.
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> Powered by generators, city hospitals continued to provide services, but emergency rooms quickly filled up with people needing treatment for overheating. At Bellevue Hospital, doctors completed four operations that were under way when the power went out, with generators keeping the lights on. "We're confident we can weather this," spokesman James Saunders said.
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> John Roca
> New Yorkers as they try to make their way around and around the Midtown area.
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> Stepping outarchic
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> Most New Yorkers appeared to take the adversity in stride. Instead of sweltering in their apartments, many carried chairs outside and dined al fresco by candlelight.
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> "We've been through 9/11, we can get through a couple hours without light," said Roger Anderson, as he sipped a glass of wine on a stoop in the West Village.
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> In midtown, three lawyers sat serenely around the case of beer they had bought for $60 and watched the drama unfold.
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> "The point is, we don't have a strategy," said Timothy Pfeifer. "Our lives are governed by strategy and plans. Now, with this power outage, you have the luxury of time."
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> Across the Hudson, New Jersey mobilized 700 National Guard troops and 300 extra state troopers. There were no reported injuries attributed to the blackout, but in Newark at least six people had to be rescued from stuck elevators.
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> At the height of the blackout, about 1 million PSE&G customers were without power, mostly in Essex, Bergen and Hudson counties, spokeswoman Leslie Cifelli said.
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> Gov. Pataki, who helicoptered to Albany from his Lake Champlain vacation home when he learned of the blackout, said the apparent breakdown in the power transmission system was troubling.
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> "It clearly shows the grid system didn't work the way it was supposed to," he told reporters at the state Emergency Command Center. "We had this Northeast outage back in the '60s. It wasn't supposed to happen again. It did happen again. We have to ask some tough questions as to why."
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> At 11:15 p.m., Pataki said, "We're still in a situation where probably two-thirds or 60% of New Yorkers don't have power."
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> In New York, Con Ed's Clendenin denied reports of a fire at the 14th St. power plant. He also said he could not predict when the electricity would be restored in the city - only that it would.
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> "We're asking New Yorkers to be patient," he said. "It's not just flipping a switch. It is something that has to be done carefully, it has to be done methodically."
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