This just in:

A major blackout has crippled dozens of cities and several major airports in two countries.

According to CNN, MSNBC and FOXNews, a cascading power failure originating in Ottawa, Canda, has spread to areas as far away as Cleveland, Detroit, New York City, and Toronto.

The US Department of Homeland Security has assured that this blackout, which began shortly after 4:00pm Easter time, was the result of a system overload, and not a terrorist act.

Airports in Toronto, Ottawa, Newark (New Jersey), New York City, and more are shut down, with flights being diverted to other airports that are not effected. The entire New York City public transportation system, including transit buses, is shut down completely.

Footage shown on CBS and CNN showed tens of thousands of New Yorkers waiting to board ferry boats to take them to New Jersey.

New York City mayor Bloomberg has announced that Con Edison and other area utility companies are working hard to restore power to the city. While some areas of New York City do have their power restored, it could take at least a few hours to finish the job.

Several sports events, including at least one WNBA game, scheduled for tonight have been cancelled.

Well, either this is a manifestion of the need for conserving energy so that the overload will not happen again or just a conincidence in which we need to be thankful it is not initiated by terrorists.

I'm watching coverage of this event as I type, and based on what I'm seeing, I feel that the people of NY should be commended for how they're handling this.
And to all the people in the US and Canada affected by this, hang in there!

In the news here they are saying that there are thousands of people stuck in subways and in elevators and that mobile phones aren't working either ... imagine what they are thinking?

Seems that some power is trickling back into the system so shouldn't be too long before it's all back.

I live in the Philadelphia region and the same thing happened yesterday. Some places got power back on right away, others took all day.

Is this event preventable in any case? Also, Governor Pataki has issued a warning about heat during the blackout.

MSNBC Reports that the Prime Minister of Canada issued a statement that calls the source of the outage came from a Niagara substation that either was hit by lightning or caught fire.

Speaking of fires, live footage on MSNBC shows a building ablaze at an undetermined location as I write this.

FIRE UPDATE
The fire is actually outdoors and it appears that buildings are currently uneffected. The location is estimated to be along 55th or 56th Street.

Also, some lights are now appearing in buildings along the Manhattan skyline.

Recent reports of CNN have ruled out lightning, computer gliches and terrorism.

oh dear, that is the funniest thing I've read for ages, Lanni! Thanks for the laugh!

I know. I was cracking up when I realized I was innocent.

Ah Lanni but were you innocent, were you REALLY innocent? We only have your word for it and as yet they haven't discovered the cause, it just might have been just one AC too many. What an achievement, taking out the lights for such a large area.

Just think of the possible consequences of her actions, all that melted ice cream and soggy chocolate - oh Lanni!

Now what can she bribe us with for us not to publicise this?

Just to let you know how great an empathy that we Australians have with Americans, as I was driving to work this morning, listening to the news of the blackout, 2 suburbs I drove through in Brisbane were also blacked out! (True story!)

One thing on the news was a bit confusing, it said that some hospitals didn't have back up generators. Could that be right? I would have thought that no power supply on the earth was satisfactory enough NOT to have a back up for a hospital.

Just got back and heard about this...distressing news. California has been having them periodically these past years.

Memphis Tennessee has had some last month...my friend is retired in a high rise and was without electricity for at least a week in 95 degree sweltering heat...it was due to the storm activity.

The blakcout they said may have started in Ohio. To this point, one death in US and two in Canada was reported.

Lanni, I had a similar experience to yours in the big NE blackout in the 60's. I had just plugged some machinery into a wall and then the lights went out. I thought I had blown the electricity in the building, and then I walked outside and realized the entire North East was dark.

I understand that a lot of the gas stations around here are jammed or have long lines, because, in other areas, they couldn't operate due to the lack of electricity.

When I looked at pictures of NYC I immediately thought of Silly Lilly, and I wondered whether she and her family were still vacationing in the City. I know she was apprehensive about crime in the City, but she sure didn't expect something like this to happen. I hope her trip to NYC wasn't affected by this, since I don't know exactly when she was going to be in NY. This isn't the sort of "adventure" one wants to have on a vacation.

Interesting how we think of each other here at FT, even off the boards. I thought of Silly Lilly even before I thought of friends and relatives who were affected by the blackout. I did want her to have a good time on her first visit to NYC.

Were you affected CB?

I wasn't affected at all. I live in a community that has it's own source of electricity--a very few communities on Long Island have that. So, my power never went out. That's why the gas stations around here got very crowded. Most of the neighboring communities, and practically all of Long Island, did lose electricity. I consider myself very fortunate--and thankful. It's quite hot here--I cherish my air conditioner.

It's fitting that this thread is in 'Current' Events...okay, that was pretty lame....

YAAAAAAAAAAAYYYY......POWER!!!!

Mine just went back on about half an hour ago, but city officials are warning it might not stay on long, due to their 'rolling blackout' plan. At least the stuff in my freezer will have a chance to keep cold until it possibly goes out again.

The night was incredibly dark and hot in Ottawa, but relatively peaceful. On the plus side, our view of Mars was spectacular.

There were a couple of armed robberies, a bit of looting and two deaths related to the power outage here, but it could have been even worse, I suppose. I was thrilled to see my husband make it home from work safely, as there were no street lights or traffic lights. He had to stay and host the late news on TV, even though there were practically no viewers--only those lucky enough to have generators.

I understand some of my New York friends who were affected by this have also just rejoined the electric world. I'd love to read what the night was like for you guys.

I just got my power back. It's sort of unbelievable how everyone was working together, people were treating all intersections as four way stops, everyone who could manage it stayed at home or where they were. It sucked at my house because we have no window in our bathroom, so all we had was a candle. I was upset because I couldn't read or do my pencil puzzles, due to my poor vision in the dark. Apparently my mom and I were lucky and did everything right, we unplugged all major appliances and filled a bunch of two litre bottles with water for the dogs and cats (we already had store bought water for us). My poor son got caugt at his grandfather's and had to stay the night, but he had fun so, okay. Some guy across the street was setting off fireworks and wow, were they bright.

The only thing I can really tell you is that Detroit will be the last to get back power. They believe that if anything causes a blowout that might. So we'll just see.

Well, I work on the 12th floor of a building in midtown Manhattan. The very same building the Govenor has his NY City offices in. Just last week we had a Emergency Evacuation Drill. When the lights started to flicker yesterday and my computer went off we all looked at each other and said, this is it let's go. Walking down 12 flights isn't that bad, but some of the floors had no lights in the landings so it was by feel until you got to some emergency lighting source. We all milled around wondering what was up. Cell phones not working and then I heard a state policeman say it was the tri-state area. I remember '65 and '77, but the phones were working then. People didn't have all these electronic gadgets back then. Well I had to walk home! I live across the 59th Street Bridge. I had the company of a co-worker who also lives near by. It took me 2 hours. There was a women GIVING away water, while everyone else was selling it! What a terrific lady! Thank God it was light out when all of this happened. I couldn't stop thinking about the people stuck in elevators or subways. As I was walking over the bridge the I could see a #7 train, which is elevated, stuck on the tracks on a curve. Boy was I glad I wasn't on that one. They would have had a hard time convincing me to get off the train and walk the tracks to the next stop. I was well prepared. I have a great flashlight and even backup batteries, as well as many candles. I heard some loud talking in the hall at about 9PM and took my flashlight out into the hall because I thought someone might be trying to get up the stairs and sure enough my neighbor was coming up so I helped elimunate her way. She had bumped into another neighbor, whom I don't know, on her way down. She was trying to find some candles. I told her when she came back to yell my name and I would come down and light her way back up. She couldn't find any candles in the stores that were actually still open so I gave her some of mine. We hung out for awhile and now I have a new friend in the building. She had just moved in and had no friends in the area and didn't know the neighborhood very well. My power came back on at 5:15 AM. Several alarms went off and my ceiling fans went back on. I still don't have cable, but my computer is working fine. That's funny because I have a cable modem. What's up with that?

I had a brother stuck on an elevator for about twenty minutes yesterday.

After realizing the power wasn’t coming back on, he pried the elevator doors open and pulled himself out.

It I were him, I’d probably have needed men in white suits to come get me out. I have been stuck in the same elevator quite a few times and I’ve always refused to get out until it started functioning.

(Have you guys ever seen the movies where people attempt to shimmy and climb their ways out of the elevator only to meet their maker?)

Now, the building was without power until about two hours ago, so I think that is about 24 hours.

Being alone with the emergency bell not working and it being quite hot and dark, I’m not sure how long I’d keep my sanity.

I had other siblings who had to thumb and walk their ways home yesterday.

I expected the entire situation to be much worse after all the stories I heard about the blackout in ‘77.

Now, I didn’t get stuck in an elevator nor did I have to thumb and walk my way through the tri-state area, but I think the past two days weren’t too bad (Considering how they could have been.).

Quote:

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Ah Lanni but were you innocent, were you REALLY innocent? We only have your word for it and as yet they haven't discovered the cause, it just might have been just one AC too many. What an achievement, taking out the lights for such a large area.

Just think of the possible consequences of her actions, all that melted ice cream and soggy chocolate - oh Lanni!

Now what can she bribe us with for us not to publicise this?

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Shhh! Let's keep the whole AC incident between me and you.

Negotiations may be made later.

Strangely, though the power had gone back on in my neighbourhood, few of the local stores were open.

I hopped in a cab, hoping to find a grocery store and liquor store open (it is the weekend, after all!). Thankfully I didn't have to go far. About ten dollars into the fare, I spotted a shopping complex with its liquor and grocery stores open. What a madhouse! People were lined up around the block, nearly. Once I did make it in, I found people grabbing virtually everything they could off the shelves. It was mass panic. I managed to get the last bag of ice, but it had been ripped open, in a state of semi-melt, and with half the cubes missing. Expecting another outage, I took it anyway. The clerk was nice enough not to charge me for it, though.

I had planned to make a Greek salad tonight, but there is no feta cheese to be found anywhere. In fact, the grocery store had pulled all cheese, meats, milk and other perishable products off the shelves. I am NOT complaining, believe me! Things could have been so much worse. I'm just amazed how much life has plunged into mass chaos, though--just because the power was off (and still is off in a few sections here) for a little while. I'm guilty too. I kept switching lights on and reaching for the TV remote out of habit, even though the power had been off for hours. How on earth did our ancestors cope?

Well, I'd better sign off. I'm trying to be a 'good citizen', and not drain the power grid too much until things are back to normal. I'm so tempted to switch on the air conditioning, as it is 37 degrees with the humidex here, but I think I'll sweat it out. I am going to take advantage of this bit of power I have before the rolling blackouts hit my neighbourhood, though--I have eight packages of lean ground beef in the freezer, and I'm going to cook it up. Hamburgers, anyone? I think I'll see if my neighbours want any.