Thursday, August 14, 2003
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; 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 likely a natural occurrence and not related to terrorism.
"It's probably a natural occurrence which [struck] the power system up there," Mayor Michael Bloomberg told CNN. "The good news is, Con Ed's facilities have shut down automatically, which they're programmed to do." Consolidated Edison is the New York area power company.
Black smoke coming from a power station on East 14th Street "was a natural thing," Bloomberg said. "No damage was done to the Con Ed facilities," he said.
A statement from the Department of Homeland Security said, "The department is working with state and local officials an the energy sector to determine the cause of the outage and what response may need to be taken."
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 and in Cleveland 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.
Bloomberg said it was unknown how long the outage may last.
The New York City Police Department said a number of people were trapped in elevators. 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."