Huge blackouts in the US

thats just what i was thinking...imagine being stuck on a ride...upside down....in the dark. thats one scary scary though

what's happening again ?

that face is more scarey! :P

i know, i thought it was an appropriate smiley for the situation.

Blinking eyes in the dark

Mayor Michael Bloomberg says that the power outage that has struck several major cities including New York appears to have been caused by a naturally occuring problem at a Niagra Mohawk Power Plant. The federal Department of Homeland Security released a statement concurring, stating that this is not a terrorist attack.

Now they're saying there is a problem at some big power plant up in Canada.Tthey have no idea when it may be fixed.

Cities apparently suffering power outages include, New York, Detroit, Ottawa, Toronto, Cleveland.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg spoke on televised reports just before 5:00pm, saying the massive outage is related to power problems in Canada's Niagara Mohawk power grid, and is, "Probably a natural occurence that disrupted the system up there, and for reasons we do not know, it cascaded down.." into our area.

In New York City, the mayor says Con Ed facilities have shut down automatically, and so those seeing black smoke are seeing it for that reason. He says it will clearly take some time for Con Ed to power up again.

When asked if he had any definitive word that there is not terror attack involved, the mayor emphasized that he has no evidence of any sort of attack. CNN reported that the FBI is looking into the outage, but has no immediate word on a cause.


Systems affected so far appear to include most mass transit systems, including the subways and the traffic control. Several New York City hospitals are reporting power outages, and many are taking only emergency cases. Long Island Railroad is also affected and is not running.

As of 4:48, shots of the Brooklyn Bridge showed throngs of people heading out of Manhattan. The mayor encouraged a calm evacuation, asking people to go home for the night and wait for the power authorities to get things back on line.

According to Professor George Gross of the University of Illinois, since much of the country's power grid is heavily interconnected, a crisis in one locale can spread to effect other cities.

Gross said he does not expect the outage to spread any further.

Cell phone service is experiencing massive diruptions because of the outage, and people around the city can be seen lining up to wait for a turn on public pay phones.


We will continue to update this page as more information is available."

good to hear this ..... in some sort

I don't mean to be pedantic, but if there isn't any power, then how are you posting this?!

Secondly, if this was an act of terrorism, then it's pretty lame don't you think! I mean, apart from the people stuck on rides, it's basically a power cut. I can imagine a terrorist boasting about this one.....how did you hurt America Osama? Why, I turned off the electricity!!! lol

Eeek - I can see a few law suits coming up