added Aug 11,10 am: New York Independent System Operator president William Museler said huge power fluctuations originating from a Midwest power plant started the downfall of the grid. He said the power swings became so large that the Ontario, Canada, system could not sustain them, and the problem migrated to New York.
Similar outages have struck the U.S. Northeast in the past: In 1965, the U.S. Northeast and Canada were plunged into blackness at the peak of evening rush hour, leaving 30 million customers in the dark for over 12 hours. In 1977, a substation serving New York City and Long Island suddenly failed, blacking out millions.
This time a power grid failure caused by lightning was the cause of outages that spread as far as Detroit, Cleveland, Toronto and Ottawa New Yorkers scrambled down endless stairways in skyscrapers where elevators stopped working, and some subway commuters were stuck for several hours underground. In the city that took the brunt of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, people filed into the streets with little fuss and looked for ways to get home.
Traffic lights were out throughout downtown Cleveland and other major cities, creating havoc at the beginning of rush hour. Cleveland officials said that without the power needed to pump water to 1.5 million people, water reserves were running low.
New York state lost 80 percent of its power, said Matthew Melewski, speaking for the New York Independent System Operator, which manages the state power grid. Both New York and New Jersey declared states of emergency.
As darkness fell, city dwellers turned to candles and flashlights as scattered parts of the electrical grid came back on. People gobbled ice cream from street vendors before it melted, and gathered around battery-operated radios for updates.
The outage in New York City in 1977 left 9 million people without electricity for up to 25 hours. In 1965, about 25 million people across New York state and most of New England lost electricity for a day. The 14 Aug outage ranged over an area with roughly 50 million people and is the biggest power outage in Noth-Eastern America so far.
Compilation based on news from AP and Reuters - 14 Aug, 2003 10pm EDT
A book about the previous power outages:
| Blackout: Cities in Darkness (American Disasters) |
| Published:June, 2003 | |
| Our price:18.95 | |
| Author:Therese De Angelis | |
Click here for a list of books on blackouts and electric power failures.
More "blackout" books(mostly fiction):
 | Final Blackout |
| Published:October, 1996 | |
| Our price:6.99 | |
| Author:L. Ron Hubbard | |
 | Blackout |
| Published:30 January, 2001 | |
| Our price:7.99 | |
| Author:John J. Nance | |
 | Out of the Blackout: A Novel of Suspense |
| Published:October, 1995 | |
| Our price:6.00 | |
| Author:Robert Barnard | |
 | Hotel Room Trilogy: Tricks/Blackout/Mrs. Kashfi |
| Published:April, 1995 | |
| Our price:15.00 | |
| Author:Barry Gifford | |
 | Tales From A Blackout : 1960s Counterculture |
| Published:31 October, 1997 | |
| Our price:9.00 | |
| Author:Patrick Joseph O'Connor | |
 | Part of the Furniture (G K Hall Large Print Book Series (Cloth)) |
| Published:August, 1997 | |
| Our price:26.95 | |
| Author:Mary Wesley | |
 | My Elvis Blackout |
| Published:August, 2000 | |
| Our price: | |
| Author:Simon Crump | |
 | Blackout looting! : New York City, July 13, 1977 |
| Published: | |
| Our price: | |
| Author:Robert Curvin | |
 | Blackout (Ready-To-Read) |
| Published:February, 1979 | |
| Our price:6.95 | |
| Authors:Anne F. RockwellandHarlow Rockwell | |
 | Baseball Blackout (Hello Reader-Level 1) |
| Published:May, 2001 | |
| Our price:3.99 | |
| Authors:Ellen GuidoneandDuendes Del Sur | |