The big blackout

By WARREN GAMBLE

One equipment fault in a single power plant may have sparked one of the world's biggest blackouts, plunging New York and a huge swathe of North America into chaos and visceral memories of September 11.

It could have even been a lightning strike which caused the huge outage, although officials last night were sceptical about that explanation.

In any case, amazingly, the cause of a vast chain reaction which cut power plant to much of northeastern America and Canada is still a multi-million dollar puzzle.

Some blame what one former United States energy secretary called a "third world" electricity grid, a remarkable state of affairs for a country which prides itself on its technological prowess and has been on heightened alert for the past two years.

Canadian and American officials were trading suggestions that the fault lay in a power plant or transmission lines on each other's side of the border.

Whatever the reason, millions of Americans and Canadians are now likely to remember where they were at 4.11pm (8.11am New Zealand time) on the day the lights went out.

It is estimated the cascading blackout covered an area with a population of about 50 million people, making it the biggest recorded in North America.

It shut down at least 10 major airports and 10 nuclear power plants in at least six American states and Canada's Ontario province and forced hospitals, prisons and emergency service providers to switch to generator power.

"You realise just how dependent we are on electricity," New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said.

For New Yorkers the suddenness of the power failure brought back terrible memories of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center.

Thousands of workers streamed out of Manhattan skyscrapers - if they were lucky enough not to be trapped in lifts at the time - in an evacuation reminiscent of that day.

Waves of pedestrians clogged bridges out of the city, as other forms of transport were shut down or could not cope. The fact that the cut happened at the start of rush-hour in sweltering temperatures across cities from New York to Detroit and up to Toronto and Ottawa, added to the chaos.

In Toronto, officials estimated 400 people were stuck in lifts; hundreds more were trapped in New York awaiting rescue teams.

But ultimately, and remarkably for such a huge event, there were no immediate reports of casualties.

In New York's Times Square, the self-styled crossroads of the world, the neon signs and oversized television screens were dark as hundreds of commuters waited for a bus above a subway station where trains were no longer running.

One of them, Giovanna Leonardo, said: "I'm scared. It feels like September 11 all over again.

"It's that 'What's going on?' feeling. Everyone's panicking. The city's shutting down."

One man walking down a choked Sixth Avenue was even more pessimistic, telling a friend: "This is like in those movies, man, when a bomb drops or something and you have to live off the land."

But in other cities people were more sanguine after the initial confusion. "I heard someone say it was like 9/11 without the terror," said human rights lawyer Lynn Bevan in Toronto, which also ground to a halt just before rush-hour.

Bevan said there was no panic.

"Everyone thought it was too many air conditioners on."

For commuters trapped on New York subway trains which stopped between stations, it was more of an ordeal, exaggerated by the sudden complete darkness.

Some passengers sat trapped in their carriages for as long as two hours. Others, using flashlights and, in one case, the lights from camera crews, or just walking by touch, made their way through filthy tunnels to the nearest platform.

They emerged into a city coming to terms with the mother of all gridlocks.

Before it became apparent that the cause was a malfunction rather than foul play, New York City deployed its "Atlas" anti-terrorism teams and its "alternative command sites", and other jurisdictions activated contingency plans to boost security.

The Pentagon launched two F-16 fighter jets to patrol skies between New York and Washington and put other military aircraft on alert at eastern US bases, defence officials said.

But after the initial fears, the quick reassurances of local and federal officials, and later President George W. Bush that it was not a terrorist act, left a larger feeling of relief.

And another chance for New Yorkers to show the resilience of which they are proud.

"During emergencies, everybody's nice," said longtime Lower East side resident Shari Travers, who stuck out her thumb and got an immediate offer of a ride, albeit a slow one.

People lined 20 to 30 deep at pay telephones to contact family and friends as cellphone networks became overloaded.

One woman cursed wearing high heels on her 83-floor trek down the Empire State Building stairwell. Back-up power in the tallest of New York's skyscrapers meant people trapped in lifts were freed.

New York Mayor Bloomberg prayed no one died from the heat or accidents, but characterised the blackout as a major inconvenience rather than a crisis.

"We'll look back on this as another test of New York," he said.

He predicted a rapid return to order. Parts of the city were getting power restored two hours after the failure, and Bloomberg expected business as usual by dawn today.

Among the entertainment affected in the city that never sleeps was the cancellation of 22 Broadway shows, a New York Mets baseball game, as well as concerts and movie theatres. Bars and cafes, some using back-up power, others candles, became popular gathering spots as people tried to figure out how they would get home.

Others became impromptu traffic controllers, one man using his legal folder to guide vehicles through a snarled intersection.

The blackout hit just after the closing bell at the New York Stock Exchange. It has backup systems which meant its transactions would not be affected.

Many large businesses, such as car factories around Detroit, were forced to close early and there were early predictions of huge total losses across the affected area.

The Ford Motor Company alone lost production at 21 factories. For some, though, the blackout provided an opportunity.

In New York there were complaints that some water sellers had doubled their prices, and some shoe shops spotted a gap in the market, immediately advertising sales for comfortable walking shoes.

The relative calm contrasted with New York's last big blackout in 1977 when the city and its northern suburbs lost all power on a sweltering July night, affecting about eight million people.

It was later called a "night of terror" by the then mayor as civil disturbance and looting erupted.

In Brooklyn, one third of stores in a 30-block stretch suffered fire damage and in total 1700 stores across the city were looted or damaged.

The inquest into yesterday's failure has begun, with conflicting reports and finger-pointing between United States and Canadian officials.

Wherever it began, the failure swiftly brought down neighbouring power systems, which are integrated in a vast network - from Florida right up into Canada - that experts describe as the most complex machine ever built. The affected part, the Niagara-Mohawk portion of the grid, serves much of the northeastern United States and parts of Canada.

High or unbalanced demands for power that develop suddenly can upset the smooth distribution of energy in a grid. In some cases this can cause a blackout, which can flow to other parts of the grid.

In summer, particularly because of air conditioning demands on hot days, there is often no spare capacity in the grid to cope with blackouts in connected areas.

Several hours after the power went out, Jim Munson, a spokesman for Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien, said: "We have been informed that lightning struck a power plant in the Niagara region on the US side."

The premier's office later said a fire at the Niagara plant in New York caused the blackout, and the defence minister said the fire was at a Pennsylvania nuclear plant.

"That is absolutely not true," said Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency spokeswoman Maria Smith.

"It's bizarre. We have a direct line to each of our five [nuclear] power plants and they are all running at 100 per cent ... There's not even a trash can fire, we would know."

Brian Warner, of the New York Power Authority, said he wasn't sure where the power failure originated.

"The New York Power Authority's Niagara Power Project has at no time during this incident ceased to operate. We also have not experienced a lightning strike at that facility," he said.

Canadian Defence Minister John McCallum gave reporters in Ottawa conflicting accounts when he mentioned a Pennsylvania fire. He did not name the plant or provide further details and later appeared to back off, referring to an "outage" at the plant.

"The fire started at a nuclear power plant in Pennsylvania," McCallum said. "The origin of the problem is a fire in Pennsylvania which has caused a cascading effect in the rest of the region."

US officials said they were looking at a power transmission problem from Canada as the most likely cause of the biggest outage in US history, said a spokeswoman for New York Governor George Pataki.

"Our best understanding right now is that whatever did happen to start these cascading outages began in Canada," Senator Hillary Clinton said.

As night fell in Times Square, several thousand people gathered with the only light coming from passing cars, torches and cigarettes.

In nearby apartment towers the only signs of life were pinpoints of candlelight. The roads were lit by a sea of red tail-lights.



Police in many jurisdictions recalled all officers and did what they could to prepare for looting that they hoped would not come.

In Orange County, New Jersey, authorities imposed an 8pm curfew and banned sales of alcohol.

Most stores halted sales and pulled down security shutters, but business boomed at places such as the Radio Shack and D'Agostino supermarket on 57th Street, as crowds of customers eight and nine deep surrounded sales counters with armloads of batteries, flashlights, radios, bottled water and ice.

In Ottawa, the darkness brought criminals on to the streets.

"There is serious looting going on," said city police chief Vince Bevan, reporting break-ins, smashed windows and theft.

New York opened emergency shelters for stranded commuters.

In Times Square there were contrasting moods.

Pete Hammel, from New Jersey, brought his wife into town for the night to catch a Broadway show.

"We thought our only problem would be getting tickets, and now we are stuck in this ... nightmare," Hammel said.

"How the hell are we going to get home?" he wondered.

Mike Pepper, a 60-year-old from Indiana, was on his first visit to New York.

"This is a once-in-a-lifetime experience," he said. "The first time I come to Times Square and they have no light."

Some out-of-towners were revelling in the chaos, including honeymooners Robert and Jennifer McGrath from Ontario.

"This is perfect. We'll be living off this story for ever," Robert McGrath said.

"We didn't come for the theatre. We came to people-watch. And it doesn't get better than this."

The couple, like many others, said they would stay in the square to watch the lights come back on.

Despite the heat and the crowds, the atmosphere was generally calm and good-spirited, with police called on only to keep traffic moving.

And above it all was a nearly full moon, which stargazers said had never looked so bright.

Additional reporting by agencies