NEW YORK (Reuters) - A lightning strike caused massive power outages in New York and other cities across the northeastern United States and Canada on Thursday, trapping thousands in crowded subways and forcing millions of evacuated office workers onto the streets.
Amid initial fears that New York could once more be the target of a terror attack, officials said a power grid failure caused by lightning was the cause of outages that spread as far as Detroit, Cleveland, Toronto and Ottawa.
"Initial reports indicate that this is a power system failure not related to terrorism," said Homeland Security spokesman Brian Roehrkasse.
"We have no indication that there is any terrorism involved," said Bryan Lee, a spokesman for the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in Washington.
First investigations of the outage pointed to a failure somewhere on the high voltage transmission lines connecting the United States and Canada, power grid operators said.
The Canadian prime minister's office said lightning at a power plant at Niagara, New York state, had caused the blackout.
In Canada, as many as 10 million people were affected by the cuts, which brought most of southern Ontario to a halt, officials said.
Air traffic into New York's three major airports was affected, and thousands of office workers crowded onto the streets in heat of more than 90 F (33 C), facing a long walk home as buses and trains came to a halt and the streets became gridlocked as traffic signals failed to function.
Thousands more were trapped underground in the dark when rush hour subway trains stopped in their tunnels after the power went out shortly after 4 p.m. EDT (2000 GMT).
Cellular phone services were disrupted as anxious New Yorkers clogged the network with calls.
"Right now the power outage is affecting all of our operations, We have no buses, no trains, no subways running. The airports have their perimeters secured ...," a spokesman for the New York Port Authority said.
Nine nuclear reactors in four U.S. states were shut down following the outage, officials said.
POWER STARTS TO RESUME
New York's mayor, Michael Bloomberg, later told a news conference that power was starting to be restored. He appealed to people to turn off electrical appliances to ease the load on the grid.
"Power is starting to come back from the various facilities," Bloomberg said.
"And with a lot of luck, later on this evening we will look back on this and say, "Where were you when the lights went out?" but nobody will have gotten hurt."
He added: "I would expect everything to be back to business tomorrow."
Late trading on U.S. financial markets was hit by the outages, with dealing rooms shut down across the region.
In New York, Citibank and J.P Morgan Chase and Co said their automatic teller machine networks had been shut down in areas affected by the blackout.
The outage struck nerves among New Yorkers, whose memories of the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, still run strong, and people could be seen running through the streets of the city's downtown financial district.
"Scared," said Jeffrey Snop, of Queens, at the Times Square subway station. "It reminded me of 9/11 and stuff like that."
"Everybody just flipped out," said nurse Mary Horan, stranded, with hordes of others, outside Grand Central Station. "Suddenly you start thinking about 9/11."
Jessica Nottes said she was on top of the Empire State Building when the power went out.
"We had to walk down 86 flights of stairs," she said. "I kept thinking about the Twin Towers and how I would get down. but everybody was calm."
Officials said workers should go home if they could or try to stay with friends if they lived too far out of the city.
TORONTO HIT
In Toronto, Canada's largest city, the transit system ground to a halt and thousands were stranded as temperatures hit 86 F (30 C) and transit authorities shut the doors into
subway stations to prevent overcrowding.
"There's no power but they're safe," said a transit official.
Both the Toronto Stock Exchange, the country's main bourse, and Pearson International Airport were operating on back-up power supplies.
Power was still on in Montreal, Quebec City and most of Quebec. A spokesman for Montreal's Dorval airport said all flights to blackout cities have been canceled, including Toronto.
In Detroit, headquarters to the largest U.S. automakers, many workers decided to go home after the lights went out, creating traffic gridlock in the city. General Motors said several of its auto plants were closed by the power outages.
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.
wil.
Amid initial fears that New York could once more be the target of a terror attack, officials said a power grid failure caused by lightning was the cause of outages that spread as far as Detroit, Cleveland, Toronto and Ottawa.
"Initial reports indicate that this is a power system failure not related to terrorism," said Homeland Security spokesman Brian Roehrkasse.
"We have no indication that there is any terrorism involved," said Bryan Lee, a spokesman for the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in Washington.
First investigations of the outage pointed to a failure somewhere on the high voltage transmission lines connecting the United States and Canada, power grid operators said.
The Canadian prime minister's office said lightning at a power plant at Niagara, New York state, had caused the blackout.
In Canada, as many as 10 million people were affected by the cuts, which brought most of southern Ontario to a halt, officials said.
Air traffic into New York's three major airports was affected, and thousands of office workers crowded onto the streets in heat of more than 90 F (33 C), facing a long walk home as buses and trains came to a halt and the streets became gridlocked as traffic signals failed to function.
Thousands more were trapped underground in the dark when rush hour subway trains stopped in their tunnels after the power went out shortly after 4 p.m. EDT (2000 GMT).
Cellular phone services were disrupted as anxious New Yorkers clogged the network with calls.
"Right now the power outage is affecting all of our operations, We have no buses, no trains, no subways running. The airports have their perimeters secured ...," a spokesman for the New York Port Authority said.
Nine nuclear reactors in four U.S. states were shut down following the outage, officials said.
POWER STARTS TO RESUME
New York's mayor, Michael Bloomberg, later told a news conference that power was starting to be restored. He appealed to people to turn off electrical appliances to ease the load on the grid.
"Power is starting to come back from the various facilities," Bloomberg said.
"And with a lot of luck, later on this evening we will look back on this and say, "Where were you when the lights went out?" but nobody will have gotten hurt."
He added: "I would expect everything to be back to business tomorrow."
Late trading on U.S. financial markets was hit by the outages, with dealing rooms shut down across the region.
In New York, Citibank and J.P Morgan Chase and Co said their automatic teller machine networks had been shut down in areas affected by the blackout.
The outage struck nerves among New Yorkers, whose memories of the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, still run strong, and people could be seen running through the streets of the city's downtown financial district.
"Scared," said Jeffrey Snop, of Queens, at the Times Square subway station. "It reminded me of 9/11 and stuff like that."
"Everybody just flipped out," said nurse Mary Horan, stranded, with hordes of others, outside Grand Central Station. "Suddenly you start thinking about 9/11."
Jessica Nottes said she was on top of the Empire State Building when the power went out.
"We had to walk down 86 flights of stairs," she said. "I kept thinking about the Twin Towers and how I would get down. but everybody was calm."
Officials said workers should go home if they could or try to stay with friends if they lived too far out of the city.
TORONTO HIT
In Toronto, Canada's largest city, the transit system ground to a halt and thousands were stranded as temperatures hit 86 F (30 C) and transit authorities shut the doors into
subway stations to prevent overcrowding.
"There's no power but they're safe," said a transit official.
Both the Toronto Stock Exchange, the country's main bourse, and Pearson International Airport were operating on back-up power supplies.
Power was still on in Montreal, Quebec City and most of Quebec. A spokesman for Montreal's Dorval airport said all flights to blackout cities have been canceled, including Toronto.
In Detroit, headquarters to the largest U.S. automakers, many workers decided to go home after the lights went out, creating traffic gridlock in the city. General Motors said several of its auto plants were closed by the power outages.
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.
wil.
