Power back on, but US still struggling after blackout

Cities across the north-eastern United States and Canada restored power to millions of people today, following the largest blackout in North American history – only to confront a second series of woes in the aftermath of the enormous power cut.

Electricity flowed in Cleveland on day two of the blackout, but water moved at a trickle. Times Square was once again the luminous centre of Manhattan, but only 10 of the system’s 24 main underground lines were running early today. The lights clicked on in almost two million homes in Michigan, but gas remained in scarce supply around Detroit.

Some customers in the Cleveland area and in New York received the unkindest cut of all: power was restored and then turned off due to rolling blackouts needed to conserve electricity.

Officials in Michigan warned that the whirr of air conditioners and the glow of televisions might not return until the end of the weekend as the cause of the massive outage remained a mystery.

Earlier today, Canada and the United States formed a joint task force to investigate what caused the blackout and how to prevent it from happening again.

The blackout swept across a huge slice of North America, knocking out service in parts of eight states and Canada in just nine seconds.

President George Bush said part of the problem was “an antiquated system” to distribute electricity nationally.

“It’s a wake-up call,” Bush said. “The grid needs to be modernised, the delivery systems need to be modernised.”

In New York City, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said he received a call from Bush offering congratulations on the city’s handling of the crisis. Crime there was actually down overnight compared to an average evening, he said.

Most of the system’s main tube lines were still stalled early today, while the two major commuter rail lines limped through with sporadic service.

Consolidated Edison announced that all power had been restored to New York City. By then, though, some New Yorkers had already endured a blackout longer than the 25-hour power cut of 1977.

While New Yorkers and virtually all the 1.4 million Ohioans who lost power were back on line, 600,000 of the estimated 2.4 million customers in Michigan were still without power.

The failure of electric pumps led to a run on gasoline in Detroit, while Cleveland struggled to provide residents with water, but taps barely flowed. By last night, electricity was back and there was hope that the water would soon follow.

The restoration of power was merely a tease for an unlucky swathe of New York, where the electricity crackled and then ceased. Upstate utilities – shortly after restoring power – were ordered to initiate rolling blackouts as a conservation measure, with as many as 50,000 customers affected.

But the blackout couldn’t silence the opening bell on Wall Street Friday, although many businesses remained closed.

Wall Street trader Kenneth Polcari said he saw no glitches in the stock markets yesterday, which closed slightly up, with trading light on the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq. New York’s financial exchanges had just closed when the lights went out on Thursday.

However, much of North America’s car manufacturing was paralysed as plants sat idle.

Officials throughout the affected area appealed to the public to cut back on power use.

“Every light bulb matters today,” said Long Island Power Authority Chairman Richard Kessel. “If you don’t turn them off, they will go off.”

Despite plunging several of the nation’s largest cities into darkness, the outage resulted in few reports of vandalism or increased violence.

But there were at least four fatalities.

In New York, a 40-year-old man suffered a heart attack during an overnight fire, and in Connecticut, a 42-year-old woman in Connecticut died in a blaze sparked by a candle. Her husband and 10-year-old son were badly burned.

In Canada’s capital of Ottawa, police reported two deaths possibly linked to the power outage – a pedestrian hit by a car and a fire victim.

Ottawa police also reported 23 cases of looting. In Toronto, police said they arrested 38 people and reported 114 incidents, mostly for looting and other thefts. A small number of looting incidents were also reported in New York and Detroit.

Officials in Michigan also blamed the power failure for a small explosion at a refinery about 10 miles south of Detroit. No injuries were reported, but hundreds of nearby residents were evacuated.

As for the cause of the blackout, which happened almost instantaneously around the north east at 4.11pm local time on Thursday, officials remained in the dark.

Investigators focused on a massive electrical grid that encircles Lake Erie, moving power from New York to the Detroit area, Canada and back to New York state. There had been problems with the transmission loop in the past, officials said.

The exact source and cause led to bickering over the blame. Initial reports cited a lightning strike near Niagara Falls, followed by finger-pointing at Ohio, where officials pointed back at Canada and upstate New York. Yesterday, one expert speculated the problem began in Michigan.