Photo © NASA

Northeast blackout of 2003

Description

The Northeast blackout of 2003 was a massive power outage that affected parts of the Northeastern and Midwestern United States and Ontario, Canada, on August 14, 2003. The outage impacted about 55 million people. While power was restored to some areas within hours, full restoration took up to two days in places like New York City and Toronto. The cause was traced to a software bug at FirstEnergy, which prevented operators from redistributing load, leading to widespread failures in the electrical grid.

Started, Aug 14, 2003

Restored, Aug 16, 2003

#Events and Stories

#Infrastructure

#Disaster

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33 Results,Show less

current Images

31 Images,Show less

2003 - People stand in line and wait to use a payphone on Fifth Avenue, during the blackout

2003 - People move around Times Square without the convenience of electricity

2003 - Commuters catch a ride in the back of a delivery truck as others walk up the entrance ramp to the Queensboro Bridge

2003 - Products in the dairy section that went unrefrigerated due to the blackout are marked to be thrown out at a grocery store

2003 - Peter Abeles, a professor at Columbia University

2003 - Several hundred people wait for buses

2003 - People stand in line and wait to use a payphone on Fifth Avenue, during the blackout

2003 - New Yorkers have a drink outside Fiddler's Green on 48th Street while they wait for a way to get home during the power outage

2003 - Passengers wait inside a stranded New York City subway train

2003 - Transit workers escort riders off of a subway car, in background, on the Upper West Side of Manhattan

2003 - New York City police direct traffic

2003 - People sell beer on the street during the blackout

2003 - People line up to buy batteries for their flashlights at a hardware store on the Upper West Side of Manhattan

2003 - Commuters walk over the Queensboro Bridge with traffic stopped in gridlock

2003 - People try to board the back of a crowded New York bus

2003 - The Parliament Buildings of Ottawa, Canada's capital, sit in darkness

2003 - The dark Manhattan skyline, seen from Queens

2003 - Patrons continue to eat and drink at the Rink Bar at Rockefeller Center, in New York, shortly after nightfall

2003 - People walk down the street with candles during the power outage

2003 - Cars try to navigate their way

2003 - Commuters sleep on the steps of the NY Central Post Office

2003 - People line up at a hot-dog cart on Yonge Street in Toronto

2003 - People lay stranded outside the Times Square Marriott

2003 - A man sits on the sidewalk in a dark Times Square

2003 - A man buys a newspaper outside of New York's Penn Station

2003 - Improvising in the blackout, the college student Shmuel Aziza powers his laptop computer off of a car battery

2003 - New York residents congregated outside during the second day of the massive blackout

2003 - In the Soho neighborhood, a restaurant cook and his customers make the best of the massive power outage by setting up a barbecue on the street

2003 - People walk down the Brooklyn Bridge during the blackout

People walk across the Brooklyn Bridge

2004 - Commuters walk up the entrance ramp to the Queensboro Bridge in New York, as a police officer directs traffic

current Drawings and documents

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August 14, 2003 9:29 PM EDT. 20 hours before the blackout

August 15, 2003 9:15 pm EDT. About 7 hours after the blackout

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