| 2003 BLACKOUT
When the city returned to work after a blackout that put 50 million
people in the dark for at least a day and cost New York City an
estimated billion dollars, many New Yorkers started seeking answers
to difficult questions: Why did it happen? Why did the power failure
spread so far? Who and what are to blame? How can it be prevented
in the future?
HOW IT BEGAN
The events that led to the largest power failure in U.S. history
began in Ohio, officials said, when several high-voltage transmission
lines failed. Investigators said that an alarm that should have
alerted power controllers also failed. These events triggered the
shutdown of power lines and some 100 power plants across the North
East and Canada. However, officials could not yet account for why
the safety measures that should have isolated the power failures
did not work.
WHO WAS AFFECTED
An estimated 50 million people in Canada, Ohio, Michigan, Connecticut,
New Jersey and New York lost electrical power at approximately 4:10
p.m. on Thursday. In New York City, subway trains shut down and
thousands of riders had to be evacuated. Travel on New Jersey Transit,
PATH trains, and the Long Island Rail Road and area airports came
to a halt. Millions of people walked out of their office buildings
and tried to figure out how to get home.
Tens of thousands of commuters and tourists had no where to go
and ended up sleeping on city streets, buying what food and drinks
they could from stores that stayed open. Many neighbors organized
their own festivities, with outdoor parties extending late into
the night.
The New York Stock Exchange opened on Friday morning, powered by
a generator, but much of the city took a summer "snow day."
All power was fully restored in the city by 9 p.m. on Friday; the
Chelsea neighborhood in Manhattan was the last to see the lights
go on. By 6 a.m. on Saturday, the subway system was running on its
regular schedule.
By Sunday morning, Mayor Michael Bloomberg declared that the city
was back to normal, except "the Mets won three in a row."
CITY RESPONDS
Mayor Bloomberg said that the night of the blackout, the 911 system
handled 90,000 calls, more than twice the usual number. The police
said they arrested 60 people on burglary charges related to looting,
but that overall crime was below normal levels. "The city that
burned in the 1970s facing similar circumstances is a very different
place," said Mayor Bloomberg. In the blackout of 1977, there
was looting and fires and more than 3,500 people were arrested.
This time around, Emergency Medical Service workers responded to
a record 5,000 calls for medical attention and firefighters put
out 60 serious fires, the majority of which were started by candles.
Five people died as a result of the blackout. The power failure
also caused major problems for the city's EMS dispatch system, including
backlogs of thousands of calls, and the complete collapse of the
radio system on at least three occasions, one lasting as long as
14 minutes. Mayor Bloomberg promised an investigation into why the
city's 911 system failed.
The day after power was restored, sanitation workers struggled
to pick up extra trash, including food thrown out by restaurants
and stores. City beaches were closed, after the power failure triggered
releases of raw sewage into the East River from facilities at East
13th Street in Manhattan and near the Brooklyn Navy Yard.
COST OF THE BLACKOUT
City Comptroller William Thompson estimated the economic impact
of the blackout at $800 million to $1 billion in the city. Restaurants
and stores that had to throw out food or businesses that will not
be able to recoup lost revenue were hardest hit.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg estimated the city would pay $10 million
in overtime related to the blackout. "There's economic pain
in the sense that sales tax revenue will be lower," Bloomberg
said. "So our revenues will be lower, our expenses will be
higher. It'll really take a little while before we see how that
plays out."
POLITICS OF POWER OUTAGE
Local officials are calling for an international investigation into
the power outage. Some accused the federal government of neglecting
the power facilities. "New Yorkers have a right to know the
question of why this happened, how it happened," said Governor
George Pataki.
Democratic Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver promised to hold hearings
on the blackout and deregulation of the power industry. "For
almost a decade, experts have warned of a very real vulnerability
that exists in the transmission and delivery of electricity throughout
the state," Silver said.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who predicted on Thursday evening that
power would be restored in a few hours and that the city would be
"back in business" on Friday morning, was frustrated with
local energy suppliers who responded slowly. "We can't be held
hostage by some of the upstate utilities," the mayor said.
The mayor even decided that legal action could be necessary and
directed the city's corporation counsel to begin proceedings to
get a court order preventing Con Edison from turning off the power
to city residents.
But the battles over power are difficult. New wires, towers, and
transformers can cost billions of dollars and local communities
and politicians oppose the construction of new plants in their areas.
Deregulation further complicates the task of supplying the city's
growing energy needs. Electricity can not be stored in large quantities
and many different companies must collaborate in sharing power lines
and energy, while competing financially with one another. Local
utilities have little incentive to invest in infrastructure and
choose to purchase power at lower rates from great distances. The
result, as the power failure demonstrated last week, is that when
it comes to power, New Yorkers are no better off than residents
of Toronto or Toledo.
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