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Power cut: Nuclear plants closed
15/08/2003 00:19 - (SA)
New York - A massive power blackout hit US and Canadian cities on Thursday, closing nuclear power plants in Ohio and New York state, driving workers in New York City and Toronto into the streets, and shutting subways in blistering heat.
New York Governor George Pataki declared a state of emergency and said officials thought the cause of the blackout was "a possible transmission problem from Canada to the US". There was no sign of terrorism, officials in New York and Washington said.
New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg said it was likely the blackout started in the Niagara Falls area and quickly spread.
"It was probably a natural occurrence which disrupted the power system up there and it apparently for reasons we don't know cascaded down through New York state over into Connecticut, as far south as New Jersey and as far west as Ohio.
Natural occurence
A senior law enforcement official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the FBI had determined the blackout was a "natural occurrence" and there was no evidence of terrorism, and that the homeland security department agreed.
In New York, the blackout affected subways, elevators and airports, including John F Kennedy and LaGuardia airports. Thousands of people streamed into the streets of lower Manhattan in 32°C heat.
In Toronto, Canada's largest city, workers also fled their buildings after the blackout hit shortly after 16:00 EDT (20:00 GMT). There also were widespread outages in Ottawa, the capital.
Traffic lights were out throughout downtown Cleveland and other major cities, creating havoc at the beginning of rush hour.
There were reports of outages in northern New Jersey and in several Vermont towns. In Connecticut, Metro-North Railroad service was knocked out. Lights flickered at state government buildings in Hartford.
Every prison in New York state reported a loss of power and switched to backup generators, said James Flateau, a spokesperson for the state department of corrections.
In Albany, New York, several people were trapped in elevators in Empire State Plaza, but most had been freed within an hour. People in New York City lined up 10 deep or more at pay phones, with cell phone service disrupted in some areas.
Mike Saltzman, a spokesperson for New York Power Authority, a state-owned utility in White Plains, New York, said its two largest hydroelectric plants, including Niagara Falls and St Lawrence-FDR, were operating. He said he did not know the status of 18 other smaller plants.
The blackouts rivalled those in the US West on August 11, 1996, when heat, sagging power lines and unusually high demand for electricity caused an outage that affected 4 million customers in nine states, one of the most severe outages in US history.
A blackout in New York City in 1977 left about 9 million people without electricity for up to 25 hours. No evidence of terror
"There is no evidence of any terrorism at this point," said Michael Sheehan, deputy commissioner for terrorism of New York City's police department. "We've talked to Washington and there are rumours, but none of them pans out."
Top New York police officers gathered at the department's operations centre downtown where the focus was on the ramifications of the blackout rather than its cause.
"We're more concerned about getting the traffic lights running and making sure the city is OK than what caused it," a police spokesperson said at the centre.
In Cleveland, Olga Kropko, a University Hospitals labour and delivery nurse, said the hospital was using its back-up generators and had limited power. "Everyone is very hot because the air conditioning is off," she said. "Our labouring moms are suffering."
Police in Mansfield, Ohio, spread into the streets to keep traffic flowing. "A lot of officers are out there trying to make sure nobody gets hurt, to try to cut down on the accidents," said jail officer Randi Allen.
New Yorkers 'calm'
Bloomberg, on CNN, described New Yorkers as calm. He advised people to go home, open windows and drink liquids.
"The good news is that in New York City, while we have lost all the power, Con Ed's facilities have shut down properly, which we have programmed them to do," he said. "We don't know when Con Ed can power up again but clearly it will take some time."
Four nuclear power reactors - two in New York and two in Ohio - reported they were shut down because of the loss of off-site power, according to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in Bethesda, Maryland. They were the two Indian Point reactors in New York state, and the Perry and Fermi nuclear power plants in Ohio.
The Federal Aviation Administration instituted airport ground stops at Cleveland, Kennedy, LaGuardia and Newark, NJ. That meant planes from other cities heading to those four airports could not take off.
However, air traffic control facilities had backup power, and planes already in the air could land at those airports, said Laura Brown, speaking for the FAA.
- AP
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