NYC mayor: Stay home from work

2003-08-15 20:43

New York - New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg advised workers to stay home on Friday if at all possible, until power was restored in New York, possibly later Friday evening.

His remarks came as north-eastern United States and south-eastern Canada remained paralysed by a massive electricity failure, affecting an estimated 50 million people.

By Friday afternoon, electricity had been partly restored to four out of five New York boroughs.

"It is a slow process," said New York Governor George E Pataki.

Speaking to reporters on Friday, Bloomberg said the subway system would not open for up to eight hours after power was restored elsewhere, because managers would have to reposition trains and reset signal lights.

Thousands of people were stranded for hours underground in sweltering subway carriages until late on Thursday.

Bloomberg said traffic was light on the tunnels and bridges coming into Manhattan in stark contrast to the gridlock on Thursday so that people who really had to report to work could do so.

The financial markets were scheduled to open, but could be operating at a low level, Bloomberg said.

New York had opened cooling centres around the city for people who were overcome by the heat.

"Wear light clothing, keep your windows open and make sure you water your pets," was Bloomberg's advice.

New York beaches would be closed until further notice because raw sewage had been dumped into the ocean as a result of the power outage. But, with temperatures expected to soar to 35°, all city swimming pools and sprinkler facilities in the parks would be open.

It could take days for investigators to pinpoint the cause of the problem that spread over the interconnected, cross-border electrical grids, experts said.

The mayor said that the power failure caused at least one nuclear power generator to go off-line, which further diminished the supply of electricity.

Bloomberg indicated that one of the problems was that US power generators were called upon to supply a sudden surge of electricity to Canada, which in turn caused a cascading shutdown throughout the north-eastern United States.

Voice of America reported that a circuit breaker action that turned off the power grid resulted in an automatic shutdown of nine nuclear plants.

The Niagara Mohawk Power Corp announced its power grid was overloaded.

US President George Bush called for modernisation of the electrical grid, which experts declared to be antiquated, given the technology-driven surge in demand.

But as the root of the blackout, from Ottawa in south-eastern Canada, as far south as Pennsylvania and west to Ohio, was being investigated, US and Canadian officials traded blame for the failure.

The office of Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien said a lightning strike or fire at a power plant near Niagara Falls, New York, caused the blackout but US officials denied the possibility and said the blackout began in Ottawa.

In Canada, power had been restored to parts of Ontario but premier Ernie Eves urged people to remain at home and conserve energy if possible.

"I urge all Ontarians to refrain from using highways and fuel and to stay home when possible as we work toward a solution," Eves said.

Bloomberg praised the efficient performance of police and fire officers, saying the lessons of past blackouts in the 1970s and the experiences after the terror attacks on September 11, 2001, had led to better systems co-ordination.

"New Yorkers showed that this city has the ability to conquer adversity instead of succumbing to it as we did in the 1970s," Bloomberg said, referring to the widespread looting and chaos during the 1977 blackout.

Tens of thousands of New Yorkers spent the night outdoors but according to police reports, there were only four isolated incidents of burglary during the power failure.

The city's 10 000 police officers responded to 80 000 emergency calls twice the usual number - Thursday night including 800 elevator rescues.

By Friday afternoon, power had been partly restored to four of the five New York City boroughs.

In the commercial centre of New York, Midtown Manhattan, many buildings still had no electricity at 13:00. Traffic lights were out and police directed the scant flow of traffic.

Stranded commuters, who couldn't get home the evening before when power failed in the subway system, were still waiting Friday morning for the electricity to return to normal.

Many hotels opened their doors and allowed stranded commuters, who couldn't get hotel rooms, to sleep in the lobby.

- SAPA