Washington, Aug 15: The United States and parts of Canada suffered the worst electricity blackout in history, affecting 50 million people for several hours.
The cities without power included New York, New Jersey,
Cleveland, Michigan and Detroit in the US and Ottawa and
Toronto in Canada.
President Bush came on TV to congratulate the people for
the way they faced the disaster and assured them of all
federal help to their state and local governments.
He said that when the immediate problems have been
solved, it will be time to investigate why the failure
occurred. His own view, he said, is that the US power grid
will have to be modernized.
Bush assured the country that the massive blackout was
the result of a system failure, not any terrorist act.
However, authorities are taking no chances. Air patrols
are being intensified and, on the streets of New York, police
are at maximum strength. Firemen have also been mobilized.
Without electricity, trains stopped in their tracks
between stations at tunnels. Several hundred thousand people
were guided to the next station and safely pulled out onto the
platform. With no trains and no buses on several streets, many
commuters walked miles to reach home.
Huge power outages also threw air travel in the two
countries into chaos, blacking out major airports and
stranding masses of flights.
Stuck for hours were people caught between floors in
elevators on top floors of skyscrapers.
An Indian American told ABC-TV that he was lucky that the
elevator stopped between the first and second floors. Even
then, he had to wait until the top could be removed and a
ladder brought to enable him to get out.
Bureau Report
