Power out in NY and elsewhere?

[FrustratedPoet]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/3152451.stm

Mr Bloomberg said: "I can tell you 100 percent sure that there is no evidence as of this moment whatsoever of any terrorism."

He urged New Yorkers to make their own way homes.

"It may be well into the evening before power comes back on," he said.

His attempt to be both absolutely definite and guardedly cautious appears to have fried Mr. Bloomberg's ability to structure sentences.

[Chemical Ollie]

There's an extra news broadcast about this on Swedish TV right now. They say that when one powerplant went out then the others were overloaded and fell like domino bricks.

People in NY got a 9/11 Deja Vu when they had to walk all the way home from work instead of using public transportation.

[cinch]

Well, at least people seem to be keeping under control and not going nuts:

***************************************

Canadian cities struggle with power loss
Last Updated Thu, 14 Aug 2003 17:47:19
TORONTO - The power outage that hit much of eastern North America Thursday hit several Canadian cities, including Ottawa, Toronto and much of Southern Ontario.

Lights and power went out on Parliament Hill and people were asked to leave the buildings.

In the country?s largest city, Toronto, power went out as many people were getting ready to leave downtown office towers.

Andrew Nichol, a CBC reporter who works at the TSX exchange in Toronto, says security guards asked people to evacuate the exchange building, but later told them they could stay.

?There was no real sense of panic,? Nichol said. He said traffic in the downtown streets was normal for the time of day, unlike New York, where panicked residents jammed the highways in cars and on foot..

The subways in Toronto are not working and many people are trapped in trains underground in the 30 C heat.

Traffic is moving in the city?s core, but traffic lights are not working. There were no police directing traffic at most intersections.

There are no reports of looting or public safety concerns in Toronto so far.

Major hospital throughout the city are on backup power, but none of them was reporting any problems.

In Ottawa, traffic was moving well. The city has no subway or streetcar system and buses were moving at a normal rush hour rate.

Quebec is just across the river and power in the province is still on. Many people who work in the nation?s capital live in Quebec.

Reporters were not able to immediately get in touch with Prime Minister Jean Chrétien for comment.

Power was also out as far west as Windsor. Several cities and towns to the north of Southern Ontario were also out of power.

The power failure left telephones operating, but wiped out high speed Internet service in most areas.



Written by CBC News Online staff
*****************************************

My compliments to the drivers in Ottawa and Toronto for seemingly keeping things running as smoothly as possible.

[FrustratedPoet]

There are no reports of looting or public safety concerns in Toronto so far.

Major hospital throughout the city are on backup power, but none of them was reporting any problems.

[SuperSneak]

See, now I'm getting paranoid...had an Arabic guy come into my work today to enquire about getting his car fixed...but then he said "I'm leaving for the Middle East tomorrow and don't know when/if I'm coming back"....
What's the big hurry, huh? Huh?

[Japher]

Where did Zylka go again?

[mrmitchell]

http://abcnews.go.com/sections/us/WorldNewsTonight/power_outage030814.html

Sounds pretty bad, but they don't mention the doomsday stuff like "power plant in flames."

It's odd, though, that one of the more everyday impacts of September 11 is that EVERY report about EVERY disaster has to come after "This was not a terrorist attack!"...

(BTW, this incident only expresses the utter failure of our power system today. I'd say more but I'm going to go turn on the boob tube and see if CNBC is covering it)

[Japher]

See, now I'm getting paranoid...

Didn't they just arrest to guys on the "watch list" in Seattle today, who were in the country illegally from Canada, and trying to book pasage to JFK this morning? That plane would be getting there just about now...

[FrustratedPoet]

Originally posted by SuperSneak
See, now I'm getting paranoid...had an Arabic guy come into my work today to enquire about getting his car fixed...but then he said "I'm leaving for the Middle East tomorrow and don't know when/if I'm coming back"....
What's the big hurry, huh? Huh?

[SuperSneak]

Hmmm...well, not being a terrorist, I don't know what the advantage would be to knocking out power, unless it was the precursor to some conflagoration that was hoped to be much worse because of gridlock and bad communication?
I suppose some big fires would be a real nightmare right now, for sure.

[mrmitchell]

There doesn't appear to be a lot of gridlock, at least from the video feed of NYC on CNBC. For once, New Yorkers are doing something orderly...they're walking home pretty nicely

[Chemical Ollie]

I wonder how many tonnes of fat that will be burned in NY alone?

[Jaguar]

Bloomberg said power is coming back.

I wonder why he thinks that his advice to NYers will be helpful. They aren't able to watch TV.

Maryland, Delaware and Southern Pennsylvania are all OK.

[Japher]

??? it's mostly silicone and bow-tox I thought

[mrmitchell]

Some of them might have radios. I bet they've got radio stations in NY playing his advice