Word: blackouts
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Though officials were quick to say what hadn't happened, they were at a loss to explain what had. How can the power demands of a not unusually hot day somehow bring a huge chunk of the northeastern electrical grid crashing down? The blame cascaded as fast as the blackout. On the ground some Americans blamed Canada for its origin; Canadians returned the favor. Ottawa officials first suggested that it was a lightning strike at a plant in upstate New York, except that it was a lovely sunny day in Niagara Falls, and there were no reports of lightning anywhere...
That's because by then he and the other big-city mayors knew that there were no quick, easy fixes. Getting a power system up and running after a blackout--called a black start--involves much more than just flipping a switch. Power-generating units have to be brought online one at a time. If one power plant were brought up with all of Toledo waiting with its air conditioners in the on position, it would just shut down again. So technicians have to carve up cities into electrically isolated pieces and bring each neighborhood back...
...problem spread fast back to generating plants that then were producing too much or too little electricity, causing more shutdowns. Eventually, the problem was contained, preventing a blackout that could have spread as widely as the entire eastern half...
POWERFUL NUMBERS The biggest blackout in North American history set all sorts of records...
...deaths attributed to the blackout...