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Blackout 2003 -- the current conditions
(AP) -- Power is returning to dozens of cities in Canada and the Northeast and Midwest United States after they were hit simultaneously Thursday afternoon by a major power outage. More than 60 million customers were affected at the height of the blackout. Here is a glance of current conditions: CANADA: Blackouts occurred in Toronto and much of southern Ontario, from Ottawa in the province's eastern region to Windsor, across the border from Detroit. Ontario Premier Ernie Eves declared a state of emergency. The blackout hit the southern part of Ontario, where most of the province's 10 million residents live, and electricity slowly returned Friday. Eves said electricity generation was expected to reach two-thirds capacity by the end of Friday. After Canadian and U.S. officials traded accusations of blame for the outage, the countries formed a joint task force to investigate what caused it and how to prevent it from happening again. CONNECTICUT: Just 450 customers, down from a peak of 278,000, remained dark by early Saturday. Fire officials in Waterbury said a Friday morning blaze that killed a 42-year-old woman and burned her husband and son was caused by a candle lit because of the blackout. MASSACHUSETTS: All 20,000 customers affected by the blackout had power restored. MICHIGAN: The number of customers without power dropped to about 50,000 by early Saturday, but power company DTE said it could be the end of the weekend before everyone's power was restored. At the peak, about 2.3 million were without power. Detroit Metropolitan Airport had limited operations. Gov. Jennifer Granholm declared a state of emergency. NEW JERSEY: Electricity was restored to nearly all affected customers, with fewer than 5,000 customers still without power, from the peak of 1 million homes and businesses. Commuter railroads and buses had limited to full service. NEW YORK: Power to New York City was fully restored at 9:03 p.m. Friday, Consolidated Edison announced, and virtually all the rest of the state had regained electricity as well. The City Council estimated the city lost up to $750 million in revenue, up to $40 million in tax revenue and up to $10 million in overtime pay for the first 24 hours after the blackout started. New York City bridges and tunnels were open. All of the city's 24 main subway lines and commuter rail services were running Saturday. Fires claimed the lives of a 6-year-old boy and a 40-year-old man. The man suffered a heart attack. OHIO: Only spotty outages in the Cleveland area remained Friday evening, from the peak of 1.4 million. Rolling blackouts were the result of a lack of available electricity. About 1.5 million people lost water in the Cleveland area and residents used bottled water for drinking and bathing. PENNSYLVANIA: No major problems reported after 100,000 customers, mostly in northwestern counties, initially lost power. Most recovered electricity shortly after nightfall Thursday, and FirstEnergy Corp. said all its customers in the state regained service by noon. VERMONT: A quick shutdown of transmission lines from New York averted major outages in Vermont. A small area near the Canadian border lost power briefly, but it affected only a few thousand customers. Copyright 2003 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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