On August 14, 2003, a massive power outage in the United States and Canada caused serious inconveniences for over 50 million people. This was reported by Zamin.uz.
This incident, which occurred on a hot summer day, left New York City completely without electricity. The outage lasted for hours, halting city transportation, and subway and commuter trains came to a standstill, leaving hundreds of people trapped in elevators.
As air conditioners stopped working, the number of people on the streets significantly increased. Mobile communication and television services were also interrupted, leading some people to mistakenly interpret the situation as a terrorist attack.
Thousands of people were forced to spend the night in parks and on sidewalks. The lighting of candles throughout the city resulted in numerous fires, with 25 major fires reported in Brooklyn alone within a day.
Investigations determined that the cause of the outage was a cable overheating and coming into contact with trees at a FirstEnergy station in Ohio. Protective systems were activated, leading to a cascading event.
Due to a software malfunction, operators were unable to assess the situation in a timely manner. The outage lasted for 29 hours, and only after that was electricity restored in New York.
Experts believe that this incident is a result of the aging infrastructure of the U.S. power grid and insufficient investment. This situation once again highlighted the need to modernize the country's energy system.
