35 Years Ago, New York City Blacks Out
On a muggy dog-day evening last week, a vagrant summer storm knocked out high-voltage power lines in the near New York exurbs—and within the hour returned 9 million people to the dark, heat and disquiet of a pre-electric age … And it underscored once again the fragility of urban American in the last quarter of the twentieth century—a state of dependence so total that a burst of lightning could shut down the nation’s largest city as surely and nearly as completely as a neutron bomb.
Newsweek, July, 25, 1977
This is what DC was like two weeks ago, except with laptops, power outlets and sniping.
How do photographers shoot a blackout? By using whatever available light there is.
Photos: Scenes from the massive blackout in Southern California Thursday evening. Credit: Los Angeles Times
These shots are pretty freaking awesome. At least something good came out of that blackout.
Restoring power in the aftermath of the loss of the entire local grid serving San Diego and southern Orange counties was a monumental task. The restoration process, however, has left our local power grid very fragile and we are asking our customers to conserve electricity throughout the day Friday.SDG&E vice president of electric operations David Geier • Discussing last night’s blackout, which affected nearly five million people in Mexico, Arizona and California. The blackout led to some great photos, but fortunately, it looks like it ended relatively painlessly. We’ll keep an eye on this today. source (via • follow)
A blackout across San Diego and parts of Orange County has left 1.4 million people without power, shutting down cooling centers, causing traffic gridlock and affecting San Onofre’s nuclear reactors. Power might not be fully restored until Friday.
Check out our full coverage on L.A. Now.
There’s a major power outage in the region. SDG&E crews are working as quickly and safely as possible. We don’t have an estimated restoration time. The power could be out through the night and into tomorrow. The outage has affected street lights. Please drive safely and treat the street lights as a four-way stop. If you have a personal family emergency plan, please activate it now.A message on San Diego Gas & Electric’s home page.
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