Today in history: Massive blackout hits Northeast US states
Twelve years ago the second most widespread blackout in history left a great part of the Northeast and Midwest of the country without power. While some areas managed to restore the electricity in a few hours, many people did not get their power back until two days later.
The blackout affected some areas of Canada as well with a total of 10 million Canadians and 45 million Americans left without power.
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As Time points out, currently the grid is still vulnerable to failure:
%shareLinks-quote="The American power industry deploys technology designed in the 1800s to manage a system of wires and wooden poles that is ill suited to the weather challenges of the 21st century." type="quote" author="David Crane" authordesc=" NRG Energy" isquoteoftheday="false"%
Were you living in a Northeastern state when the blackout hit? Tell us about your experience in the comments below.
See the gallery below for images from the 2003 blackout:
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