Brownout: cause still unknown?

"We're the world's greatest superpower, but we have a Third World electricity grid," said Richardson, governor of New Mexico.

⋅ ABC News ⋅

The canadian premiere, of course, said it was a lightning hitting a power station on the "New York side of the Canadian-American border", something like that.

However, ( this is not certain )

. In addition, it seems the software and hardware safety system did not work as it was supposed to and failed to prevent the ripple effect.

Good news: air traffic control, many (why not all?) hospitals, financial institutions were operating on backup power, smoothly.

Good news: very little looting reported, so far (some in Detroit, I believe).

Total about 50 million people were affected.

Sources: [ABC News ⋅ ABC News ⋅ ABC News]

Power out stories and photos

⋅ There are three power grids in the United States: East, West and Texas. I think they are talking about electrical power.
( Read more... )