Omen of Things To Come

It hasn't been so long that New Yorkers haven't forgotten about the last blackout to hit our city. In 2003 New York and parts of Canada were hit with the largest blackout in American history, a power outage that lasted nearly a full day for most sections, and longer for some out the outer regions. At that time Con Edison and their related energy companies claimed that the grid had been outdated and doomed to failure. It had been considered a National Security risk and that it would be taken care of.

Then last year was a blackout of Astoria, Queens that lasted most of July. That should have been a clue.

But it appears that our leadership has memories like gnats, as shown in yesterday's blackout that unfortunately, looks like an omen of things to come:

"A power failure zapped almost half a million people in Manhattan and the Bronx yesterday - causing gridlock, snarling subways, forcing evacuations and throwing doubt on Con Edison's ability to keep the juice flowing.


"The afternoon blackout - two days into the season's first run of 90-degree weather - lasted just 48 minutes."

As Con Ed CEO Kevin Burke gave a presentation us at a press conference with the Mayor on the energy saving capablities of using florescent lights, the power grid was collapsing, and no one knew why:

"The utility insisted yesterday's problem wasn't a replay - saying lightning may have hit a facility in Astoria, Queens, and tripped giant circuit breakers.


"The likelihood of this happening again is very low," said Con Ed CEO Kevin Burke, who said that despite the high temps, the system was running well below capacity.

"We don't think this event had anything to do with the level of electricity being used.""

Then what did cause it? That's really the question on every one's mind, and until it's answered, New Yorkers' doubts will continued to be validated.

UPDATE: Thousands still without power in upstate New York.