WCAX.COM Local Vermont News, Weather and Sports-Major Blackout Hits Northeast

Major Blackout Hits Northeast

Burlington, Vermont - August 14, 2003

A power blackout hit parts of the northeastern United States and Canada late Thursday afternoon. It also blacked out parts of New York to Detroit and Toronto.

In Vermont, the only major affect appears to be a power surge felt by almost all power company customers from CVPS, Green Mountain Power, and the smaller utilities. There were isolated power outages in southern Bennington county, and a few up near the border in Swanton and Highgate.

The outage was reported across the Northeast: New York, Cleveland, Detroit, Toronto, Albany and Hartford were all without power starting at around 4pm. The most dramatic effect was in New York City. Elevators and subways stopped and people poured into the streets to walk home.

At the dispatch center of the Burlington Electric Department, they watched as power dropped out briefly at 4pm. Electric utility officials are still trying to pinpoint the exact cause of the problem..they do not think it is terror related. "In Burlington, we lost almost the entire city," said BED Operations Manager Charlie Willette. "It just dragged what we call the voltage right down to nothing."

The cause of the outage is unknown, but as of 6:00 the system in Vermont was back online. The Vermont electric power company told Channel 3 that power is going to all utility substations in Vermont. Utilities and companies that had seen brief interruptions during the late afternoon are now all back on line, according to VELCO.

CVPS tells us they shut off the lines that come into Vermont and that helped isolate us. Vermont is getting most of its power from Hydro Quebec at Highgate and Vermont Yankee.

In New York, there were reports that power was out across parts of Clinton County, mostly NY State Electric and Gas customers. And in the town of Plattsburgh some of the traffic lights were out.