AP (Associated Press) - 2127GMT 14AUG03 - urgent-newsdesks -
NEW YORK: New York City.
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In New York, the blackout affected subways, elevators and airports, including John F. Kennedy and LaGuardia airports. Thousands of people streamed into the streets of lower Manhattan in 90-degree (32-Celsius) heat.
In Toronto, Canada’s largest city, workers also fled their buildings after the blackout hit shortly after 4 p.m. EDT (200 GMT). There also were widespread outages in Ottawa, the capital.
Traffic lights were out throughout downtown Cleveland and other major cities, creating havoc at the beginning of rush hour.
Every prison in New York state reported a loss of power and switched to backup generators, said James Flateau, a spokesman for the state Department of Corrections.
In Albany, New York, several people were trapped in elevators in Empire State Plaza, but most had been freed by 5 p.m. People in New York City lined up 10 deep or more at pay phones, with cell phone service disrupted in some areas.
The blackouts rivaled those in the West on Aug. 11, 1996, when heat, sagging power lines and unusually high demand for electricity caused an outage that affected 4 million customers in nine states, one of the most severe outages in US history.
A blackout in New York City in 1977 left some 9 million people without electricity for up to 25 hours.
“There is no evidence of any terrorism at this point,” said Michael Sheehan, deputy commissioner for terrorism of New York City’s Police Department. “We’ve talked to Washington and there are rumors, but none of them pans out.”
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UPDATE 1
WASHINGTON, Aug 14 – Air traffic headed into the three major New York-area airports was halted on Thursday because of a massive power outage in the eastern United States and Canada, regulators said.
The ground stops also affected Cleveland, Toronto and Ottawa, the Federal Aviation Administration said.
This means that flights for these cities yet to take off from other airports must remain on the ground. Flights in the air may be allowed to land or could be diverted.
The FAA said that control centers and airport towers in New York and other American cities affected by the blackouts were running on diesel backup generators and flight operations were normal.
REUTERS