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Eastern Seaboard Blackened 20 Years Ago

Monday, 14 August 2023 10:17

By Geoff Waterfield, Canadian Press

It happened due to problems with Ohio's power grid

Do you remember where you were on the afternoon of August 14, 2003?

It was 20 years ago today that failures in Ohio's electrical grid triggered North America's worst blackout, knocking out power to 50 million people in Ontario and the northeastern United States.

A system supervisor in the control room overseeing Ontario's electrical grid said at 4:11 p-m it looked like there was a disturbance as four alarms popped up on his computer screen.

Then another 30,000 sounded within the next minute, creating a cacophony that compared to someone winning the jackpot in a casino. 

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