2003 Blackout
The Northeast blackout of 2003 began at 4:10 p.m. on August 14, impacting over 45 million people in eight states. The outage was likely due to a software bug in the control room of the electric company FirstEnergy in Ohio. The 2003 blackout was not as costly as the prior two blackouts, as most places had electricity restored after just two hours. New York’s subways halted for about four hours and resumed limited service starting at 8 p.m. More than 600 subway and commuter rail cars were trapped between stations. Approximately 3,000 fire calls were reported, and New York City also experienced six blackout-related deaths.