122-756: The New York City blackout of 1977 was an electricity blackout that affected most of New York City on July 13–14, 1977. The only unaffected neighborhoods in the city were in southern Queens (including neighborhoods of the Rockaways ), which were part of the Long Island Lighting Company system, as well as the Pratt Institute campus in Brooklyn , and a few other large apartment and commercial complexes that operated their own power generators. Unlike other blackouts that affected
244-607: A Bronx car dealership. In Brooklyn, youths were seen backing up cars to stores, tying ropes around the stores' grates, and using their cars to pull the grates away, then looting the stores. There were 550 police officers injured in the mayhem, and 4,500 looters were arrested. Mayor Abe Beame spoke during the blackout about what citizens were up against during the blackout and what the costs would be. We've seen our citizens subjected to violence, vandalism, theft, and discomfort. The Blackout has threatened our safety and has seriously impacted our economy. We've been needlessly subjected to
366-566: A substation on the Hudson River , tripping two circuit breakers in Buchanan, New York . The Buchanan South substation converted the 345,000 volts of electricity originating from the 900 MW Indian Point nuclear generating station to lower voltage for commercial use. A loose locking nut combined with a slow-acting upgrade cycle prevented the breaker from reclosing and allowing power to flow again. A second lightning strike caused
488-469: A consensus. In a 2016 poll of New York voters in which respondents were asked to choose among four definitions of where upstate begins, three were about equally common, selected by between 25% and 30% of respondents each: north of New York City, north of Westchester County, and north of Poughkeepsie in Dutchess County . (The fourth, which also started north of Poughkeepsie but excluded Buffalo as
610-729: A family in the United States. Five of the six Iroquois nations have filed land claims against New York State (or have sought settlement of pending claims), based on late 18th-century treaties following the American Revolutionary War with the State of New York (which did not have constitutional authority to treat with American Indian nations) and the United States. The headwaters of the Delaware , Susquehanna , Mohawk , Hudson, and Allegheny rivers are located in
732-486: A hearing in October 2018 to examine " black start ", the process of restoring electricity after a system-wide power loss. The hearing's purpose was for Congress to learn about what the backup plans are in the electric utility industry in the case that the electric grid is damaged. Threats to the electrical grid include cyberattacks, solar storms, and severe weather, among others. For example, the " Northeast Blackout of 2003 "
854-488: A large influx of immigrants seeking jobs at factories across the region. Since the mid-20th century, American deindustrialization has contributed to economic and population decline , and the region is largely considered part of the Rust Belt . There are a wide variety of land uses in the region, including urban, suburban, forested preserve, and rural landscapes. Due to its vast areas of rural land, upstate also supports
976-669: A large tract of land in Upper Canada to their Haudenosaunee allies, who established the Grand River settlement. In the federal Treaty of Canandaigua , the new United States recognized the title of the remaining Haudenosaunee to the land north and west of the Proclamation Line of 1763. Nevertheless, New York state officials and private land agents sought through the early 19th century to extinguish Indian title to these lands via non-Federally-sanctioned treaties, such as
1098-654: A major center of radical abolitionist activity and was an important nexus of the Underground Railroad . Resistance to the Fugitive Slave Act was particularly heated in the region, as evidenced by such events as the Jerry Rescue . The American women's rights movement was also born in upstate New York at this time. The Seneca Falls Convention , the first women's rights convention, was held at Seneca Falls in 1848. The Rochester Convention ,
1220-652: A mile south of the surveyed line, putting the fort, which became known as "Fort Blunder", in Canada. This was not resolved until 1842 with the Webster–Ashburton Treaty , in which Great Britain and the United States decided to leave the border on the meandering line as surveyed. Slavery existed in New Netherland and the Province of New York . New York was in the 1690s the largest importer of slaves among
1342-437: A night of terror in many communities that have been wantonly looted and burned. The costs when finally tallied will be enormous. During New York's 2003 blackout, The New York Times ran a description of the blackout of 1977: Because of the power failure, LaGuardia and Kennedy airports were closed down for about eight hours, automobile tunnels were closed because of lack of ventilation, and 4,000 people had to be evacuated from
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#17327730214301464-545: A result, the region is a significant source of hydroelectric power (going back to the creation of the world's first hydroelectric dam by Nikola Tesla at Niagara Falls ) and drinking water (with multiple reservoirs serving New York City). Upstate New York is home to numerous popular tourist and recreational destinations, including Niagara Falls , the Adirondack and Catskill Mountains , the Thousand Islands ,
1586-505: A similar occurrence. Despite these safeguards, there was a blackout in August 2003 , although this was caused by a power system failure as far away as Eastlake, Ohio . On July 13, 2019, on the 42nd anniversary of the event, a Con Edison blackout occurred, affecting 73,000 people on Manhattan's West Side. The blackout was mentioned in the 1997 science fiction comedy , Men in Black . It
1708-588: A strong agricultural industry, and is notable for its dairy , maple syrup , and fruit production (especially apples ), as well as winemaking . Upstate New York includes a number of notable waterways, with the Susquehanna , Delaware , and Hudson Rivers all originating in the region, and is bordered on its northern and western edges by the Saint Lawrence River and the Great Lakes . As
1830-519: A treaty with the powerful Mohawk. Benjamin Franklin , a Pennsylvania delegate, proposed a plan for uniting the seven colonies that greatly exceeded the scope of the congress. The delegates spent most of their time debating this Albany Plan of union, one of the first attempts to form a union of the colonies "under one government as far as might be necessary for defense and other general important purposes". The delegates approved an amended version, but
1952-686: A unique region neither upstate nor downstate, drew only 7%.) An informal 2018 poll found the Hudson Valley region is the most heavily disputed area regarding whether it is upstate or downstate. A number of businesses and institutions in the area have "upstate" as part of their name. Examples of this include the State University of New York Upstate Medical University in Syracuse , the Upstate New York Chapter of
2074-613: A wide-area outage can be difficult, as power stations need to be brought back online. Normally, this is done with the help of power from the rest of the grid. In the total absence of grid power, a so-called black start needs to be performed to bootstrap the power grid into operation. The means of doing so will depend greatly on local circumstances and operational policies, but typically transmission utilities will establish localized 'power islands' which are then progressively coupled together. To maintain supply frequencies within tolerable limits during this process, demand must be reconnected at
2196-466: Is a tendency to erode the resilience of the network over time, which is only corrected after a major failure occurs. In a 2003 publication, Carreras and co-authors claimed that reducing the likelihood of small outages only increases the likelihood of larger ones. In that case, the short-term economic benefit of keeping the individual customer happy increases the likelihood of large-scale blackouts. The Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources held
2318-642: Is about seventeen year old Jack Reacher first time visiting New York during this blackout. In the 2005 video game The Warriors , the blackout is parodied during mission 4, though the game is set in 1979. Power outage A power outage (also called a powercut , a power out , a power failure , a power blackout , a power loss , or a blackout ) is the loss of the electrical power network supply to an end user . There are many causes of power failures in an electricity network. Examples of these causes include faults at power stations , damage to electric transmission lines , substations or other parts of
2440-689: Is lost. Other critical systems, such as telecommunication , are also required to have emergency power. The battery room of a telephone exchange usually has arrays of lead–acid batteries for backup and also a socket for connecting a generator during extended periods of outage. During a power outage, there is a disruption in the supply of electricity, resulting in a loss of power to homes, businesses, and other facilities. Power outages can occur for various reasons, including severe weather conditions (such as storms, hurricanes, or blizzards), equipment failure, grid overload, or planned maintenance. Power outages are categorized into three different phenomena, relating to
2562-750: Is now the northeastern United States. The Guswhenta (Two Row Wampum Treaty) , made with the Dutch government in 1613, codified relations between the Haudenosaunee and European colonizers, and formed the basis of subsequent treaties. In the mid-17th century, during the Beaver Wars , the Iroquois were victorious and dominated the tribes of Neutral Indians , Wenrohronon and the Erie Indians in western New York. Survivors were mostly assimilated into
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#17327730214302684-406: Is talking a lot of BS.” The blackout also caused complications for the producers of the film Superman , who were shooting in the area. Tom Mankiewicz wrote in his memoir that cinematographer Geoffrey Unsworth had attempted to draw power from a street light in order to get more light for the film, and mistakenly believed for months that this had caused the blackout. The blackout took place at
2806-574: Is used by the Department of Environmental Conservation . A cheeky joke among Manhattanites is that anything north of 14th Street is "upstate". Another usage locates the upstate/downstate boundary farther north, at the point where New York City's suburbs segue into its exurbs , as the exurbs do not generally fall within the Census Bureau-defined New York–Newark Urban Area . This latter boundary places most of
2928-480: The 2019 California power shutoffs ). In power supply networks , the power generation and the electrical load (demand) must be very close to equal every second to avoid overloading of network components, which can severely damage them. Protective relays and fuses are used to automatically detect overloads and to disconnect circuits at risk of damage. Under certain conditions, a network component shutting down can cause current fluctuations in neighboring segments of
3050-722: The Adirondack Mountains , which are sometimes mistaken as part of the Appalachians but are in fact a southern extension of the Canadian Shield . In the more mountainous eastern parts of upstate New York, along the valleys of the Hudson River and the Mohawk River , have been historically important travel corridors and remain so today. Western New York in the vicinity of Buffalo is very flat, as it
3172-481: The American Revolutionary War , with the Iroquois split between supporters of the loyalists and supporters of the revolutionaries. After the war ended, the 1784 Treaty of Fort Stanwix kicked off a series of treaties and purchases that saw the Iroquois cede the vast majority of their land in upstate New York to the newly formed United States. The 1825 opening of the Erie Canal across upstate New York transformed
3294-927: The Arthritis Foundation serving 31 of New York's 62 counties , and the VA Healthcare Network Upstate New York, which includes all of New York State northward and westward from Kingston in Ulster County . Other organizations in New York with "upstate" in their name include the Upstate Collegiate Athletic Association (now known as the Liberty League ), the Upstate Correctional Facility ,
3416-664: The Battle of Plattsburgh ; in the St. Lawrence Valley ; and on Lake Ontario , including the Battle of Sackets Harbor . The city of Buffalo was razed by the British as well. After the war, the US government began to construct Fort Montgomery just south of the border at Rouses Point on Lake Champlain. Subsequently, it was discovered that at that point, the actual 45th parallel was three-quarters of
3538-536: The California electricity crisis of 2000–2001, when government deregulation destabilized the wholesale electricity market. Blackouts are also used as a public safety measure, such as to prevent a gas leak from catching fire (for example, power was cut to several towns in response to the Merrimack Valley gas explosions ), or to prevent wildfires around poorly maintained transmission lines (such as during
3660-560: The National Baseball Hall of Fame , and the Finger Lakes . There is no clear official boundary between upstate New York and downstate New York . The most expansive definition of the upstate New York region excludes only New York City and Long Island , which are always considered to be part of downstate New York; this usage is common among New York City residents and significantly less farther north. This definition
3782-452: The OPA blackout model: In addition to the finding of each mitigation strategy having a cost-benefit relationship with regards to frequency of small and large blackouts, the total number of blackout events was not significantly reduced by any of the above-mentioned mitigation measures. A complex network-based model to control large cascading failures (blackouts) using local information only
New York City blackout of 1977 - Misplaced Pages Continue
3904-771: The Pennsylvania Colony claimed much of the Southern Tier until 1774, while the Massachusetts Bay Colony claimed all of the region west of Massachusetts to the Great Lakes. The Province of New York also claimed jurisdiction east to the Connecticut River . To pursue this claim north of Connecticut and Massachusetts, New York granted lands to settlers in what is now Vermont at the same time that New Hampshire made grants of
4026-592: The Seneca people of the Iroquois; some are believed to have escaped to South Carolina , where they merged with other Indian tribes. The region was important from the first days of both French and Dutch colonization in the seventeenth century. The New Netherland colony encompassed the Hudson Valley from Manhattan island north to the confluence of the Hudson and Mohawk rivers, where Fort Orange (later Albany)
4148-537: The Treaty of Big Tree . The Treaties of Buffalo Creek were designed to finally remove the last of the native claims in Western New York as part of the federal Indian Removal program, but the purchaser failed to buy most of the land in time, and some of the tribes objected to their exclusion. Three of the four reservations remain in the region to this day; one of the reservations leased out their land to form
4270-700: The United States , upstate New York was populated by several Native American tribes. It was home to the Iroquois Confederacy , an indigenous confederation of six tribes, known as the Six Nations. Henry Hudson made the first recorded European exploration of the region in 1609, and the Dutch erected Fort Orange (present-day Albany) in 1624, which was the first permanent European settlement in New York. The region saw many battles during
4392-513: The University of Wisconsin (PSerc), and the University of Alaska Fairbanks proposed a mathematical model for the behavior of electrical distribution systems. This model has become known as the OPA model, a reference to the names of the authors' institutions. OPA is a cascading failure model. Other cascading failure models include Manchester, Hidden failure, CASCADE, and Branching. The OPA model
4514-671: The Upstate New York Club Hockey League , the Upstate New York Synod , and the Upstate Citizens for Equality . Before the arrival of Europeans, the area was long inhabited by Iroquoian -speaking people, mainly west of the Hudson River and around the Great Lakes and Algonquian -speaking people, mainly east of the Hudson River. The conflict between the two peoples continued through the period of early European colonization, and
4636-591: The Wesleyan Church and Free Methodist Church (both offshoots of Methodism that originated in political disputes with the mainline Methodist church ), also survive. In the 19th century, extractive industries changed the landscape. Potash was manufactured as the land was cleared for farming. Logging was rampant in the Adirondacks. Iron was mined in the Adirondacks and the North Country. By
4758-408: The distribution system, a short circuit , cascading failure , fuse or circuit breaker operation. Power failures are particularly critical at sites where the environment and public safety are at risk. Institutions such as hospitals , sewage treatment plants , and mines will usually have backup power sources such as standby generators , which will automatically start up when electrical power
4880-454: The semiconductor industry , moved its headquarters from Silicon Valley, California to its semiconductor chip manufacturing facility in Malta, New York . Since the late 20th century, with the decline of manufacturing and its jobs, the area has generally suffered a net population loss, most heavily in Western New York. By contrast, many Amish and Mennonite families are recent arrivals to
5002-596: The 1870s, business leaders, concerned about the effect of deforestation on the water supply necessary to the Erie Canal, advocated for the creation of forest preserves in the Adirondacks and the Catskills. The Adirondack Park and Catskill Park were created and strengthened by a series of legislation between 1885 and 1894, when the " forever wild " provision of the New York State Constitution
New York City blackout of 1977 - Misplaced Pages Continue
5124-486: The 1905–1907 Mills Commission , charged with investigating the origins of baseball , named Cooperstown as the place where baseball was invented in the 1830s or 1840s by Abner Doubleday . Cooperstown is the home of the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum . (Modern research suggests that the game was actually developed in its modern form in New York City.) In the pre–Civil War era, upstate New York became
5246-621: The American Revolution, the Treaty of Paris established the border between New York and British North America . The 45th Parallel became the border with Quebec or Lower Canada . The St. Lawrence River, Lake Ontario, the Niagara River and Lake Erie became the border with Upper Canada . Great Britain continued to occupy military installations along the American shores of the Great Lakes until 1794, including Fort Niagara at
5368-818: The American colonies. Slavery did not end with the American Revolution , although John Jay introduced an emancipation bill into the State Assembly as early as 1777. Sojourner Truth was held as a slave in the Hudson Valley from the time she was born in 1797 until she escaped in 1826. Through efforts of the New York Manumission Society and others, New York began to adopt a policy of gradual emancipation in 1799. The law passed in 1817 that would finally emancipate slaves did not take effect for ten years, giving slaveowners an entire decade to sell their slaves away to other states. When
5490-645: The French, Dutch and English tended to ally with their trading partners among the indigenous peoples. The Haudenosaunee or Iroquois confederacy of the Five (later Six) Nations was a powerful force in its home territory. The Five Nations' territory extended from the Mohawk River Valley through the western part of the state and into current Pennsylvania. From this home base they also controlled at various times large swaths of additional territory throughout what
5612-450: The Great Lakes and Saint Lawrence River, including west of the Appalachian Mountains, was to be the " Indian Reserve ." Between 1774 and 1783, deeply divided colonists waged civil war on each other directly and by proxy, through attacks such as the Seneca-led Cherry Valley and the Mohawk-led Cobleskill massacre. In 1779, the Sullivan Expedition , a campaign by the Continental Army ordered by General George Washington , drove thousands of
5734-410: The Haudenosaunee from their villages, farms and lands in the region in an effort to both avenge and prevent such attacks. The region was strategically important to the war plans of both the British and the Continental forces. British efforts to divide the New England colonies from the rest led to battles including the Battle of Valcour Island and the Battle of Saratoga , a significant turning point in
5856-410: The Haudenosaunee, as Samuel de Champlain had alienated the Haudenosaunee during military forays from New France . In the 1640s, three French Jesuit missionaries to New France—St. René Goupil , St. Isaac Jogues , and St. Jean de Lalande —were killed near the Mohawk village of Ossernenon, which was located at the confluence of the Schoharie and Mohawk rivers, where the modern hamlet of Auriesville
5978-409: The Lower Hudson Valley, or Westchester and Rockland counties and about one-third of Putnam County , downstate, while putting the northwestern edge of Rockland County as well as the northernmost quarter of Westchester County (including Peekskill ) upstate. Conversely, area residents often use Interstate 84 to delineate a boundary between upstate and downstate New York. Yet another usage follows
6100-448: The Mohawk Valley, living among the Mohawk, learning their language, and forging an alliance with them. He was appointed as the British Indian agent to the Iroquois. The British also encouraged settlement in the Mohawk Valley by other Europeans, including German Palatines beginning in the 1720s. In what became known as the Albany Congress in 1754, delegates from seven of the thirteen British North American colonies met at Albany to pursue
6222-425: The New York metropolitan market. A Greek-style yogurt, Chobani , is being produced upstate by a recent immigrant, who has expanded his operation nationally. Additionally, upstate New York continues to boast low crime rates, high educational prospects, and readily affordable daily essentials, earning Syracuse, Rochester, Albany, Schenectady , and Buffalo spots in the Forbes magazine list of top ten places to raise
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#17327730214306344-460: The Northern District of New York places Sullivan County and Dutchess County in the Southern District, and Ulster and Columbia counties in the Northern District. Residents of upstate New York typically prefer to identify with subregions , such as the Hudson Valley (Middle and Upper), the Capital District , the Mohawk Valley , the North Country , Western New York or Central New York . Within New York, surveys have had difficulty determining
6466-469: The U.S. Census definition of the New York metropolitan area prior to 2010, which includes all of included Westchester, Rockland, and Putnam counties. This definition was used by the plaintiffs in the federal redistricting case Rodriguez v. Pataki . In New York state law, the definition of the upstate boundary also varies: while Westchester is seemingly always considered downstate under state law, some definitions include Rockland and Putnam counties in
6588-401: The aftermath of the Lower Canada Rebellion , some Québécois rebels escaped south to the North Country, while on the Niagara Frontier , events of the Upper Canada Rebellion , also known as the Patriot War , took place. In the late 1860s, some of the Fenian raids were launched across the Niagara Frontier; Fenians also assembled in Malone . Although now largely discredited, the report of
6710-412: The air (as the areas where those TV stations were located were still without power for much of the day), although WCBS-TV (Channel 2) and WNBC-TV (Channel 4) did manage to stay on the air thanks to gas and diesel-fueled generators, resuming their broadcasts only 25 and 88 minutes after the blackout began, respectively. Although much of New York City was still without power, Belmont Park (a racetrack on
6832-653: The already-isolated Indian Point plant, only the north-south line automatically returned to service. The poor design of Con Edison's control-room displays did not clearly display this fact to the operator at the time. The second opening of a transmission line left Con Edison system disconnected from key generating stations across the Hudson river . Instead, their power flowed to cross-river lines in Newark or upstate New York and then turned towards New York City. The remaining lines into New York City could not carry this excess power without exceeding their long-term capacity limits. Con Edison's control room operator recognized that
6954-512: The area and have helped revive agriculture as part of the economy. Beginning in 1974, many Mennonite families moved to the Penn Yan area of Yates County from Lancaster County, Pennsylvania , seeking cheaper farmland. Amish communities have also been established in St. Lawrence, Montgomery , Chautauqua and Cattaraugus counties, and are making farming profitable. Artisans are reviving traditional specialty cheeses and developing growing markets for their products, including shipping some items to
7076-509: The basic operation of the grid must be changed. The Electric Power Research Institute champions the use of smart grid features such as power control devices employing advanced sensors to coordinate the grid. Others advocate greater use of electronically controlled high-voltage direct current (HVDC) firebreaks to prevent disturbances from cascading across AC lines in a wide area grid . In 2002, researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Power System Engineering Research Center of
7198-450: The blackout was a possible influence on his 1977 song Blackout , "I can't in all honesty say that it was the NY one, though it is entirely likely that that image locked itself in my head." There is a popular story that during the blackout numerous looters stole DJ equipment from electronics stores, and this helped spark the hip hop genre—but the only evidence is some speculation by two early DJs, DJ Disco Wiz and Curtis Fisher , who made
7320-476: The blackout. Beame accused Con Edison of "gross negligence" but would eventually feel the effect himself. In the mayoral election that year , Beame finished third in the Democratic primary to Ed Koch and Mario Cuomo . Koch would go on to win the general election. The operating entities in New York fully investigated the blackout, its related causes, and the operator actions. They implemented significant changes, which are still in effect today, to guard against
7442-456: The border of Queens and Nassau County in Elmont ) did stage their scheduled racing program that afternoon in front of a relatively sparse crowd, as many thought racing would be cancelled that day due to the blackout. In late 1977, The Trammps released the song "The Night the Lights Went Out" to commemorate the electrical blackout. The blackout is the subject of the 2022 song 'Blackout77' by Crippled Black Phoenix . David Bowie has stated
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#17327730214307564-424: The century the New York Central Railroad followed the "water-level route" from New York City to the Great Lakes, contributing to the industrialization of cities along its route. Several times in the nineteenth century, upstate New York served as a staging area and refuge for Canadian rebels against Great Britain, as well as Irish-American invaders of Canada, straining British–American relations. In 1837 and 1838, in
7686-484: The city could not avoid a blackout. By 9:37 p.m., the entire ConEdison power system shut down, almost exactly an hour after the first lightning strike. By 10:26 p.m., operators started a restoration procedure. Power was not fully restored until late the following day. Among the outcomes of the blackout was the creation of detailed restoration procedures that are now well documented and used in operator training to reduce restoration time. The blackout occurred when
7808-428: The city of Salamanca , and the coexistence of the predominantly white city and the reservation has been a source of contention since the 1990s. Both before and after the Revolution, boundary disputes with other colonies and their successor states also complicated American settlement. In conflict with the New York Colony 's claims west of the Hudson Valley, which placed the entire region in the sprawling Albany County ,
7930-424: The city was facing a severe financial crisis and its residents were terrified by the Son of Sam murders. The nation as a whole, especially New York City, was suffering from a protracted economic downturn , and commentators have contrasted the event with the good-natured " Where Were You When the Lights Went Out? " atmosphere of 1965. Some pointed to the financial crisis as a root cause of the disorder; others noted
8052-506: The city, and its system for automatically shedding load interacted poorly with the unusually high inductance of its buried transmission cables . Dropping large blocks of customers produced electric effects indistinguishable from a transient short inside the generation equipment. Just after 9:28 p.m., the biggest generator in New York City, the 990 MW Ravenswood Generating Unit No. 3 (also known as "Big Allis"), shut down to protect itself from an imagined short. When it shut down,
8174-401: The colonies rejected it. To counter the French militarily, the British established forts along Lake Ontario and at portages between the Mohawk Valley and the adjacent Lake Champlain and Lake Ontario watersheds. The region became the area for many conflicts of the French and Indian War , such as the Battle of Fort Oswego (1756) and the Siege of Fort William Henry (which was later depicted in
8296-439: The comparative isolation of the region, many of the sects were Nonconformist , and because of their non-traditional tenets they had numerous difficulties with government and other local people. The region is considered to be the cradle of Mormonism . The Mormons , Seventh-day Adventists and Spiritualists are the only 21st century survivors of the hundreds of sects created during this time; some more mainstream churches, such as
8418-465: The conflux of New York, Québec and Ontario lies the Mohawk Nation of Iroquois. To the east, across the remainder of the North Country region, New York shares a land border with the province of Québec . Upstate counties and towns are generally larger in area and smaller in population, compared with those downstate, although there are exceptions. The state's smallest county in population ( Hamilton County ) and largest county in area ( St. Lawrence County on
8540-403: The cost of damages amounted to a little over $ 300 million (about to $ 1.5 billion in December 2023). In addition to the massive looting and violence that had accompanied it, there were four homicides. Three people died in the over a thousand fires set during the blackout, and in Brooklyn, a drugstore owner gunned down a man who was brandishing a crowbar at him while leading 30 youths past
8662-408: The crime; they did not respond to requests to identify themselves. As of 2021, the killing remains unsolved. Shea Stadium went dark at approximately 9:30 p.m., in the bottom of the sixth inning, with Lenny Randle at bat. The New York Mets were losing 2–1 against the Chicago Cubs . Jane Jarvis , Shea's organist and "Queen of Melody", played " Jingle Bells " and " White Christmas ". The game
8784-466: The critical point the relationship between blackout frequency and size follows a power-law distribution. Cascading failure becomes much more common close to this critical point. The power-law relationship is seen in both historical data and model systems. The practice of operating these systems much closer to their maximum capacity leads to magnified effects of random, unavoidable disturbances due to aging, weather, human interaction etc. While near
8906-463: The critical point will experience too many blackouts leading to system-wide upgrades moving it back below the critical point. The term critical point of the system is used here in the sense of statistical physics and nonlinear dynamics, representing the point where a system undergoes a phase transition ; in this case the transition from a steady reliable grid with few cascading failures to a very sporadic unreliable grid with common cascading failures. Near
9028-467: The critical point, these failures have a greater effect on the surrounding components due to individual components carrying a larger load. This results in the larger load from the failing component having to be redistributed in larger quantities across the system, making it more likely for additional components not directly affected by the disturbance to fail, igniting costly and dangerous cascading failures. These initial disturbances causing blackouts are all
9150-559: The downstate region, and others also include Orange and Dutchess counties; all of these counties are served by Metro-North Railroad lines. Ulster County , and, in the largest state-defined extent of downstate, Columbia County , are also sometimes included. The division line between the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York and the United States District Court for
9272-512: The drop in 115 kV cable loadings, however, and proceeded with opening their 345 kV tie to New York City. At 9:24 p.m., the Con Edison operator tried and failed to manually shed load by dropping customers. Five minutes later, at 9:29 p.m., the 230 kV Goethals-Linden interconnection with New Jersey finally tripped, leaving the Con Edison system isolated from the outside world. Con Ed could not generate enough power within
9394-412: The duration and effect of the outage: Rolling blackouts occur when demand for electricity exceeds supply, and allow some customers to receive power at the required voltage at the expense of other customers who get no power at all. They are a common occurrence in developing countries , and may be scheduled in advance or occur without warning. They have also occurred in developed countries, for example in
9516-399: The economics of running a power company, and the limits of modern engineering. While blackout frequency has been shown to be reduced by operating it further from its critical point, it generally is not economically feasible, causing providers to increase the average load over time or upgrade less often resulting in the grid moving itself closer to its critical point. Conversely, a system past
9638-519: The economy of the region and the state. The canal greatly eased the movement of goods from across the upper Midwest and the cities along the Great Lakes through upstate New York and to the port of New York City. As a result, upstate New York became a hotbed for manufacturing during the Second Industrial Revolution , giving birth to such firms as General Electric , IBM , Kodak , and Xerox . The rapid industrialization led to
9760-484: The extant north-south lines could not maintain their existing loads for long and asked New York Power Pool (NYPP) operators in Guilderland to reduce transmission on the overloaded lines. Implicitly, the Con Edison operator meant that they should use the cross-river lines near Indian Point, because he did not realize that all of those circuits remained open following the 8:55 lightning strike. NYPP, who could see that
9882-466: The hot July weather, as the East Coast was in the middle of a brutal heat wave . Still others pointed out that the 1977 blackout came after businesses had closed and their owners had gone home, while in 1965, the blackout occurred in the late afternoon/early evening and many merchants were still at their properties. However, the 1977 looters continued their illegal activities into the daylight hours of
10004-527: The law finally took effect, the last 2,800 slaves in New York State were emancipated on July 4, 1827. Although routes for travel on foot and by canoe had existed across the region for hundreds of years, transportation of agricultural goods to market was expensive and slow. Influenced by the canals being built in Britain, leading citizens of New York began to press for the construction of a canal across
10126-472: The lines had tripped out of service, instead warned that a major interconnection to New Jersey Public Service Electric and Gas Company was also overloaded, and recommended shedding load . The two system operators repeatedly talked past each other without revealing the fundamental misunderstanding. Meanwhile, problems at a local generator in the Con Edison East River facility required
10248-445: The loss of two 345 kV transmission lines, the subsequent reclose of only one of the lines, and the loss of power from the nuclear plant at Indian Point. As a result of the strikes, two other major transmission lines became overloaded. Per procedure, Consolidated Edison , the power provider for New York City and some of Westchester County , tried to bring a fast-start generating station online at 8:45 p.m. EDT; however, no one
10370-476: The mid-1950s gave the region superior access to other eastern markets. This regional advantage faded as many local firms relocated certain operations to other states, or downsized in the face of foreign competition, similar to events in other areas in the American Rust Belt . There have, however, been recent efforts at economic revitalization. In April 2021, GlobalFoundries , a company specializing in
10492-648: The middle and upper Hudson Valley , the Capital District , the Mohawk Valley region , Central New York , the Southern Tier , the Finger Lakes region, Western New York , and the North Country . Major cities across upstate New York from east to west include the state capital of Albany , Utica , Binghamton , Syracuse , Rochester , and Buffalo . Before the European colonization of
10614-407: The more unexpected and unavoidable due to actions of the power suppliers to prevent obvious disturbances (cutting back trees, separating lines in windy areas, replacing aging components etc.). The complexity of most power grids often makes the initial cause of a blackout extremely hard to identify. Leaders are dismissive of system theories that conclude that blackouts are inevitable, but do agree that
10736-498: The mouth of the Niagara River and Fort Ontario at the mouth of the Oswego River . The government of the new State of New York seized the property of New Yorkers who had remained loyal to the British crown. Thousands emigrated to colonies that remained under British rule, such as Nova Scotia and the newly established Upper Canada (now Ontario ). Haudenosaunee who had fought with the British also fled. The British Crown granted
10858-558: The neighboring Yorkville area on the Upper East Side of Manhattan , though, was one of the last areas to get power back that Thursday evening. By 1:45 p.m., service was restored to half of Con Edison's customers, mostly in Staten Island and Queens. It was not until 10:39 p.m. on July 14 that the entire city's power was back online. For much of July 14, most of the television stations in New York City were off
10980-444: The network leading to a cascading failure of a larger section of the network. This may range from a building, to a block, to an entire city, to an entire electrical grid . Modern power systems are designed to be resistant to this sort of cascading failure, but it may be unavoidable (see below). Moreover, since there is no short-term economic benefit to preventing rare large-scale failures, researchers have expressed concern that there
11102-620: The next day. Looting and vandalism were widespread in New York City, hitting 31 different neighborhoods. Possibly the hardest hit were Crown Heights , where 75 stores on a five-block stretch were looted and damaged, and Bushwick , where arson was rampant, with some 25 fires still burning the next morning. At one point, two blocks of Broadway in Brooklyn, which separates Bushwick from Bedford-Stuyvesant , were on fire. Thirty-five blocks of Broadway were destroyed: 134 stores looted, 45 of them also set ablaze. Thieves stole 50 new Pontiacs from
11224-466: The power provider to reduce the plant's loading. As the Con Edison system's stability began to degrade, gas turbines at the Astoria plant could not synchronize with the system well enough to enter service. Each problem made an already dire situation worse. At 9:08 p.m., Con Edison began shedding load via, first, a 5% system-wide voltage reduction, and then an 8% reduction. But the load lost thereby
11346-490: The region, namely the Northeast blackouts of 1965 and 2003 , the 1977 blackout was confined to New York City and its immediate surrounding areas. The 1977 blackout also resulted in citywide looting and other criminal activity, including arson , unlike the 1965 and 2003 blackouts. The events leading up to the blackout began on July 13, 1977 at 8:34 p.m. EDT on Wednesday, with a lightning strike at Buchanan South,
11468-619: The region. Several regions upstate are characterized by major mountain ranges, large lakes, and extensive forests. The Allegheny Plateau extends into west and central New York from the south. The Catskill Mountains lie within Lower New York in the southeastern part of the state, closer to New York City. The Catskills and the Allegheny Plateau are part of the Appalachian chain . By contrast, Northern New York contains
11590-702: The rights to the land. The treaty granted sovereignty to the State of New York, but granted to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts the "pre-emptive" right to seek title to the land from the Haudenosaunee. The eastern boundary of the Massachusetts lands was thus known as the Preemption Line . This line runs from the Pennsylvania line due north to Lake Ontario, passing through Seneca Lake . The line
11712-554: The same lands. When Vermont declared independence in 1777, the new Republic of Vermont recognized the New Hampshire grants over those of New York. New Yorkers who lost land in Vermont came to be known as the "Vermont Sufferers" and were granted new lands in 1788 in the town of Bainbridge, New York . The dispute with Massachusetts over lands to the west of Massachusetts was settled in the 1786 Treaty of Hartford by dividing
11834-449: The same pace that generation is restored, requiring close coordination between power stations, transmission and distribution organizations. It has been argued on the basis of historical data and computer modeling that power grids are self-organized critical systems . These systems exhibit unavoidable disturbances of all sizes, up to the size of the entire system. This phenomenon has been attributed to steadily increasing demand/load,
11956-583: The second such convention, was held two weeks later in Rochester . Through the nineteenth century, upstate New York was a hotbed of religious revivalism. A number of sects, such as the Shakers and the Oneida Community , established themselves in upstate New York during that time. This led evangelist Charles Grandison Finney to coin the term the " Burned-Over District " for the region. Because of
12078-517: The start of a 9-day heat wave, which would begin on July 13 with temperatures reaching 93 °F (34 °C), and last until July 21 at 104 °F (40 °C), just two degrees off the all-time record high of 106 °F (41 °C), set on July 9, 1936, which occurred during the Dust Bowl. The city was eventually given over $ 11 million by the Carter administration to pay for the damages of
12200-437: The state's northern border) are both in upstate New York, within the North Country and Thousand Islands regions of northern New York. The counties with the largest in population ( Kings County ) and smallest in area ( New York County ) are both parts of New York City. Upstate New York is well known for its cold and snowy winters, particularly in comparison to the more temperate climate of downstate New York. The snowy reputation
12322-455: The state. Governor DeWitt Clinton prevailed upon the legislature to charter and fund construction of a canal from Albany to Buffalo. Construction of the Erie Canal began in 1817 and was completed in 1825. The canal allowed the area to become an important component of the 19th century industrial expansion in the United States. The canal also promoted trade with British North America and settlement of newer states in western territories. Later in
12444-548: The store's security fence. Because of the chaos and the police being focused elsewhere, crime unrelated to the blackout also occurred. Dominick Ciscone, a Brooklyn teenager and aspiring mobster, was shot in the neighborhood of Carroll Gardens while in the company of some friends. He died at the scene. Police investigated several people with whom he had ongoing disputes, but never identified any suspects. In 1997, they received tips from individuals who did not identify themselves, but whom they believed genuinely might know who committed
12566-495: The subway system. ConEd called the shutdown an "act of God," enraging Mayor Beame, who charged that the utility was guilty of "gross negligence." In all, 1,616 stores were damaged in looting and rioting. A total of 1,037 fires were responded to, including 14 multiple-alarm fires . In the largest mass arrest in city history, 3,776 people were arrested. Many had to be stuffed into overcrowded cells, precinct basements and other makeshift holding pens. A congressional study estimated that
12688-463: The suggestion in an interview for Jim Fricke and filmmaker Charlie Ahearn, who printed it in their book Yes Yes Y'all. Caz later expanded from speculation to mythology, saying in a Slate article and podcast that, when the power went out, he and Wiz were playing records, running their equipment from an outlet in a park. At first they thought the outage was local and caused by something they had done, but realized when they heard stores closing that it
12810-411: The use of an uninterruptible power supply or 'UPS' can provide a constant flow of electricity if a primary power supply becomes unavailable for a short period of time. To protect against surges (events where voltages increase for a few seconds), which can damage hardware when power is restored, a special device called a surge protector that absorbs the excess voltage can be used. Restoring power after
12932-724: The war. While New York City remained in the hands of the British during most of the war, the upstate region was eventually dominated by the Colonial forces. At the end of the war, the Continental Army was headquartered in Newburgh . Uncertain that the Continental Congress would pay back wages, some Continental officers threatened an uprising in what became known as the Newburgh Conspiracy . After
13054-659: The work of James Fenimore Cooper ), during the Seven Years' War . The British conquered New France by 1760 with the fall of Quebec . France formally ceded New France to the British in the Treaty of Paris of 1763 . The same year, King George III issued the Royal Proclamation of 1763 , which established the western and northern boundary of the Province of New York at the limits of the Hudson, Mohawk and Delaware River watersheds. The area between that boundary and
13176-484: Was added. During the era immediately following World War II, upstate reached what was probably its peak influence in the national economy. Major local corporations such as IBM , General Electric , Kodak , Xerox and Carrier had national success, producing cutting-edge products for business, government and consumers, and leadership in corporate culture. The opening of the New York State Thruway in
13298-479: Was caused when overgrown trees touched high-voltage power lines. Around 55 million people in the U.S. and Canada lost power, and restoring it cost around $ 6 billion. Computer systems and other electronic devices containing logic circuitry are susceptible to data loss or hardware damage that can be caused by the sudden loss of power. These can include data networking equipment, video projectors, alarm systems as well as computers. To protect computer systems against this,
13420-399: Was citywide and took advantage of the community's vulnerability to steal a mixing board from a local business. "I went right to the place where I bought my first set of DJ equipment, and I went and got me a mixer out of there." However, most early DJs dismiss this story as inaccurate, with Afrika Bambaataa stating that “Blackout '77 got nothin' to do with hip-hop . . . Whoever came with that
13542-567: Was completed two months later on September 16, with the Cubs winning 5–2. The Yankees were on the road at Milwaukee ; less than a week later, Yankee Stadium hosted the All-Star Game on Tuesday, July 19. It was not until the next morning that power began being restored to those areas affected. Around 7 a.m. on July 14, a section of Queens became the first area to get power back, followed shortly afterward by Lenox Hill , Manhattan ;
13664-522: Was established in 1624. The fort at Schenectady was built in 1661. The upper Hudson Valley was the center of much of the colony's fur trade , which was highly lucrative, serving a demand for furs in Europe. North and west of New Netherland, the French established trading posts along the St. Lawrence River and as far south as the shores of Onondaga Lake . They found both trading and proselytizing difficult among
13786-762: Was established to grant land to Revolutionary War veterans. Some of Northern New York was founded by the hundreds of Canadian exiles who had fought in the First and Second Canadian Regiments of the Continental Army , who were banished from Canada due to their rebellion against the Crown. Battles of the War of 1812 (1812–1815) were fought on the Niagara Frontier ; in the Champlain Valley , including
13908-497: Was flowing through its system and overloading 138 kV submarine cables between Long Island and Connecticut . While Long Island operators were securing permission from the Power Pool operators to open their 345 kV tie to New York City, phase shifters between New York City and New Jersey were adjusted to correct the heavy flows, and this reduced the loading on the 115 kV cables. The Long Island operators did not notice
14030-409: Was later developed. They are considered to be the first three U.S. saints . England seized New Netherland by force in 1664, renaming it New York. The Dutch recaptured the colony nine years later, but ceded it to England under the Treaty of Westminster of 1674 . In the eighteenth century, the British consolidated their hold on the region. William Johnson , a Scottish trader, established an estate in
14152-532: Was manning the station, and the remote start failed. Other, manned plants successfully started, but several had removed some of their turbines from service for routine maintenance and could not provide their rated load. At 8:55 p.m., a third lightning strike hit Sprain Brook substation in Yonkers , which took out two additional critical transmission lines. Because the system design had prioritized protecting
14274-706: Was once the bottom of a glacial lake. The only "hills" in Niagara County are the Niagara Escarpment , which formed the Falls . Upstate New York has a long shared border with the Canadian province of Ontario stretching from Western New York across Northern New York. It is primarily divided by water boundaries along Lake Erie , the Niagara River , Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence River . At
14396-496: Was proposed by A. E. Motter. In 2015, one of the solutions proposed to reduce the impact of power outage was introduced by M. S. Saleh. Utilities are measured on three specific performance measures: Major power outages Upstate New York Upstate New York is a geographic region of New York that lies north and northwest of the New York City metropolitan area of downstate New York . Upstate includes
14518-576: Was quantitatively compared with a complex networks model of a cascading failure – Crucitti–Latora–Marchiori (CLM) model, showing that both models exhibit similar phase transitions in the average network damage (load shed/demand in OPA, path damage in CLM), with respect to transmission capacity. The effects of trying to mitigate cascading failures near the critical point in an economically feasible fashion are often shown to not be beneficial and often even detrimental. Four mitigation methods have been tested using
14640-479: Was said to be caused by an alien playing a practical joke. The 1977 blackout was also mentioned in the 2003 Disney Channel Original Movie The Cheetah Girls by character Drinka Champagne ( Sandra Caldwell ) at the school talent show during a blackout caused by a rescue attempt to save The Cheetah Girls' dog Toto. The blackout was a real-world plot setting reference in the 2020 conspiracy action TV series Hunters . Lee Child 's short story High Heat (2013)
14762-621: Was surveyed a second time due to initial errors. The Commonwealth of Massachusetts sold this land in large tracts, including the Phelps and Gorham Purchase and the Holland Purchase . Many of the settlers of what then became Central and Western New York came from the New England states. The Central New York Military Tract , where many of the townships were given the names of classical military and literary figures by Robert Harpur ,
14884-549: Was too little, too late. At 9:19 p.m., the final interconnection to upstate New York at Leeds substation tripped due to thermal overload. The 345 kV conductors had heated and sagged excessively into an unidentified object on the ground. This trip in turn caused the 138 kV links with Long Island to overload, and the line west to New Jersey began to overload even higher than previously reported. At 9:22 p.m., Long Island Lighting Company opened its 345 kV interconnection to Con Edison to reduce power that
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