from msnbc
FEDERAL POWER REGULATORS did not identify the power plant, but CNN reported that a fire had been reported at a transformer at the Consolidated Edison plant in New York City. Most of the affected cities are linked on the same regional power grid.
Officials of the Homeland Security Department said there were no indications that the blackout was the work of terrorists.
The evening rush hour was just beginning in the East, and NBC correspondents described scenes of pandemonium as thousands of New Yorkers streamed into streets where traffic signals were not operating.
The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey said it was crippled. Buses, trains and subways were not running. WNBC-TV reported that fire crews were heading down into the subways to check on thousands of stranded passengers.
Jim Tsumi of Riverdale, N.Y., was sitting on the shoulder of Highway 495 leading to the Lincoln Tunnel.
??I got no hope getting home tonight,? he said, pointing across the river at Manhattan, where the West Side Highway and a two-mile traffic jam were clearly visible. ??It??s like 9/11 again. I hope this is nothing big.?
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The blackout stretched from Hartford, Conn., and Syracuse, N.Y., west to Detroit and Cleveland and north to northwest Ontario. The entire city of Toronto was affected, MSNBC television reported.
The Federal Aviation Administration said that its facilities were operating normally on backup power and that planes in the air were in no danger. FAA officials told NBC News that individual airport terminals could be affected, however, and Detroit Metropolitan Airport was temporarily closed.
Much of New England, however, including all of Massachusetts, Rhode Island and New Hampshire, southern Vermont and eastern Connecticut, were unaffected, as were other areas of Canada, including Montreal and Quebec City.
