Lights go out as power cuts cripple America

A power outage has struck New York and much of the Eastern Seaboard, shutting down companies, closing airports and crippling transport and communication across the region.

The outage reportedly also affected the electric supply in neighbouring New Jersey, as well as in Toronto and Ottawa, Canada, on Thursday afternoon local time. Other areas - such as Cleveland and Toledo in Ohio, and Detroit - also suffered a power blackout, according to television reports.

News outlets reported that the outage was the result of a failure in the Niagara Mohawk power grid.

Allaying fears of terrorist activity, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said there is "no evidence of any terrorism whatsoever" during a televised press conference.

While mobile phone networks have suffered severely, internet performance tracker Keynote Systems said the outage has not slowed the internet.

A spokesman for Keynote said: "At this time [16:50 EDT], the internet is performing normally and major websites in the US are also performing normally."

The spokesman added that a number of news service were running slowly - most likely due to demand for news.

Technology companies in New York such as IBM were affected. A spokesman for IBM said: "The power is out here at our New York-based facilities as it is everywhere. We have lights and computer connectivity powered by generators, but other than that, we are in the same boat as everyone else."

The outage was sending high call volumes through both mobile and landline telephone networks late Thursday. A spokesman for Sprint said all the company's PCS and long-distance switching centres in the affected areas are up and running, using back-up power, but that the added volume is causing congestion on its networks.

Also, some individual mobile phone masts might not be working, but the spokesman said the company did not have an estimate of how many sites might be affected. In addition, he said Sprint may block some calls to the East Coast at some point to ensure that emergency calls from the area get through.

"Customers are being asked not to call unless it is absolutely necessary," he said.

Verizon Wireless said its network was also up and running, though some of its sites and switches are running on emergency generators. Like Sprint, the company said it is experiencing extremely high demand.

It advised customers who are having trouble getting through to wait several minutes before redialling.

The outage brought a halt to all flights departing from both major airports in New York, as well as to flights departing from Newark, Cleveland, Ottawa and Toronto, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.

All Northwest Airlines flights out of Detroit are also grounded, an FAA representative said.

Most flights into those airports are also being held up, except flights from the West Coast, according to another FAA representative. West Coast flights are permitted to take off, because power is expected to be restored by the time those flights are ready to land.

Jim Hu writes for News.com