Power Outage

Widespread power outages can happen during severe weather conditions such as blizzards, ice storms, lightning strikes and hurricanes. They can also happen when great demands are being made on the New England power grid during prolonged periods of extreme heat, for example—or because of faulty equipment. In some cases, the power may be off for a day or two, but in others it could be off for several days. The largest blackout in U.S. history occurred in August 2003 when 21 power plants shut down, turning out the lights on 50 million people in the Midwest, Northeast and southern Canada.