New York City blackout of 1977

"New York blackout" redirects here. For the song "New York Blackout" by Soul Asylum, see Candy from a Stranger.

The New York City blackout of 1977 was an electricity blackout affected most of New York City from July 13, 1977 to July 14, 1977. The only neighborhoods in New York City that were not affected were in southern Queens, and neighborhoods of the Rockaways, which are part of the Long Island Lighting Company System.

Unlike other blackouts that affected the region, namely the Northeast blackout of 1965 and the Northeast blackout of 2003, the 1977 blackout was localized to New York City and the immediate surroundings. Also in contrast to the 1965 and 2003 blackouts, the 1977 blackout resulted in city-wide looting and other disorder, including arson.^[1]

Cause

The events leading up to the blackout began at 8:37 p.m. EDT on July 13 with a lightning strike at Buchanan South, a substation on the Hudson River, tripping two circuit breakers in Westchester County. The Buchanan South substation converted the 345,000 volts of electricity from Indian Point to lower voltage for commercial use. A loose locking nut combined with a tardy upgrade cycle ensured that the breaker was not able to reclose and allow power to flow again.

A second lightning strike caused the loss of two 345 kV transmission lines, subsequent reclose of only one of the lines, and the loss of power from a 900MW nuclear plant at Indian Point. As a result of the strikes, two other major transmission lines became loaded over their normal limits. Per procedure, Con Edison, the power provider for New York City and some of Westchester County, tried to start fast-start generation at 8:45 p.m. EDT; however, no one was manning the station, and the remote start failed.

At 8:55 p.m. EDT, there was another lightning strike, which took out two additional critical transmission lines. As before, only one of the lines was automatically returned to service. This outage of lines from the Sprain Brook substation caused the remaining lines to exceed the long-term operating limits of their capacity. After this last failure, Con Edison had to manually reduce the loading on another local generator at their East River facility, due to problems at the plant. This exacerbated an already dire situation.

At 9:14 p.m. EDT, over 30 minutes from the initial event, New York Power Pool Operators in Guilderland called for Con Edison operators to "shed load." In response, Con Ed operators initiated first a 5% system-wide voltage reduction and then an 8% reduction. These steps had to be completed sequentially and took many minutes. These steps were done in accordance with Con Ed's use of the words "shed load" while the Power Pool operators had in mind opening feeders to immediately drop about 1500 MW of load, not reduce voltage to reduce load a few hundred MW.

At 9:19 PM EDT the final major interconnection to Upstate NY at Leeds substation tripped due to thermal overload which caused the 345kV conductors to sag excessively into an unidentified object. This trip caused the 138 kV links with Long Island to overload, and a major interconnection with PSEG in New Jersey began to load even higher than previously reported.

At 9:22PM EDT, Long Island Lighting Company opened its 345 kV interconnection to Con Edison to reduce power that 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 being adjusted to correct heavy flows and this reduced the loading on the 115 kV cables. The Long Island operators didn't notice the drop in 115 kV cable loadings and went ahead with opening their 345 kV tie to New York City.

At 9:24 p.m. EDT, the Con Edison operator tried and failed to manually shed load by dropping customers. Five minutes later, at 9:29 p.m. EDT, the Goethals-Linden 230 kV interconnection with New Jersey tripped, and the Con Edison system automatically began to isolate itself from the outside world through the action of protective devices that remove overloaded lines, transformers, and cables from service. (Perrino 2007)

Con Ed could not generate enough power within the city, and the three power lines that supplemented the city's power were overtaxed. Just after 9:27 PM EDT, the biggest generator in New York City, Ravenswood 3 (also known as Big Allis), shut down. With it went all of New York City. (Mahler 2005)

By 9:36 p.m. EDT, the entire Con Edison power system shut down, almost exactly an hour after the first lightning strike. By 10:26 PM EDT operators started a restoration procedure. Power was not restored until late the following day. Among the fallout of the blackout was detailed restoration procedures that are well documented and used in operator training to reduce restoration time.

As a result of the 1977 blackout, 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 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.

Effects

The blackout occurred when the city was facing a severe financial crisis and its residents were fretting over the Son of Sam murders. The nation as a whole 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 the hot July weather. (The city at the time 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 went home, while in 1965 the blackout occurred during the day and owners stayed to protect their property. However, the 1977 looters continued their damage into the daylight hours, with police on alert.^[1]

Looting and vandalism were widespread, especially in the African American and Puerto Rican communities, hitting 31 neighborhoods, including every poor neighborhood in the city. Possibly the hardest hit were Crown Heights, where 75 stores on a five-block stretch were looted, and Bushwick where arson was rampant with some 25 fires still burning the next morning. At one point two blocks of Broadway, which separates Bushwick from Bedford-Stuyvesant in Brooklyn, were on fire. Thirty-five blocks of Broadway were destroyed: 134 stores looted, 45 of them set ablaze. Thieves stole 50 new Pontiacs from a Bronx car dealership.^[1] In Brooklyn, youths were seen backing up cars to targeted stores, tying ropes around the stores' grates, and using their cars to pull the grates away before looting the store.^[1] While 550 police officers were injured in the mayhem, 4,500 looters were arrested.^[1]

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 a night of terror in many communities that have been wantonly looted and burned. The costs when finally tallied will be enormous."^[2]

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 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 many neighborhoods, veterans of the 1965 blackout headed to the streets at the first sign of darkness. But many of them did not find the same spirit. In poor neighborhoods across the city, looting and arson erupted. On streets like Brooklyn's Broadway the rumble of iron store gates being forced up and the shattering of glass preceded scenes of couches, televisions, and heaps of clothing being paraded through the streets by looters at once defiant, furtive and gleeful. "The looters were looting other looters, and the fists and the knives were coming out," Carl St. Martin, a neurologist in Forest Hills, Queens, recalled years later. A third-year medical student living in Bushwick when the blackout hit, recalled he spent the night suturing a succession of angry wounds at Wyckoff Heights Hospital. Before the lights came back on, even Brooks Brothers on Madison Avenue was looted. On 17 July, the first Sunday after the blackout, a priest named Gabriel Santacruz looked out at the congregation in St. Barbara's Church in Bushwick and jokingly referred to the "act of God", declared by ConEd when he said, "We are without God now." ^[3]

In all, 1,616 stores were damaged in looting and rioting. 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 the cost of damages amounted to a little over US$300 million.

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 was completed on September 16, with the Cubs winning 5-2.

It would not be until the next morning when power would begin being restored to those areas affected. It was around 7:00 a.m. Thursday, July 14 that a part of Queens became the first area to get power back, followed shortly afterwards by what was then considered to be the Lenox Hill section of Manhattan, though the neighboring area on the upper east side of Manhattan (Yorkville) would turn out to be one of the very last areas to get power back that Thursday evening. By 1:45 p.m., service was restored to half of Consolidated 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. The City was later given over $11 million dollars by the Carter administration to pay for the damages of the blackout.^[2]

For much of that Thursday following the blackout, most of the television stations in New York City were off the air (as the areas where those TV stations were located were still without power for much of that Thursday), although WCBS-TV (Channel 2) did manage to stay on the air throughout. Also, although much of New York City was still without power, Belmont Park (a racetrack that is literally on the border of Queens and Nassau County in Elmont, NY) 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 (this is famously described in Andrew Beyer's book My $50,000 Year at the Races).

Election aftermath

Beame accused Consolidated 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.

Cultural references

Looting of electronics stores during the blackout allowed a number of looters to steal DJ equipment. As a result of these thefts, the hip hop genre, barely known outside of The Bronx, grew at an astounding rate from 1977 onwards.^[4] Here, South Bronx DJ Grand Wizzard Theodore (right) who is sometimes credited with having invented the art of record scratching, poses with a fan wearing a 1977 t-shirt that was sold on the streets of New York shortly after the blackout.

• In 1977, The Trammps released the song "The Night the Lights Went Out" to commemorate the electrical blackout.
• In a what-if alternate history issue of Conan the Barbarian by Marvel Comics, the blackout is connected to a brief time travel visit of Conan to our times. Peter Parker also makes a cameo.
• According to Men in Black (1997), the blackout was caused by a super bouncing energy ball, and the blackout was a practical joke by "The Great Attractor".
• Raymond Stantz knocks out New York City's power while investigating a river of slime in Ghostbusters II (1989).
• The beginning of the two-part All in the Family episode "Archie and the KKK" is set during a citywide blackout; the episode aired in the fall of 1977, roughly five months after the actual blackout. References to the looting that took place during the actual blackout include Archie complaining about blacks and other minorities committing crimes during the blackout, and Mike writing a letter to the editor denouncing free enterprise — as practiced by unethical governments and business executives — as the same thing. Both responses (by Archie and Mike) help advance a key component of the episode's plot: KKK members planning to burn a cross on the Stivics' lawn.
• An episode of The Jeffersons, entitled "The Blackout", refers to this blackout with the same lootings (including to Jefferson Cleaners).
• Coupled with Son of Sam hysteria, the effects of the blackout on New York City are a key theme of the 1999 Spike Lee film Summer of Sam.
• Rapper Pharoahe Monch's 2006 music video "Push" is set in the night of the blackout.
• The Buffy the Vampire Slayer novel Blackout by Keith R.A. DeCandido takes place during the '77 blackout.
• In an episode of Phenomenon: The Lost Archives (documenting the works of Nikola Tesla), it was suggested that a Soviet radio tower, broadcasting "noise" which had been labeled the "Russian Woodpecker" by the CIA, coincidentally ceased after a year of continual transmission prior to the blackout.
• The riot features in the video game The Warriors as a level. The gang must loot shops, graffiti and then escape before the riot police arrest them, but instead the year being 1977 it is set in 1979.
• Jonathan Mahler's 2005 book Ladies and Gentlemen, The Bronx Is Burning featured accounts of the riots and looting in Bushwick, Brooklyn. Likewise, news coverage and videos of riots were featured on an episode of The Bronx Is Burning TV series.
• The Rosewood Fall, a Californian powerpop band wrote a song about the blackout titled "New York City Blackout".
• T.E.D. Klein's award-winning horror novella, Children of the Kingdom (1985), was set in part during the blackout.
• Part of Jackie Collins's 1981 novel Chances was set during the blackout and its aftermath.
• The episode Heatwave of the series Swingtown used a similar blackout, based on the New York incident, in its fictional Chicago of 1976 as a plot device.
• The 1986-87 graphic novel Watchmen features a fictional city-wide protest and riot in alternate universe 1977 New York City (resulting from a strike of the NYPD), that may have been inspired by the blackout riots.
• The Welsh band The Blackout took their name from a shirt saying 'I survived the blackout' which referred to the 1977 NYC blackout.
• Issue #6 of the comic "Die Hard: Year One" from BOOM! Studios takes place on the night of the blackout, implying it was intentionally part of a crime.
• The Canadian rock band The Birthday Massacre have a remix of their song "Weekend" entitled "Weekend (NYC 77 Mix)" on their Looking Glass (EP). The lyrics refer to violence during a blackout, with the title hinting at the 77 blackout.
• The film Superman was being shot during the blackout and one of the directors tried to unsuccessfuly use the prop telephone shown in the film (when Clark is trying to find a place to change), before realizing that it was fake.

Further reading

• Goodman, James (2003) Blackout New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux
• Mahler, Jonathan (2005) Ladies and Gentlemen, The Bronx is Burning New York: Farrar, Straus and Girous

See also

• Brittle Power
• Nightmare in the City That Never Sleeps
• the subject of the first episode of James Burke's Connections (1978) Connections (TV series) -- the series actually discusses the Northeastern Blackout of November 9th, 1965.
• List of power outages
• Northeast Blackout of 1965
• Northeast Blackout of 2003

References

1. ^ ^{a b c d e} Frum, David (2000). How We Got Here: The '70s. New York, New York: Basic Books. pp. 14–15. ISBN 0-465-04195-7. 
2. ^ ^{a b} "New York Blackout II, 1977 Year in Review"
3. ^ Gottlieb, Martin; Glanz, James (August 15, 2003). "The Blackouts of '65 and '77 Became Defining Moments in the City's History". New York Times. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9500E3DA1730F936A2575BC0A9659C8B63. Retrieved May 20, 2010. "There was, before yesterday, the good blackout and the bad blackout: the 15-hour power loss beginning on the evening of Nov. 9, 1965, that was largely characterized by cooperation and overriding good cheer and the 25-hour one beginning on the sticky night of July 13, 1977, that was defined by widespread looting and arson in the city's poorer neighborhoods." 
4. ^ A Rolling Shout-Out to Hip-Hop History By JODY ROSEN, Published: February 12, 2006, The New York Times

External links

• 1977 section contains airchecks from the blackout, Musicradio 77 WABC.
• Archive of accounts and reports relating to the blackout, Blackout History Project, George Mason University Center for History and New Media