The 2006 Queens blackout was a series of

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 ...

s that affected the northwest section of the

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

borough A borough is an administrative division in various English-speaking countries. In principle, the term ''borough'' designates a self-governing walled town, although in practice, official use of the term varies widely. History In the Middle Ag ...

Queens Queens is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Queens County, in the U.S. state of New York. Located on Long Island, it is the largest New York City borough by area. It is bordered by the borough of Brooklyn at the western tip of Long ...

in July 2006. The blackout primarily affected the neighborhoods of Astoria,

Long Island City Long Island City (LIC) is a residential and commercial neighborhood on the extreme western tip of Queens, a borough in New York City. It is bordered by Astoria to the north; the East River to the west; New Calvary Cemetery in Sunnyside to the ...

, Sunnyside, and

Woodside Woodside may refer to: Places and buildings Australia * Woodside, South Australia, a town * Woodside, Victoria, a town Canada * Woodside National Historic Site, the boyhood home of William Lyon Mackenzie King *Woodside, Nova Scotia, a neighbo ...

. The outages affected 174,000 people, caused business losses of tens of millions of dollars, caused airport and transit delays and cancellations, and caused unsavory living conditions due to a concurrent

heat wave A heat wave, or heatwave, is a period of excessively hot weather, which may be accompanied by high humidity, especially in oceanic climate countries. While definitions vary, a heat wave is usually measured relative to the usual climate in the ...

Cause

The cause of the outages—which was undetermined for five days—appeared to be the company's decision to continue supplying power to the 400,000 people serviced by twenty-two feeder cables after ten of them had failed, overloading the remaining twelve. After these were repaired, a

manhole A manhole (utility hole, maintenance hole, or sewer hole) is an opening to a confined space such as a shaft, utility vault, or large vessel. Manholes are often used as an access point for an underground public utility, allowing inspection, m ...

-to-manhole inspection and repair of smaller cables which had also burned took place.

Consolidated Edison Consolidated Edison, Inc., commonly known as Con Edison (stylized as conEdison) or ConEd, is one of the largest investor-owned energy companies in the United States, with approximately $12 billion in annual revenues as of 2017, and over $62 ...

was due to make an initial status report, regarding the outage, on August 2, 2006. Data submitted by Con Edison in August 2006 indicated that the failed feeder cables had been in service an average of 16 years, with the oldest failed cable 59 years old.

Effects

The northwest Queens power outages coincided with a heat wave in the New York City area the week of July 17. Their effects included knocking out power at

LaGuardia Airport LaGuardia Airport is a civil airport in East Elmhurst, Queens, New York City. Covering , the facility was established in 1929 and began operating as a public airport in 1939. It is named after former New York City mayor Fiorello La Guardia ...

and parts of the

subway Subway, Subways, The Subway, or The Subways may refer to: Transportation * Subway, a term for underground rapid transit rail systems * Subway (underpass), a type of walkway that passes underneath an obstacle * Subway (George Bush Intercontin ...

. The outage also caused

Rikers Island Rikers Island is a island in the East River between Queens and the Bronx that contains New York City's main jail complex. Named after Abraham Rycken, who took possession of the island in 1664, the island was originally under in size, but has ...

to switch to backup generators. The worst result of the outages was a prolonged loss of power to 100,000 northwest Queens residents beginning on July 17. This outage was originally estimated by Con Edison to have affected only 1,600 customers. Con Edison defines a customer as a single edifice such that an entire residential building (which could conceivably be home to hundreds of individuals) is counted as one customer. Con Edison later revised its estimates tenfold.

Restoration of power

Con Edison first believed it could restore power by the end of the day July 23, but their CEO Kevin Burke later stated he could not estimate how long it would take to restore full service. By July 24 (one week after the incident), about half of the customers affected had their service restored. The other half were still in the dark by July 21, 2006 and New York City government planned to provide food and shelter until they were all restored. There have been reports of offers of reimbursement for spoiled food of up to $300 per customer, however officials from Con Edison’s claims department told residents they could submit a claim of up to $150 without receipts, or $350 with receipts, and merchants might file claims of up to $7,000. Also, in a separate press release, the power company stated that the requirement for grocery receipts would be waived.

After the blackout

The extent of the outage and perceived poor response on their behalf prompted criticism to be levied on

Con Edison Consolidated Edison, Inc., commonly known as Con Edison (stylized as conEdison) or ConEd, is one of the largest investor-owned energy companies in the United States, with approximately $12 billion in annual revenues as of 2017, and over $62 ...

and mayor

Michael Bloomberg Michael Rubens Bloomberg (born February 14, 1942) is an American businessman, politician, philanthropist, and author. He is the majority owner, co-founder and CEO of Bloomberg L.P. He was Mayor of New York City from 2002 to 2013, and was a c ...

. At a press conference on Wednesday, July 19, 2006 Mayor Bloomberg snapped at reporters for asking about the power outage in Astoria. The Queens power problem had been a constant item on

NY1 NY1 (also officially known as Spectrum News NY1 and spoken as New York One) is an American cable news television channel founded by Time Warner Cable, which itself is owned by Charter Communications through its acquisition in May 2016. The channe ...

's 9 PM show ''The Call'' hosted by John Schiumo for the entire week of Monday, July 17, 2006 to Friday, July 21, 2006. He received calls from frustrated Astoria residents who managed to relocate with friends or relatives to be able to see the show and call in. In addition, there were calls from MTA officials explaining how the power problem affected the subways that week (July 17–21). By Friday, when the full extent of the problem was revealed, Bloomberg changed his stance. In response to perceived inadequacies of Con Edison's response, on Monday, July 24, 2006 Councilmember Eric Gioia has called for the ousting of the CEO, Kevin Burke, on

WNYC WNYC is the trademark and a set of call letters shared by WNYC (AM) and WNYC-FM, a pair of nonprofit, noncommercial, public radio stations located in New York City. WNYC is owned by New York Public Radio (NYPR), a nonprofit organization that ...

's radio show '' The Brian Lehrer Show''. Hearings were held in August 2006 by the New York Public Service Commission. James Gallagher, Director of the Office of Electricity and Environment of the New York Department of Public Service, testified that the blackout represented a "significant public health and safety risk" and a "significant economic loss."

References

External links

New York Daily News

Con Ed, Initial report to the Mayor, August 2, 2006
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