The Northeast blackout of 1965 was a significant disruption in the supply of electricity on Tuesday, November 9, 1965, affecting parts of Ontario in Canada and Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, and Vermont in the United States. Over 30 million people and 80,000 square miles (207,000 km2) were left without electricity for up to 13 hours.
The cause of the failure was human error that happened days before the blackout. Maintenance personnel incorrectly set a protective relay on one of the transmission lines between the Niagara generating station Sir Adam Beck Station No. 2 in Queenston, Ontario. The safety relay, which was to trip if the current exceeded the capacity of the transmission line, was set too low.
I was coming up on my 7th birthday. I recall this pretty clearly. Mom had just finished making dinner (Dad always wanted to eat early, as he often had rehearsals or work at night), and she put it all on the table and bam, the lights went out.
My Dad was called in (he was an Auxiliary Police Officer) and we got the candles out. My Cape Cod friends know, you must always have a supply of candles. The power goes out down there, at the drop of a hat!
Anyway, they were talking about the fact that it has been 50 years, and I suddenly felt really old! I remember that. I was there. Fifty years! Yeah, now that is a long time ago.
Okay, I’m facing it. In a week I will be 57 years old. That’s, well, past midlife. I charging full steam into Senior Citizen territory!
I remember it! Love YOU, Mel
Yeah, time flies, doesn’t it? I’ve even been reading about this power outage in the “Spiegel”. It must be cool to remember it personally!