rjohara - 2:33 am on Aug 15, 2003 (gmt 0)

It's alternately being explained as a lightning strike at a northern New York power plant (which claims there has been no lightning strike), a problem in Canada (which says there is no problem), and a fire in a Pennsylvania plant (which says everything is operating at 100% and they haven't even had a trahscan fire). Truly bizarre. A squirrel probably got stuck in a transformer somewhere. ;-)

News reports say many places are gradually coming back online, and there has been little serious trouble apart from some frayed nerves. It's interesting that columbia.edu (in NYC) is now somehow rerouting to a "fail" page with information about the blackout.