The POTUS Timeline
Crisis Response

Northeast blackout leaves tens of millions without power

A massive electrical blackout struck the U.S. Northeast and parts of the Midwest and Canada on August 14–15, 2003, leaving an estimated 50 million people without power.

The outage was one of the largest in North American history and prompted federal coordination of emergency response, renewed scrutiny of grid reliability, and subsequent reforms in power- system oversight and interstate coordination.

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