Commuters sleep on the steps of the General Post Office in New York early Friday morning, Aug. 15, 2003 after being stranded because of the city's electrical blackout. The blackout, which affected everything from trains to mobile phones, occurred across much of northeastern United States and parts of Canada. (AP Photo/ Mike Appleton)
Cyclists pass by police at an intersection in midtown Manhattan as huge power blackouts hit New York and other major cities across the northeast United States and Canada.(AFP/Mandel Ngan
Cars head over the Brooklyn Bridge beside a blacked out New York City skyline. Top New York officials said that Canada had been the source of the huge power outages that hit the northeast United States and Ontario.(AFP/Spencer Platt)
Jeremy Duranczau(r) and Neil Holt, from Bowling Green, Kentucky sit stranded in New York's darkened Times Square early August 15, 2003. hundreds of tired, haggard-looking commuters left stranded by the blackout awoke from their makeshift beds, lumbering into the dim light of the rising sun. (Shannon Stapleton/Reuters)
Motorists and pedestrians jam traffic on the Brooklyn bridge after a power outage in New York. A fire in a power plant in upstate New York sparked the massive blackout across the northeastern United States and southern Canada.(AFP/Mandel Ngan)
Patrons sit outside of a cafe on Fifth Avenue in New York City August 15, 2003 after the biggest power outage in North American history blacked New York and other major U.S. and Canadian cities. Restaurants and Cafe's in New York brought tables out to the sidewalks due to lack of lights and air conditioning. REUTERS/Jeff Christensen