[ThirdMate]

We have no evidence that this was terrorism, but we have no plausible cause yet.
If it was terrorism, and I am only speculating here, it would be an impressive demonstration by itself. But not a major hit.
Could it be a prelude? Biological agents are best dispersed at night. Germs are sensitive to sunlight and heat. But the trouble is that everyone is indoors at night. How do you get a major urban population to open up their doors and windows and go outside at night?
Just speculating.

[oceanview]

that's they key. the utilities know exactly what happened, they have telemetry systems et al, they know what has malfunctioned. the fact that we are being told that the cause is "unknown" bothers me, because the utilities know for sure by this time, yet we do not.

[Silas]

Terrorists don't need to kill us themselves. If they can routinely disable the power in all major cities for more than three days at a time, then we will kill each other through race wars. It is sad but true. Think about it.

[BureaucratusMaximus]

Could it be a prelude? Biological agents are best dispersed at night. Germs are sensitive to sunlight and heat. But the trouble is that everyone is indoors at night. How do you get a major urban population to open up their doors and windows and go outside at night? Just speculating.

I was thinking even more worse case than you; if this outage encompassed the left coast (including Wyoming/Colorado/Montana/NORAD) it'd be a good time for one our friends in the world community (sarcasm intended) to lob a few nukes our way./tinfoil off

In any right...I'm glad my A/C has been running all day and my internet connection is up...beer is quite cold in the fridge...heres to you ;)