Red Cross Responds as Blackout Continues

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Red Cross Responds as Blackout Continues



Written by Mason Booth, Staff Writer, DisasterRelief.org

Lights finally flickered across some of the Northeast on Friday (August 15) as the largest blackout in U.S. history began to ease. With millions of Americans still left in the dark, though, American Red Cross volunteers are out in full force, distributing food, water and emergency safety and preparedness information.

Shortly after 4:00 p.m. yesterday, 21 power plants stopped operating within a three- minute period, cutting electricity from New York north to Toronto and west to Detroit - an area home to about 50 million people.

Thousands of residents in major metro areas, including New York City, Cleveland and Detroit, took to the streets as transportation systems came to a screeching halt.

In New York City alone, some 350,000 people were stranded in the city’s subway system. Several hours later most of those trapped had been rescued and, by Friday morning, power had been restored to 819,000 of the 3.1 million homes in the five boroughs of New York City.

Meanwhile, Cleveland endured the worst water crisis in its history after the blackout shut all four of the city’s major pumping stations. On Friday morning, the pumps, which serve one million residents in Cleveland and surrounding suburbs, were operating, but the National Guard tanked in 7,600 gallons of drinking water to distribute until taps began flowing smoothly.