# Biggest power blackouts in U.S. history?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biggest-power-blackouts-in-u-s-history/223373>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [January 8, 2004, 6:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biggest-power-blackouts-in-u-s-history/223373 "2004-01-08T06:31:46Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\
**Post date:** [January 8, 2004, 6:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biggest-power-blackouts-in-u-s-history/223373/1 "2004-01-08T06:31:46Z")

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The big Northeastern blackout a few months ago would seem to be pretty high up on the list, but there were a couple of fairly major blackouts on the _west_ coast a few years back that stretched from Canada to Mexico. (Not that I can recall the exact dates.)

Have there ever been any _other_ blackouts that got near the scale of those mentioned above? If so, when were they, and how widespread were they?

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**Author:** ![Desmostylus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c57346/32.png) [@Desmostylus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Desmostylus)\
**Post date:** [January 8, 2004, 9:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biggest-power-blackouts-in-u-s-history/223373/2 "2004-01-08T09:13:45Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> [**Big Blackouts in U.S. History**](http://people.howstuffworks.com/blackout.htm)
> 
> **The Great Northeast Blackout of 1965** : After a relay failure, more than 80,000 square miles of the northeastern United States and parts of Canada lost power, turning the lights out on 30 million people.
> 
> **The New York Blackout of 1977** : One hot night in July, multiple lightning strikes knocked out power to the entire city of New York, leaving 8 million people without light or air conditioning. The blackout triggered mass looting and arson across much of the city.
> 
> **The Northwestern Blackout of 1996** : Transmission lines sagged into some trees, causing an electrical short that knocked out power to more than 4 million people in Oregon, California and other western states.
> 
> **The Blackout of 2003** : Cities across the midwestern United States, northeastern United States and southern Canada lost power, apparently due to a problem with a series of transmission lines known as “The Lake Eerie Loop.” Roughly 50 million people lost power.

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**Author:** ![Desmostylus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c57346/32.png) [@Desmostylus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Desmostylus)\
**Post date:** [January 8, 2004, 9:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biggest-power-blackouts-in-u-s-history/223373/3 "2004-01-08T09:18:14Z")

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P.S. before that time, the states weren’t heavily interconnected. So whilst a blackout may have taken down a state, it wouldn’t take the adjoining states out with it.

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**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\
**Post date:** [January 9, 2004, 4:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biggest-power-blackouts-in-u-s-history/223373/4 "2004-01-09T04:20:22Z")

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Danke.