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15 years ago: Northeast blackout plunges NYC into darkness (PHOTOS)

WTOP Staff

August 14, 2018, 2:07 PM

WASHINGTON — Fifteen years ago Tuesday, a power company software glitch plunged large swaths of the Northeast U.S. — including New York City — into darkness. A total of 50 million people were without power for up to two days before the lights came back on.

At the height of summer, air conditioners in hotels, office buildings and homes shut off and New York’s iconic Times Square went dark. Millions of weary residents and tourists were forced to trudge across the city to get home — with some taking refuge in candlelit bars and restaurants for refreshments.

See dramatic photos of the Northeast blackout 15 years later.

** FILE ** Cars try to navigate their way through New York City during a blackout that hit U.S. and Canadian cities in this Aug. 14, 2003, file photo. A year after the nation's worst ever blackout, utilities have made improvements and New York has spent millions of dollars on new high-tech gadgets to avert the chaos that followed. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II, File)
** FILE ** Cars try to navigate their way through New York City during a blackout that hit U.S. and Canadian cities in this Aug. 14, 2003, file photo. A year after the nation’s worst ever blackout, utilities have made improvements and New York has spent millions of dollars on new high-tech gadgets to avert the chaos that followed. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II, File)
AP Photo/Frank Franklin II, File
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** FILE ** Cars try to navigate their way through New York City during a blackout that hit U.S. and Canadian cities in this Aug. 14, 2003, file photo. A year after the nation's worst ever blackout, utilities have made improvements and New York has spent millions of dollars on new high-tech gadgets to avert the chaos that followed. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II, File)
** FILE **People try to board the back of a crowded New York bus during the blackout that left U.S. and Canadian cities in the dark in this Aug. 14, 2003, file photo. A year after the nation's worst ever blackout, utilities have made improvements and New York has spent millions of dollars on new high-tech gadgets to avert the chaos that followed. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull, File)
FILE- In this Aug. 14, 2013 file photo, passengers wait inside a stranded New York City subway train during a blackout. About 50 million people lost power Aug. 14, 2003, when a tree branch touching high-power transmission lines in Ohio started an outage that cascaded across a broad swath from Michigan to New England and Quebec. (AP Photo/Robbie Bailey, File)
A police officer helps people negotiate subway tracks and return to the Shea Stadium Willets Point subway station, after they were evacuated from a Number 7 subway train stuck on the tracks because of a massive power failure that hit the Northeast region of the United States, Thursday, Aug. 14, 2003, in New York. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens)
The New York City skyline is shown Thursday, Aug. 14, 2003. A massive power outage struck the eastern United States and parts of Canada on Thursday afternoon, stranding people in sweltering subways and sending office workers streaming into the streets in 90-degree heat. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)
** FILE ** Pedestrians leaving Manhattan flood New York's 59th St. Bridge to Queens in this Aug. 14, 2003 file photo, after a power blackout crippled the city. A year after the nation's worst ever blackout, utilities have made improvements and New York has spent millions of dollars on new high-tech gadgets to avert the chaos that followed. (AP Photo/Tina Fineberg, File)
Crowds of people pour onto 42nd Street near Grand Central Station in New York City after a power outage forced them from surrounding buildings Thursday, Aug. 14, 2003. The outage that hit cities in northeastern United States and Canada, also disrupted cell phone service in New York, the subway system and trains going in and out. (AP Photo/Julie Jacobson)

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