New York City blackout of 1977
The New York City blackout of 1977 was a significant and tumultuous event that began on the evening of July 13, when a massive power failure left the city without electricity for over twenty-five hours. This outage occurred during a period of extreme heat and humidity, exacerbating the situation for residents. Unlike a previous blackout in 1965, which fostered community solidarity, the 1977 event prompted widespread civil unrest characterized by looting, vandalism, and violence. The social and economic tensions of the time, including urban discontent and a city facing bankruptcy, contributed to the chaotic atmosphere.
In the aftermath, New York City experienced substantial damage estimated at around one billion dollars, with thousands of arrests and injuries reported among both looters and law enforcement. The blackout also revealed vulnerabilities in the power grid system and highlighted the interconnectedness of energy supply across regions. Notably, the effects of the blackout extended beyond immediate destruction; it reportedly led to a spike in births approximately nine months later, as many couples connected during the darkened, intimate atmosphere. Overall, the 1977 blackout served as a crucial moment in New York City's history, reflecting the complex interplay of social unrest, economic decline, and infrastructural challenges.
New York City blackout of 1977
The Event A power failure plunges New York City into darkness
Date July 13-14, 1977
The 1977 blackout forced utility companies to devise ways to prevent recurrences and forced public officials to develop new protocols for dealing with such events.
At 9:43 p.m. on a sultry Wednesday evening, July 13, 1977, a massive power failure hit New York City and its boroughs. With temperatures in the mid-nineties and the humidity high, New Yorkers sweltered, and, before power was restored at 10:14 p.m. on the following evening, the city was without power for more than twenty-five hours.
Civil Unrest
This was not the first time New York City had experienced a major power outage. Nine years earlier, a similar event kept the city dark for more than thirteen hours, and New Yorkers coped with the situation peacefully. The 1965 outage blacked out 80,000 square miles in New England and in New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. Ironically, just three days before the power outage of 1977, Charles Luce, chairman of the Board of Consolidated Edison, the major supplier of electrical power to New York City, appeared before the United States House of Representatives’ Subcommittee on Energy and Power to guarantee that power outages like that of 1965 would never happen again.
Whereas the 1965 outage had brought out the best in New Yorkers, many of whom knocked on the doors of neighbors they scarcely knew to make sure they were safe, the 1977 outage ended in a rash of burglaries and lootings. Under the cover of darkness, vandals broke into stores and hauled away everything movable. Sounds of breaking glass permeated the city’s streets. A mob psychology began to prevail as people decided it was their right to steal what they could from unprotected businesses throughout the city.
The violent response was arguably one that reflected the social and civil discontent of the mid-1970’s. Civil unrest had engulfed much of the country, particularly in urban areas. Unease over the war in Vietnam, an energy crisis, and disenchantment with government following the Watergate scandal and the subsequent resignations of President Richard M. Nixon and Vice President Spiro T. Agnew all encouraged massive civil disobedience. New York City was virtually bankrupt when the power outage added yet another dimension to its staggering problems.
Mayor Abraham Beame, in the Bronx when the outage hit, returned to his office in City Hall through darkened streets and ordered more than twenty-five thousand civil employees, mostly firefighters and police, to report to work immediately. About half of these employees were unable to do so, often because of disabled public transport. New York State governor Hugh Carey sent state police officers into the city to assist overtaxed local officers, who were attempting to restore order to such hard-hit areas as Brooklyn’s Bushwick and Williamsburg neighborhoods and to Manhattan’s Harlem, where the looting was particularly intense. City officials hoped that the situation would quiet down after sunrise, but in some areas, daylight led to even more widespread looting. By sunset, with power still off, more pillaging occurred; however, by that time, little was left to steal.
Extent of the Damage
The outage and the resulting violence left New York and, indeed, the state and nation reeling. When the losses from the 1977 power outage were tallied, it was estimated that cash-strapped New York City had incurred an estimated one billion dollars in damage. More than four thousand looters were arrested; untold thousands escaped apprehension.
More than four hundred police officers and about sixty firefighters were injured during the melee. The police received more than 67,000 calls during the outage, four times the usual number. A total of 1,037 fires were set; many were allowed to burn out of control because firefighters were too overburdened to fight them.
Three months after the power outage, President Jimmy Carter visited the South Bronx and was astounded by the devastation still evident there. He pledged federal aid to the city but also declared his resolve to work toward long-term solutions to New York City’s problems and to offer federal loan guarantees, earlier rejected by President Gerald Ford, so that the city could begin to rebuild.
Impact
The 1965 power outage revealed that when interconnecting power grids are packed too tightly together, they can fail when hit by overloads, subsequently resulting in power outages covering wide geographic areas. In the 1977 outage, however, the problem occurred because the New York area was not connected closely enough to the Canada-United States Eastern Interconnection. With three major power plants out of commission, Consolidated Edison needed to supply more power than its facility could provide. The 1977 outage was made worse because a thunderstorm passed over New York City immediately before the outage. Although utility companies strive to prevent massive outages, widespread blackouts continued to occur into the twenty-first century.
An unanticipated impact of the blackout occurred about nine months later when metropolitan hospitals found that their maternity wards suddenly were swamped. Many babies were conceived on July 13 and 14, 1977.
Bibliography
Curvin, Robert, and Bruce Porter. Blackout Looting! New York City, July 13, 1977. New York: Gardner Press, 1979. Focuses on looting and pillaging during the 1977 blackout.
De Angelis, Therese. Blackout! Cities in Darkness. Berkeley Heights, N.J.: Enslow, 2003. Provides juvenile readers with an accessible overview of the 1977 power outage.
Grossman, Peter Z. In Came the Darkness: The Story of Blackouts. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1981. Solid presentation aimed at adolescent readers.
McLeish, Ewan. Energy Resources: Our Impact on the Planet. Austin, Tex.: Raintree Steck-Vaughn, 2002. Broad consideration of environmental issues.