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Blackout raises questions worldwideMillions ask 'Could it happen here?' Others: 'What's the fuss?'
TOKYO, Japan (AP) -- From London to Tokyo, a perplexed world looked on Friday as widespread power outages in the United States and Canada stranded international travelers and grabbed global headlines. In Tokyo, Beijing and Hong Kong, footage of cities lost in the dark, thousands of people streaming into New York's streets amid 90-degree heat, and others stuck in underground subways led local television news and had many scratching their heads. "How could such a thing happen, I mean, everything was shut down?" said Setsuko Kato, a 55-year-old Japanese housewife. "It would be a disaster if that happens here." The blackouts started just before evening rush hour Thursday, engulfing most of New York state and parts of New England, and spreading west to Ohio and Michigan. In Toronto, Canada's largest city, workers fled their buildings when the power went off. There also were widespread outages in Ottawa, the capital. By Friday evening, service had been restored to most places hit by the blackout. (Full story) Japan's biggest national newspaper, the Yomiuri Shimbun, chimed in with the headline: "America's heart surprisingly fragile," accompanied by a page-one color photo of a red setting sun dipping behind a blacked-out Manhattan silhouette. "Blackout hell for 50 million," read the front page of The Sun tabloid in Britain. The Turkish newspaper Aksam said "It wasn't terrorism, but electricity that hit the United States" under the headline "The great chaos." "New York knocked out," said the Swedish Aftonbladet tabloid, which carried a photograph of masses of people crossing the Brooklyn Bridge. In London, England, news of the blackout played almost continuously on Britain's 24-hours news stations, Sky and BBC News 24. Cameras trained on New York City's crowded streets played back live images of droves of city workers walking home. The reaction was slightly different in the Philippines, where the capital city, Manila, regularly suffers from power outages -- some lasting for days. Radio commentator Joe Taruc wondered aloud on his morning talk show what all the fuss was about. "Look at their response there in New York," Taruc said. "If it happened here, it would be nothing out of the ordinary because we are used to blackouts." Unlike in New York, however, virtually every public building in Manila has backup generators. Some even switch over within 10 seconds of a grid crash. Residents of other places similarly used to blackouts showed little sympathy. "Blackouts are a part of our daily life. I can't understand why there is such panic in America," said Unal Karatas, a pretzel vendor in Ankara, Turkey. In Baghdad, Iraq, street vendor Ali Abdul Hussein suggested: "Let them sit outside drinking tea and smoking cigarettes waiting for the power to come back, just like the Iraqis." Flight delays are main effect overseasMexico's largest airline canceled its evening flight from Mexico City to John F. Kennedy Airport and delayed a departure from New York, while British Airlines and Virgin Atlantic Airlines diverted New York-bound planes mid-flight to other destinations. About 1,700 British Airways passengers in North America were affected when the airline canceled seven flights from JFK to Britain and two from Toronto, Ontario, to Britain, airline spokesman Iain Burns said. Burns said some of BA's westbound flights from Britain to the United States, already in flight, were diverted to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and Boston, Massachusetts, and Toronto-bound planes went to Montreal, Quebec. The blackout struck a chord in Tokyo, Japan, where many feared widespread power outages this summer. Earlier this year, authorities closed down 17 of the nuclear reactors that feed the capital for safety checks, and many experts predicted the biggest blackouts in decades as the city cranked up the August air conditioning. Although most of the reactors are still not up and running, the threat of blackouts has been tempered by unseasonably cool, rainy weather. Japan Airlines had at least one plane stranded at JFK because it was unable to register passengers or conduct security checks, public relations official Tatsuo Yoshimura said. Investors in Asia largely shrugged off the news, with the Tokyo Stock Exchange climbing slightly. The Singapore market opened lower on initial fears that the U.S. blackout could have been caused by a terrorist act, but was later trading only slightly down. Copyright 2003 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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