Discussion Questions

August 15, 2003

A massive power outage in the northeast leaves dozens of cities in the dark.

1. What is a blackout?

2. What are some of the cities in North America that experienced a blackout yesterday?

3. In what general region are these cities located?

4. Why might this be significant?

5. What aspects of daily life in these cities were affected by the outage?

6. What message did New York Mayor Bloomberg have for the people of New York City in response to the crisis?

7. How did the Department of Homeland Security respond to this crisis?

8. What do you think is the significance of this response?

9. What do you think might be some short-term and long-term consequences that could happen as a result of this massive power outage?

10. What remaining questions would you expect government officials, businesspeople and residents in major cities to ask over the days and weeks ahead?

RELATED LINKS

CNN.com: Major power outage hits New York, other large cities (http://www.cnn.com/2003/US/08/14/power.outage/index.html)

CNN.com: Carroll: Thousands walking the streets (http://www.cnn.com/2003/US/08/14/otsc.carroll/index.html)