The blackout. Eight years later

Eight years ago today the lights came back on in Sault Ste. Marie but not so for much of much of Eastern North America.

On August 14, 2003, just before 4:10 p.m. the power went out on one of the hottest days of summer and for many it stayed that way for days.

The wide spread power outage plunged about 55 million people into a hot and sticky darkness over a 24,000 square kilometers, from Chicago all the way over to and down the Atlantic coast, including most of Ontario.

The power started to come back on in areas of Sault Ste. Marie about 5 hours after the event.

The outage was caused by the unplanned shut down of a generating plant in Eastlake, Ohio (a suburb of Cleveland) went offline causing a cascading effect that led to the shut down of over 100 power plants.

The plant was stressed by high electrical demand, putting a strain on high-voltage power lines (located in a distant rural setting) which later went out of service when they came in contact with overgrown trees.

The cascading effect that resulted ultimately shut down more than 100 power plants.

The SooToday.com photo seen here is of Constable Ben Bolduc trying to stay cool while directing rush hour traffic in Sault Ste. Marie on August 14, 2003.

This story took on an painfully ironic and tragic twist when 21 year-old former Saultite Lewis Wheelan was found dead in his Toronto-area apartment just over two years after he was badly burned in a workplace accident when a 7,200 volt Great Lakes Power line fell across his body.

Many believe he died of over heating because the blackout left him without air conditioning and the scar tissue on his body from the burns he suffered made it very difficult for his body to shed heat.

Earlier SooToday.com coverage of this event

What a relief! Sault has full power restored

Blackout may have sent sewage into the river

Tales from the Dark Side - the Camp McDougall boggers

The full text of a media release from Ontario Minister of Energy Brad Duguid follows.

****************************** Statement from Ontario Minister of Energy Brad Duguid

(August 14, 2011) - Today marks the eighth anniversary of the power blackout that plunged Ontario families and businesses into darkness.

The blackout came during a summer when the province's electricity supply suffered from brownouts and diesel generators could be found in parking lots because of the uncertainty.

When our government came to office in 2003 the energy system was in a state of disrepair.

Previous governments had not made necessary investments in the system.

In fact, between 1995 and 2003, the dwindling supply of generation was like Niagara Falls running dry.

Simply put - we did not have enough power to meet demand. Businesses were concerned about the reliability of the system while families worried about their children's health because Ontario was burning too much coal for power use.

Together, we have made tremendous progress in the past few years.

Over 8900 megawatts of new electricity generation have been brought online.

That is enough electricity to power the cities of Ottawa and Toronto combined.

Ontario's power system is much stronger, more reliable, and using cleaner sources of energy.

Families and businesses can be confident when they turn the switch, the lights will come on.

We are phasing out coal-fired generation by the end of 2014.

The impact on the environment is immense.

It is like taking seven million cars off the road. So far, eight coal units have been shut down and coal usage for the first six months of 2011 was 94 per cent lower than the same period in 2003.

We are also now a global leader in clean energy development.

Last November we released our Long-term Energy Plan; a roadmap for the future that outlines our energy strategy to build a world-leading clean energy economy, and a modern, reliable energy system for decades to come.

It will ensure Ontario has a balanced mix of resources to power our homes and businesses for decades to come.

Our plan has already created 20,000 jobs and is on track to create 50,000 clean energy jobs by the end of 2012.

The McGuinty government is committed to ensuring that Ontario's families, industries and businesses have a reliable energy system they can count on and taking 10 per cent off electricity bills for the next five years through the Ontario Clean Energy Benefit.

Ontario is moving the economy forward - we're turning the corner and are back on track.

******************************