The cover of TIME magazine said, “Blackout ’77, Once More, With Looting.” It was referring to the events that happened on the evening of this day in 1977 in New York City.
“On the evening of July 13, 1977, a lightning strike at the Buchanan South substation interrupted the flow of electricity from Indian Point Energy Center (IPEC), a three-unit nuclear power plant 24 miles north of New York City on the Hudson River. Subsequent lightning strikes knocked out two 345-kV transmission lines and overloaded two others. Consolidated Edison, a regulated utility that provides power to New York City, then lost two lines from another substation before manually reducing the load from a generator at an East River facility.
“At 9:14 PM EDT, some 30 minutes after the first lightning strike, New York Power Pool (NYPP) operators asked Con Edison to shed load. The utility’s operators initiated first a 5% and then an 8% system-wide voltage reduction. But this lengthy, sequential procedure wasn’t what the NYPP, a legacy of the Northeast Blackout of 1965, had in mind. Within minutes, a thermal overload tripped the last major interconnect with upstate New York. In turn, this overloaded several 138-kV links to Long Island and tripped a massive 230,000-V interconnection with New Jersey.
“As Con Edison struggled to meet demand, the world’s first million-kilowatt unit began shutting down. Big Allis, as the Ravenswood No. 3 electric power generator was known, could meet only a fraction of the Big Apple’s energy demands. By 9:36 PM, just one hour after the first Buchanan South lighting strike, the entire Con Edison power system had shut down. It was the middle of summer and the height of a heat wave. “Air conditioners, elevators, subways, lights, water pumps – all the electric sinews of a great modern city –
stopped,” Time magazine later reported.
“Con Edison restored power on July 14, 1977, but the damage to its reputation – and to New York City’s – would last longer than one hot summer night. “Con Ed’s performance is, at the very best, gross negligence”, scolded Mayor Abraham Beame, “and at the worst, far more serious.”1
The damage and darkness caused by the storm is nothing compared to the damage caused by the people. Violence and looting broke out across the five boroughs, resulting in over 4,000 arrests and $350 million in damages. Vandalism and arson caused damage to 1616 stores and 1037 fires. All the while, the FDNY had an unusually high number of false alarms.2
Mayor Beame blamed this on Con Edison as well, however, that is unfair and unwarranted. It was not Con Edison’s fault that people chose to behave this way. This was the fallen, human nature at its worst!
John 3:19-21 says, “And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. (20) For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. (21) But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.”
The light of Christ and the Gospel exposes the darkness of the wicked. NYC is definitely a wicked city. One visit there will remind you of that. However, this is a city that needs Jesus and the Gospel. Thankfully, we have missionaries there in the heart of the city, but with a population of 8.5 million people, the need is far greater than one missionary couple can accomplish.
NYC doesn’t have the corner market on evil and wickedness. It’s all around us. I’m pretty certain that if all the lights went out in Bryan due to a storm, there would be some things done in our fair city that would shock us.
May we take Jesus’ admonition to heart as found in John 4:34-35. “Jesus saith unto them, My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work. (35) Say not ye, There are yet four months, and then cometh harvest? behold, I say unto you, Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest.”
1https://cr4.globalspec.com/blogentry/13285/July-13-1977-The-New-York-City-Blackout-of-1977
2https://www.baruch.cuny.edu/nycdata/disasters/blackouts-night_of_terror.html
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