On August 14, 2003, we experienced the Great American Blackout. The power grid went down across a massive area—from New England through Ontario, most of Michigan and Ohio, and toward the Washington, D.C., region. More than 50 million people lost electricity.
At first, people were told that a squirrel chewing through a power line caused the blackout. Now, 23 years later, news reports are saying that a tree branch was responsible.
Riddle me this: Storms bring tree branches down onto power lines all the time. How could one tree branch knock out interconnected power grids serving more than 50 million people? Likewise, how could a squirrel or another animal gnawing through a line cause a blackout of that magnitude?
It simply does not make sense.
Then there is the issue of business-interruption coverage. If the blackout resulted from a storm, fallen tree, animal damage, or another ordinary accident, why were so many business-interruption losses reportedly not covered? An act of war or terrorism, however, can fall under policy exclusions.
The outage lasted four days or longer in some areas. Considering the enormous geographic reach, the conflicting explanations, the insurance questions, and the length of the disruption, the official explanation does not add up to me.
Was this really an ordinary equipment failure caused by a tree branch—or could it have been a coordinated cyberterrorist attack or another act of war?
Twenty-three years later, serious questions remain.
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