Wake up call for US

IS THIS really happening — the world's only super power, the most technologically advanced nation in the world, reeling from the worst power blackout in its history, a power failure that has crippled the entire north eastern area of the country and parts of southern Canada? The nation that struts the world stage like a colossus, contemptuous of lesser powers in its determination to have its own way, could not secure the stability and reliability of its own power supply system. This is the United States which landed men on the moon, sent rockets to explore deep space, which spies on other countries through satellite viewing, which invented the Internet, spends billions to protect itself from terrorist attacks and recently flexed its mighty military muscle by a destructive invasion of Iraq. This is America, the economic giant whose influence is global, where authorities boast of  having the highest standard of living on the planet. How could such a country suffer such a massive failure of power, the one commodity on which its entire civilised system depends?

How could more than 16 million persons, in a swath of the north east, including New York city and stretching west to Ohio and Michigan, be subjected to the sudden and terrible dislocation, the anxiety, fear and trauma of a prolonged blackout which started during Thursday afternoon's rush hour and still continues in many parts of the northeast? Millions were stranded as the public transport system in cities shut down, people were caught in subway trains and office elevators, out-of-towners slept on the pavements as powerless hotels could not accommodate them, the loss of traffic lights created havoc in cities, a water crisis arose as pumping stations went dead, flights could not leave John F Kennedy and LaGuardia Airports, and the fear that terrorists had struck again generated an epidemic of anxiety. What makes this question even more puzzling is the fact that up to yesterday no one could say definitely what caused the massive power failure. With its enormous technological superiority and all its extensive precautions against terrorist attacks, one would expect that the US would have ensured the fail safe nature of its electricity supply. This blackout now reveals a different scenario, where measures to isolate grids and so prevent power disruptions from spreading did not work and where there is no comprehensive or even regional monitoring system.

In fact, it is now surprising to hear electricity industry and government officials say that the nation's power grid has needed major upgrades for years. One can hardly avoid being cynical about a country which spends billions of dollars on a dubious on-going space programme, sending manned shuttles regularly into outer space, while at the same time it cannot find the will or the money to upgrade its national power supply system. What can be more vital to maintaining the amenities and facilities of civilised living than a stable and adequate electricity supply? This failure seems even more questionable when we recall the experience of two previous blackouts in the US, the lessons from which the authorities have clearly failed to learn. In August 1996, an outage affected four million customers in nine western states and back in 1977 a blackout in New York city left some nine million people without electricity for up to 24 hours. How could the land of high technology allow another, and far worse, failure to happen at such a time? President Bush's response that the blackout sends a "wake up call" to the country is right. The US must wake up to the need to put its house in order, electrically and otherwise.