FROM CNN website
NEW YORK (CNN) -- A major power outage simultaneously struck several large cities in the United States and Canada late Thursday afternoon.
Cities affected include New York; Boston, Massachusetts; Cleveland, Ohio; Detroit, Michigan; Toronto, Ontario; and Ottawa, Ontario. The power outage occurred shortly after 4 p.m.
Much of Midtown Manhattan and Wall Street were shut down, including all area airports and the Long Island Railroad. The airports were operating on back-up power and operations were reported to be normal, officials said.
The New York City Police Department said they were trying to determine what happened. A Con Edison transformer on East 14th Street in Manhattan was afire, CNN learned.
Thousands of people could be seen leaving buildings and walking into the streets. New York subways were reported stopped and people were trapped in the cars.