By Carolyn Merryweather
September 8, 2003

On Thursday, August 14 at 4:10 pm the lights went out in eight states in the northeastern U.S. as well as in parts of Canada. On September 3, the House Committee on Energy and Commerce held the first congressional hearing to discover how and why 50 million people lost power that day.

Among those testifying before the committee September 3 was Detroit Mayor Kwame M. Kilpatrick, whose city did not regain power until Saturday, August 16. "The blackout paralyzed transportation, disrupted communications and left many people - particularly senior housing residents - in a potentially life-threatening situation and without basic, necessary services," according to the Mayor. Mayor Kilpatrick praised the residents and employees of his city for their selfless and considerate behavior during the blackout, saying that, "the people of Detroit remained calm and showed a true sense of community."

The Mayor testified that approximately 2.1 million people lost power in Detroit on August 14. Electric water pumps lost power, forcing 4 million residents to boil their drinking water for nearly a week after the blackout. The city's 911 emergency service was impaired because of blackout-related problems with the computer dispatch system used by both the police and fire departments. Additionally, the city government could not communicate with the State Homeland Security Advisor because both their cellular and land-line phones were out of service. The Mayor testified that, "DHS finally had to resort to going through our homeland security consultants in Maryland in order to get in contact with us."

Mayor Kilpatrick estimated that the power outage cost his city $10 million, a sobering fact for the committee members to consider. The Mayor emphasized that even with power restored, the region was still subject to rolling blackouts. On the positive side, emergency plans put into place following September 11, 2001 kept the city running throughout the event. "Our efforts to be better organized and prepared to deal with catastrophic emergencies has paid off and our homeland security planning has pointed the city in the right direction," he said.

Mayor Kilpatrick made it clear that mayors around the country were at the forefront during the blackout, and that good local management was key to getting his city and others up and running again, but that direct Homeland Security funding to cities is necessary. "When a catastrophic event occurs - whether it is a terrorist attack or a power outage - local agencies are the first to respond and the last to leave." Overall, the Mayor told the committee, "I am greatly troubled. I am troubled that we still do not know why the outage occurred and why the safeguards built into the system to specifically prevent such a large'scale power outage failed to work." In his conclusion, the Mayor urged Congress to address vulnerabilities in the nation's critical infrastructure by conducting a nationwide vulnerability assessment and addressing the problems exposed by that report.