Electricity companies have restored power to parts ofNortheastern America after one of the largest power cuts in history blacked out New York and other major US and Canadian cities.
The outages crippled the cities of New York, Ottawa, Cleveland, Toronto and Detroit.
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A woman sleeps on the floor of New York's Grand Central Terminal early August 15, 2003 after the biggest power outage in North American history blacked New York City and other major U.S. and Canadian cities.
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Officials ruled out sabotage but could not agree on the cause. "The one thing I can say for certain is that this was not a terrorist act," President George W. Bush said yesterday.
The office of Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien said a Pennsylvania nuclear power plant outage may have caused it. Earlier, US and Canadian officials said a fire or perhaps lightning had hit a power plant near Niagara Falls in New York state.
But some blamed the outage on North America's aging electricity transmission grid, which saw its greatest expansion in the years following World War Two.
The US House of Representatives Energy and Commerce Committee said today it has launched an investigation into the blackouts.The committee will hold a hearing in early September when Congress returns from its summer vacation.
Those expected to testify include US Energy Secretary Mr Spencer Abraham, New York Governor George Pataki, and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
The New York Stock Exchange has reopened, but trading is expected to be sluggish throughout the session as thousands of people struggled to get to work.
In New York's Times Square this morning, hundreds of tired, haggard-looking commuters left stranded by the blackout awoke from their makeshift beds, lumbering into the dim light of the rising sun. Some wandered into the streets with blank stares on their faces, searching for any indication as to when full power would be restored.
Mr Bloomberg suggested that people might think of today as a snow day and stay home to relieve pressure on the power grid and on transportation. He said 3000 firefighters put out 60 fires, but almost all seemed accidental. He said one person died of a heart attack and one firefighter was seriously injured in a fire.
"Power won't be restored to all New Yorkers until later today," he said this morning press conference. "I would not expect you to have subway service for the evening rush hour."
Ontario's premier, Mr Ernie Eves, echoed Mr Bloomberg's plea, asking citizens to remain home and conserve energy, even though power was back on in parts of Canada's most populous province.
Authorities reported few blackout related incidents, but there were sporadic incidents of looting in Brooklyn, where police arrested 26 people. There was also serious looting in Ottawa.
Across the vast, aging grid, power operators were restoring electricity to millions of homes and businesses. But many had no power, and many suffered from the after-effects of the outage, which spread across 3,600 square miles (9,300 square km) to Detroit and Cleveland, and across the Canadian border to Toronto and Ottawa.
Airlines canceled hundreds of flights as airports struggledto restore service. Airports were reopening but it was going totake time to sort out the mess caused by the blackout.