Black smoke billowed from a Con Ed station on 14th Street. Mayor Michael Bloomberg said the smoke was evidence of a programmed shutdown and not a fire.
Riders were stranded on subways and in elevators and at airports, including John F. Kennedy and LaGuardia airports. Many stores closed because they were without lights and electricity for cash registers.
Medhat Ibrahim, 40, sat in his SUV outside his restaurant on 75th street, Hacienda de Argentina, with the radio turned up and nine people sitting in the shade of the awning, listening to the news. Within 15 minutes, 20 to 30 more people had stopped by, asking what the radio was saying.
``Everyone wants to know what's going on, who has power. Terrorism, that's everyone's first reaction,'' Ibrahim said.
Gabriela Mira, 40, waited in a line four-deep to use a corner pay phone, rocking her 6-month-old daughter in a stroller.
``I had to get out of the house,'' Mira said. ``It was so dark, and everything was off, and I was scared. No air conditioner, the phones _ they need electricity. And it's so, so hot.''
CLEVELAND _ Olga Kropko, a University Hospitals labor and delivery nurse, said the hospital was using its back-up generators and had power. She said the hospital was operating under disaster mode, meaning no staff could leave and additional personnel might be called in.
``Everyone is very hot because the air conditioning is off. Our laboring moms are suffering,'' she said.
Traffic lights were out throughout downtown, creating havoc at the beginning of rush hour.
John Meehan, 56, of Cleveland, in business suit carrying a briefcase, said he walked down 37 stories in the BP Tower, a downtown office building. The stairway had emergency lights on.
``It was pretty exhausting. When something like this happens and you have to come down from the 37th floor it makes you wonder, was this terrorism or what?'' Meehan said.
TORONTO _ Streetcars preparing to transport workers in the evening rush hour were grounded, sending riders into the street to hail taxi cabs.
``The streetcar can't go anywhere, you just have to wait,'' said Mike Collins, a streetcar driver with the Toronto Transit Commission.
Blackouts also were reported in Ottawa in the province's eastern region, Windsor in the west and North Bay in the northern part of Ontario. The blackout had not spread as far as Thunder Bay in northwestern Ontario, suggesting power in the north was sporadic.
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