Wrath of God: Disasters in America (1999)

Genres - Historical Film  |   Sub-Genres - Tragedies & Catastrophes, Weather  |   Run Time - 60 min.  |   Countries - United States  |  
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Synopsis by Cecilia Cygnar

This episode of the History Channel series Wrath of God explores famous power outages in New York City history. The first blackout happened in 1965, when a relay in Ontario, Canada, created a power surge so big that it cut power to over 30 million people in the Eastern part of the United States. In Manhattan in particular, the city was in chaos, but did pull together when New Yorkers began to direct traffic and offer rides to stranded people. In 1977, a lightning strike knocked out the power once again in New York City, this time with much different consequences. Violence and cases of looting broke out all over the city, leading to injuries and thousands of arrests. Many entire neighborhoods were destroyed by the violence. Interviews with former New York mayor Ed Koch, former Police Chief Louis Anemone, and New York Times reporter A.M. Rosenthal bring life to these two instances of darkness and disaster.

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Keywords

destruction, electricity, lightning, natural-disaster, power-failure, riot [uprising]