At 8:37 PM on July 13, 1977, a severe thunderstorm struck Westchester County, New York. A direct lightning hit knocked out two 345-kilovolt transmission lines at Consolidated Edison's Buchanan South substation near Indian Point. Minutes later, a second lightning strike tripped two more critical supply lines.
Unable to draw enough emergency power from local generators or neighboring power grids, automatic safety switches began disconnecting transformers to prevent widespread grid damage. By 9:27 PM, the entire electrical system of New York City collapsed. Unlike the famous 1965 blackout, the 1977 outage struck during an economic downturn, triggering widespread looting, arson, and civil unrest across 31 neighborhoods.
Over 1,600 businesses were damaged and over 3,700 arrests were made before power was restored 25 hours later. The crisis led to major overhauls in power grid redundancy and operator training across the United States.