By skyforbes 
On 14 August 2003, 22 years ago this week, the electricity cut out for more than 50 million people in the US and Canada, as North America experienced a massive power cut. The BBC was in New York City when the lights went out.
On a sweltering summer afternoon in 2003, a colossal electricity grid failure tore through the US and Canada's interconnected power systems. The chain reaction caused multiple power plants covering an area as far west as Cleveland and Detroit and as far north as Toronto and Ottawa to shut down. Within minutes, more than 50 million people found themselves without electricity. New York, the largest city in the US, was just one of the many places where everyday life was brought to a sudden standstill on 14 August 2003, 22 years ago this week.