Anybody knowledgeable on power lines or power grids?

[Deleted]

So 30 mins ago DH and I were watching the Sugar Bowl when the power goes out. As we are scrambling for flashlights and candles my cell phone rings. It's my mom. She left me a VM asking me to text her score updates because their power had just gone out too, like at the same time as ours. My mom lives 150 miles away in another atate. Is this a fluke? How is this even possible??

[trident0]

Possible...

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northeast_Blackout_of_2003

The Northeast blackout of 2003 was a widespread power outage that occurred throughout parts of the Northeastern and Midwestern United States and the Canadian province of Ontario on Thursday, August 14, 2003, just before 4:10 p.m. EDT (UTC−04).[1]

While some power was restored by 11 p.m., many did not get power back until two days later.[2] At the time, it was the second most widespread blackout in history, after the 1999 Southern Brazil blackout.[3][4] The blackout affected an estimated 10 million people in Ontario and 45 million people in eight U.S. states.

The blackout's primary cause was a software bug in the alarm system at a control room of the FirstEnergy Corporation in Ohio. Operators were unaware of the need to re-distribute power after overloaded transmission lines hit unpruned foliage. What would have been a manageable local blackout cascaded into widespread distress on the electric grid.

[moolarkey]

I'm in Central Ohio and we have 8000+ with out power in my county. We have power here, haven't lost it all day