Power Cut As Early Heat Wave Blisters East Coast

A heat wave pushed East Coast temperatures into the 90s for a third day Tuesday, leading utilities to impose power conservation that blacked out tens of thousands of homes and sent some children home early from hot classrooms.

“But at least you don’t have to shovel the heat,” said Charlene Adair, wheeling her twins in a stroller down Main Street in Springfield, Mass.

A week ago, her twins were still in snow suits, when a cold snap dusted the Appalachians with snow and nipped young vegetables in the bud.

The unexpected heat wave, which occurred so early in the year that some utilities had generators out of service for maintenance, blacked out power to more than 100,000 people in New York City, where the temperature reached a record high for a second day in a row.

Tuesday afternoon temperatures reached record highs of 96 at Newark, N.J.; 93 in New York City and 95 at Wilmington, Del. Farther south, Greenville and Spartanburg, S.C., registered a record 91.

A line of thunderstorms marched through the region by evening, snapping the heat wave. Most areas saw the mercury drop into the 70s.

As people cranked up air conditioners and fans earlier in the day, power supplies were quickly stretched dangerously thin across the Northeast.

The New York Power Pool told utilities around the state to conserve power, and Con Edison reduced available voltage in the New York City area by 8 percent. That cut off power to more than 100,000 people in the borough of Queens.

“We finally cut power to about 115,000 people,” said Con Ed spokesman Earl Wells.

The power was cut at about 5:45 p.m. because of faults in two transformers at a substation and a severe overload of the system. It affected a wide section of the borough of Queens, and was not completely restored until nearly midnight.

“It was directly related to the heat,” said another Con Ed spokesman, Richard Mulieri. “Usage was just too high and there was no way around it.”

Extra police officers, firefighters and paramedics were sent to patrol the affected neighborhoods until power was restored.

In Connecticut, two 10-year-olds were injured when a transformer exploded near their school bus. The explosion was storm-related, but police weren’t sure it was because of lightning or downed wires. High winds that felled trees and power lines shut off power to more than 70,000 people in Connecticut.

In Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylvania and New Jersey, a consortium of utilities reduced power by 5 percent.

Schools sent children home early to get them out of classrooms that lacked air conditioning.