On the afternoon of Aug. 14, 2003, the lights went dark across New York City. But the blackout was actually much larger, affecting about 50 million people and spanning eight states as well as parts of southeastern Canada. The outage, , lasted for 29 hours. But unlike the blackout of 1977, widespread looting and violence did not materialize. Subway riders were evacuated from trains and some commuters walked miles home from work, but most of the injuries reported at city hospitals were heat-related., The Queens blackout, caused by a fire at an Astoria substation, is considered one of the longest in New York City history. 2012, The Northeast blackout of 2003 was a widespread power outage throughout parts of the Northeastern and Midwestern United States, and most parts of the Canadian province of Ontario on Thursday, August 14, 2003, beginning just after 4:10 p.m. EDT. [1] Most places restored power by midnight (within 7 hours), some as early as 6 p.m. on August 14 (within 2 hours), [2] while the New York City Subway .