Evening star., 1961-06-14
New York Mayor Asks Sweeping Probe
Of ID Big Power Failure in 2 Years

: NEW YORK, June IA (APl-
A flll-Scale investigation Of the
facilities Of the giant utility
/, firm that supplies power to
! New York City was asked today
in the wake of a massive black
/, out that created chaos in
: Manhattan.
!, It was the second such break
=, down in two years, and left
I, five square miles of midtown
I, Manhattan without electricity
for AZ hours on the hottest
I, June 13 in the citys history.
(. Mayor Robert Wagner asked
Gov. Nelson A. Rockefeller and
: the State Public Service Com
mission to make a thorough in
: vestigation of the adequacy Of
1. the equipment of Consolidated
: Edison Co. and its safety fac
: tors" against emergencies.
: Calls Failures Frightening
The inquiry should include
Z. power services both as pres
! emily in existence or planned
for the future" he said. He
Z called the repeated power fail
; ures frightening, and said the
city ''lives, eats and virtually
(. breathes on power"
City government agencies, as
well as 8 million individual con-
{ sumerS, buy power from the
! utility, he said, but the city
has no power to regulate or
investigate the company, this
power being properly vested in
: the State.
4 Meanwhile, the PSC. which
has authority to fix rates and
/. investigate adequacy of plant
and equipment, already had
started an inquiry into this
particular crisis to find out
what caused it.
But the mayors request
!. seemed to call for a more
sweeping study, involving over
all electric service now and in
years ahead. as demands for
power mount.
Calls for Action
THE frequency of power /,
failures at times of great cur
rent demand is frightening"
the mayor said. ANY one
such failure is too much" He
urged Gov. Rockefeller to re-
spond to the challenge these
power failures present"
"Is everything possible being
!. done to prevent a recurrence of
large-scale power failures in a
city which lives, eat and vir-
tuany breathes on power?"
The PSC had a crew of three
engineers, under its chief elec-
.trical engineer, Harold L. Col
berth, looking into yesterdays
breakdown, but the Mayor said
If the commission doesn't have
enough engineers to make a
broad investigation, it should
.hire an outside firm to help.
Consolidated Edison Co. said
/. mechanical trouble in a circuit
breaker at a substation caused
1.-The power failure.
orders investigation
Mayor Wagner was in Wash
,ington, attending the. National
Mayors Conference, when the
.crisis struck. Later he ordered |
Commissioned Armand DAN
.gelo of the Department of
water Supply, Gas and Elec-
'tricity to make an immediate
investigation.
. The ,blackout came at the
start Of the city's home hound
rush hour.
From skyscraper peak to sub
way bottom-and in between
.citizens of this always cramped
metropolis were Snarled in the
vivid example of electricity's
value to modern man. No one
was reported injured.
The power went out just as
sthe mammoth office buildings
began pouring their tens Of
thousands into the streets.
Many People Trapped
Riders were trapped in ele-
'vators for up to three hours.
!: Passengers were stranded be-
low ground in subways. Pas
/, sengers emerged from both,
shaken and dripping with per-
spiration.
1T was like a steam BATH"
isaid a patrolman coming out
p. of subway.
!. The Great White Way was |
strange sight as the setting sun
dropped across the Hudson
: River. Times Squares brilliance
was blacked out for a time,
many of its movie houses and
theaters closed.
Traffic lights were out
/. throughout the area and thou
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