Imagine being trapped in a subway right now for hours!

A major power outage simultaneously struck dozens of cities in the United States and Canada late Thursday afternoon.

Cities affected include New York; Cleveland, Ohio; Detroit, Michigan; Toronto and Ottawa, Canada. The power outage occurred shortly after 4 p.m. Officials said the outage does not appear to be related to terrorism.

By 6 p.m. the power was being restored in parts of the affected area, starting with the northern and western edges, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said at a news conference.

He said it was unknown how long the outage may last but did say it would be "hours not minutes."

New York Gov. George Pataki declared a state of emergency for the state and deployed additional state police.

State officials said the outage was likely a natural occurrence. They said the Niagara-Mohawk power grid, which provides power for New York and stretches into Canada, was overloaded.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg told a news conference there was "absolutely no indication" of terrorism.

Black smoke coming from a power station on East 14th Street was a natural reaction to the power company shutting down its boilers, Bloomberg said.

"No damage was done to the Con Ed facilities," Bloomberg told CNN.

A statement from the Department of Homeland Security said, "The department is working with state and local officials an the energy sector to determine the cause of the outage and what response may need to be taken."

Bryan Lee, a spokesman for the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, said based on preliminary information it appears that a "cascading blackout" was caused by an outage at a Manhattan power plant, which has destabilized the power grid as far north as Canada and as far west as Detroit and Cleveland.

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Do you want the talk and tools?
Well, I uploaded the talk and toold that I presented at defcon at http://tommEE.net/dc-11-tommEE_pickles-The_good_and_bad_of_streaming_media.zip. Enclosed is the powerpoint presentation, the tools and some examples. Hopefully the video will go up pn the defcon site soon and I am hoping to have video of the cannonball run soon.