On 14 August 2003, 22 years ago this week, the electricity cut out for more than 50 million people in the US and Canada, as North America experienced a massive power cut. The BBC was in New York City when the lights went out.

On a sweltering summer afternoon in 2003, a colossal electricity grid failure tore through the US and Canada's interconnected power systems. The chain reaction caused multiple power plants covering an area as far west as Cleveland and Detroit and as far north as Toronto and Ottawa to shut down. Within minutes, more than 50 million people found themselves without electricity. New York, the largest city in the US, was just one of the many places where everyday life was brought to a sudden standstill on 14 August 2003, 22 years ago this week.

"The blackout began just before yesterday evening's rush hour, bringing chaos to the traffic-clogged streets," reported BBC correspondent Nick Bryant. "Members of the public were forced to deputise as makeshift cops. Avenues normally jammed with cars and trucks were quickly flooded with people, and thousands more were stranded for many hours on the city's underground trains in stifling heat of almost 100 degrees."

The disruption to New York was widespread and chaotic. It would take emergency services hours to evacuate passengers from around 600 subway and commuter rail cars that were stranded between stations. Many people would have to inch their way in near darkness along subway tunnels to get out. Hundreds more were trapped in lifts when the electricity stopped flowing – or, in the case of the Empire State Building, at the top of the tallest building in the city. Cash machines stopped operating. Areas which used electric pumps stopped receiving water. Refrigerated food and drink in shops and restaurants rapidly perished in the summer heat.

As air conditioning stopped working, many people headed outside to escape the soaring heat and New York's streets quickly filled up. Due to the stalled mobile phone networks and defunct televisions, the city's residents struggled to understand what was going on. As it had been just under two years since the 11 September 2001 attacks, some New Yorkers initially feared that the blackout could be terror-related. "There was some talk of a terror thing again," Glenn Schuck, a New York radio reporter, told the American Red Cross Podcast in 2021. "Was this someone else taking out an electric grid so they can come in and attack us in the night? Believe me, there were thoughts about that, a lot."

Stranded commuters on the street crowded around battery-powered radios to listen to rolling news updates and to try to work out how to get home. Some managed to pack onboard the overcrowded buses, although with the traffic lights not working and the city's roads gridlocked, it could take up to four hours just to get out of Manhattan. Others, despite the heat, resorted to trudging home on foot, leading to surreal scenes of thousands of people walking across New York's bridges.

As darkness fell, those unable to make it home faced the unappealing prospect of spending the humid night sleeping rough on the city's sidewalks or in the parks. "Thousands of stranded commuters were forced to join the ranks of the city's homeless," reported Bryant. "Whether rich or poor, it was the longest of nights."

A series of fires broke out around the city. In an effort to see in the dark, many New Yorkers had lit candles indoors, and curtains and furniture accidentally caught fire. "I just remember it turning into this nightmare........

© BBC