Posting this because of the "why" which I was unaware of until now: > The blackout's proximate cause was a software bug in the alarm system at the control room

Posting this because of the "why" which I was unaware of until now: > The blackout's proximate cause was a software bug in the alarm system at the control room of FirstEnergy, an Akron, Ohio–based company, which rendered operators unaware of the need to redistribute load after overloaded transmission lines drooped into foliage. What should have been a manageable local blackout cascaded into the collapse of much of the Northeast regional electricity distribution system.