Oak tree leaves Carney, Byard in the dark for hours

Retired BJ reporter Jim Carney and wife Katie Byard, still a reporter at Ol’ Blue, were left in the dark today and into the night.

Wrote Jim on Christmas night:

“Power has been out in our entire neighborhood. Since late this morning. Pretty crazy.”

Katie explained:

“Big ol’ oak tree on a ravine decided it had had enough and hit a main line to our hood. Merry Christmas! Fortunately, some friends had us over. All good.”

It could have been worse.

There are those who say events that caused the 2003 Northeastern/Midwestern power outage -- the second worst ever, affecting 55 million people in Canada and the USA -- was set in motion because a tree fell on an Ohio Edison power line near Akron.

The utility’s alarm system didn’t alert operators. Then the domino effect took over the power grid and a local problem became a two-nation problem.

At the time, only the 1999 Southern Brazil blackout was worse.