New York, 13 July 1977. At 08:37, a lightning bolt hit the Buchanan House power station on the Hudson River. In the next few minutes the storm affected other points of the supply network and finally, at 09:27, the main generator Ravenswood 3 was shut down and with it the whole city. The electricity supply came back the next day, 25 hours later.

Some expected the effects to occur nine months later, with a sharp increase in the birth rate, as was believed in the November 1965 blackout. In 1965, an electrical breakdown left 35 million people on the east coast of the United States without a supply for 13 hours. Without further functions and in the light of candles, many had sexual intercourse, which led to a sharp increase in birth rate. However, looking at the data, nine months later there was no baby boom, but a myth fueled by the media. In addition, in 1965 there was a power outage, but there was no shortage, as the supply was interrupted for days.

The effects of the 1997 blackout were immediate and very different. Citizens, mostly from the poorest areas of Bronx, Brooklyn and Harlem, took to the streets, looted shops, burned cars and buildings. Firefighters had to extinguish 1,307 fires and police arrested 3,776 people in one day.

That summer, the son of David Berkowitz Sam, a serial killer, sowed terror in the city and some have attributed to him the reaction of the citizens. The drowned heat of that summer also influenced the mood of the population. But the truth is that New York was in a serious economic crisis, public services were diminishing considerably, crime was growing... So, far from the romantic of blackouts, what happened in 1977 in New York, is that if we add to the economic decline the energy crisis, what exploits is the concern of the citizens and not the birth rate.