‘Trump, Kim or Putin?’ Online conspiracy theorists go wild over US power outages
A series of massive power outages across New York City and San Francisco have sent conspiracy theorists and commuters into a tailspin.
The chaos began during Friday morning rush hour when an outage occurred at the 7th Avenue subway station in the midtown Manhattan area of New York, beginning a chain of extensive delays across 11 other lines on the subway system.
READ MORE: ‘Totally surreal’: Blackouts hit LA, New York and San Francisco
Some commuters said their commute was delayed by two to three hours.
Wow. Basically all trains are not running due to power failure at 59th. Now hundreds are just trying to get out of station #TGIF#MTApic.twitter.com/T627tOkZGT
— Sarah McLellan (@sarahmclellanny) April 21, 2017
Downtown 4 train during peak rush hour. Come on @MTA. Also fix your speakers. It's 2017! pic.twitter.com/xzgS8bGhhm
— Dr. Gordon Lickner (@ShineonJMB) April 21, 2017
Seems like the power is out in lots of San Francisco. And I’m also seeing it’s out in NYC pretty bigly. Hmmmm. 🤔🤔
— Clay Fox (@TheClayFox) April 21, 2017
At 11:30am local time, some four hours after the beginning of the chaos, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority confirmed generators had gotten the hub back up and running. The cause of the outage is still unknown.
Meanwhile, around 90,000 people in San Francisco are without power due to a fire in a downtown electrical substation, according to a spokesman for Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E).
The loss of electricity brought the city’s technology and financial districts to a near standstill.
Gigantic power failure in San Francisco means cable cars on hills need a tow: pic.twitter.com/aJIchBgmTj
— Matt Tinoco 🇺🇸 (@onthatbombshell) April 21, 2017
@jilltucker@sfchronicle Wait until their iPhone batteries all hit 10% -there will be blood in the streets. #poweroutage
— Brad Speers 🏁 (@BSeeprs85) April 21, 2017
The power loss, which happened during the regular rush hour commute, caused havoc among workers while a lack of working stoplights, coupled with BART station closures, slowed traffic on major routes.
Montgomery Bart Station is a bit creepy with no power... #sf#poweroutage#bart *Image copyright @BWFeldman * @CBSSF@kron4news@sfchroniclepic.twitter.com/kEiQhtRmBe
— Benjamin Feldman (@BWFeldman) April 21, 2017
The Montgomery #BART station has gone dark. #Poweroutage@kron4newspic.twitter.com/vSBBvZD0TD
— Philippe Djegal (@pdjegal) April 21, 2017
When there's a #PowerOutage on a Friday during working hours... pic.twitter.com/XJLVlV0toa
— 990-6907XB71 (@kinoptika) April 21, 2017
READ MORE: ‘Hello darkness my old friend’: TweetDeck users grumble over power app outage
Naturally the coincidental outages on opposite sides of the country have awoken Twitter’s comedians and conspiracy theorists in equal measure.
When it looks like the power is out in the entire city, and you start to feel a little worried. #poweroutage#SanFranciscopic.twitter.com/U72CaapoYM
— Meta Jane ♥️ (@metajane) April 21, 2017
There's a major power outage in San Francisco.
— Vito Gallo (@theVitoGallo) April 21, 2017
Thousands of people have to talk to each other because the wifi is down. Uh oh.
POWER OUTAGE IN SAN FRANCISCO: oh god my kale salad is spoiling
— Bucky Isotope (@BuckyIsotope) April 21, 2017
POWER OUTAGE IN NEW YORK: ALL HAIL OUR NEW GOD THE RAT KING
Have these people in SF and NYC tried unplugging your cities and plugging them back in?..see if that helps 🤓 #poweroutage
— Cindy (@CloseEnough22) April 21, 2017
The #SanFrancisco#poweroutage missed my office by a block. Guess I'll just keep working then... pic.twitter.com/WEHYpISHEN
— Andrew (@GatorAndrew) April 21, 2017
For others, it was clearly the work of one or two countries in particular - Russia or North Korea.
#poweroutage#Russia did it
— Hope ن (@hoperae) April 21, 2017
#poweroutage
— POLLS (@POLLiticsS) April 21, 2017
Who is responsible ??
#poweroutage happens in SF and NY so of course I immediately assume either NK or Russia is attacking us. I really hate that.
— Joe Bowers (@joe_bowers) April 21, 2017
#poweroutage Is spreading rapidly and still no news outlets reporting on it. Has to be either #NorthKorea or #Russia not a normal outage pic.twitter.com/MmFz3lgwXS
— Matt Stock (@MattStock326) April 21, 2017
#poweroutage it was the Russians that did this, obviously! And Trump ordered this to happen, colluding with Russia! Impeach him now! *REEEE
— Dre Assassin (@assassinbyblood) April 21, 2017
Not everyone thought it was an outsider hack though, with some instead looking to The Donald being to blame.
#poweroutage it was the Russians that did this, obviously! And Trump ordered this to happen, colluding with Russia! Impeach him now! *REEEE
— Dre Assassin (@assassinbyblood) April 21, 2017
Trump is killing the power all over the country as just for 1 day he would like to be the brightest thing in the room #poweroutage
— Vito (@Vext6) April 21, 2017
Surely the Secretary of Energy is on top of this... #poweroutagepic.twitter.com/BJMp6QKhQz
— TrivWorks (@TrivWorks) April 21, 2017
#poweroutage Another distraction away from Trumps Russia problem..
— Americanist (@Americanist4u) April 21, 2017
Others were able to see through this though, knowing full well what this power outage meant - an impending apocalypse.
Power is out in a huge area of San Francisco. If this is the apocalypse it's starting on such a lovely day! pic.twitter.com/TvbWqUe8jt
— Olivia Grace (@oliviadgrace) April 21, 2017
Dont tell me the apocalypse has started already #poweroutage
— Mike (@4k_mike) April 21, 2017
#poweroutage n San Francisco- one step from the Apocalypse. pic.twitter.com/NfDCSHZfbe
— kzbuzinker (@kzbuzinker) April 21, 2017
#Poweroutage has @TwitterSF making plans for how we would handle the apocalypse at the office. Not too bad, all things considered @elmlive
— Rahul Sharodi 💯 (@RSharodi) April 21, 2017
