Power/energy: New York City´s blackout: A $350 million drain: Ripple effects off the July 13, 1977, lightning stroke cost the public dearly in lost property, services, end income

The report prepared by Systems Control Inc. of Arlington, VA, on the blackout of 13 July 1977 points out that this estimated cost is really only a lower bound. The looting and arson (defined as an indirect impact) accounted for almost half of the total economic costs associated with the blackout. This fact supports a basic premise of the report: that the indirect impacts must be considered as well as the direct impacts in order to obtain a realistic economic and social cost estimate of the overall effect of power outages.