"I started getting requests for my weather powers.
That step has been taken only eight times around the country in the last 17 years, usually because of extreme weather or power plant failures, says the North American Electric Reliability Council, which supervises the Canadian and American power grid.
The shutdown was the second in as many weeks after cold weather snapped power lines last week, forcing the station to close because it had nowhere to feed its power.
For days with calm weather, the power is stored using subterranean pumps.
They said that thunderstorms or other severe weather and power outages also triggered some alarms.
Owen Paterson, the Environment Secretary, was due to chair a meeting of the Government's crisis committee Cobra in response to the bad weather and power cuts.
At a newspaper stand in Union Square, a red sponge was a testament to the weather's power to disrupt the smallest corners of life.
"We felt the influence of the weather, the power of the sea, and saw faces in the mountains and monster-like shapes emerge from the seaweed as the tide receded," Ms Arthur reported.
To set up an account, users identify a home state and county, then select which alerts they would like (weather updates, power failures and so on), and the device that will receive them (PC, BlackBerry, digital pager, cellphone or fax).
