Massive Power Outage Leave Authorities Baffled:

Sounds like another wild story cooked up by the Potter boy

This is special correspondent Matilda Troublemaker reporting for the Daily Prophet.

This afternoon a rampaging pack of hippogriffs descended upon the North American East Coast, causing a massive power outage. The United States is blaming Canada. Canada is blaming the United States.

Muggle and Magical authorities alike are baffled.

"Sounds pretty suspicious to me." Says British Minister of Magic, Cornelius Fudge.

His suspicions imply that "You-Know-Who" might somehow be involved with releasing the mad hippogriffs, which is about as likely as Harry Potter being sane. Why would "You-Know-Who" be interested in North America? It's about as uncivilized as… well, it's the most uncivilized place in the world. They don't even have teatime there.

American Minister of Magic Rebecca Miller is unsure of how thirty enraged hippogriffs could have arrived in America, as they are native creatures to Britain. "It's very mysterious and we will continue to look into the matter." She said briskly.

The power grid failed at about 4:11 PM Eastern Standard Time. Muggle authorities called in special task teams to help people trapped in elevators and tube systems. Many businesses closed early due to the power outage. Muggle police were on hand to help cars move through darkened stop-lights and curb looting and rioting.

This was the single largest magic caused power outage ever. The next most recent was in 1996, leaving the West Coast of the United States powerless for days. 4 million people were affected because of a backfired spell worked by a group of suspicious wizards. Muggles blamed it on the heat and high demand for electricity.

In 1977 the power went out in New York City for 25 hours, leaving 9 million people without electricity when a confused flock of chizpurfle infested the powerlines, thinking they were magical.

In 1965, almost 25 million people in New York State and most of New England lost power for a day when an escaped dragon ravaged a North Eastern power station.