Security Tight in Wake of Blackout

The military sent up an extra air patrol in the eastern United States as a precaution during Thursday’s blackout. It was done as a precaution even though there was no reason to believe there was a threat from the air, the National American Aerospace Defense Command, or NORAD, said in a statement. Most military bases have backup generators and the outage did not cause any significant loss of military capability, Pentagon spokesman Lt. Col. Dan Stoneking said. “NORAD has no reason to believe that there is an imminent airborne threat in the U.S. or Canada. However, purely as a precautionary measure, NORAD has launched at least one extra irregular air patrol over the eastern U.S. and has increased the readiness of our East Coast NORAD site,” NORAD said. NORAD did not release the numbers of aircraft or locations of air patrol for security reasons. The Coast Guard increased its patrols in the affected region as a precaution, spokeswoman Jolie Shifflet said. Full Story