<p>It’s the ten year anniversary of the Aug. 14, 2003 blackout. Do you remember where you were when it happened? Was your daily routine affected???</p>
<p>We were affected - both at our home and at our cottage. </p>
<p>We were at our cottage at the time. It happened in the middle of the afternoon so we were actually sitting out on the beach and didn’t even realized it happened for awhile till we went inside. Of course, at first we just thought it was something local - because we are in a remote area, it’s not unusual to lose power now and then for short periods. A little while later someone “from the top” (meaning a person in a regular house not on the beach who had real life conveniences like tv, etc.) came down and told us that this was a power outage affecting not just our area, but all of Ontario and MANY states. It was also then scary - 9/11 wasn’t that long ago and this reeked of a terrorist plot of some sort. </p>
<p>Ironically, our power was restored by evening at our remote location on the beach while most populated areas for hundreds of miles were without power. We ended up cutting our vacation short being worried about our regular home and conditions there.</p>
<p>The other story I remember was the story of my brother in NYC. He works in mid-town Manhattan and lives in Brooklyn. Since all power/subways, etc was out and mass transit was at a total standstill he had to walk home from his office. Quite a feat to figure out how to get there by foot, over major bridges, etc. - ended up taking him something like 5-6 hours of walking. Crazy!</p>
<p>My story: We were vacationing in Maine which was completely unaffected by the blackout. We heard about it on the radio. When we got home to New Jersey it appeared that our neighborhood somehow also was not affected.</p>
<p>I was in the shower and noticed the lights dimming and the water pressure lessening. Hurried out before it all went dark and we had no more of either. Husband called about an hour later. He was travelling on the west coast and told me he saw on the news that we had no power. I wondered why the news would be telling the world something so trivial until he told me how widespread it was.</p>
<p>My son left work along with everyone else in town. Streets were gridlocked so he took side roads. Stopped along the way to ask people over for dinner. We just barbecued everything in the fridge.</p>
<p>Spent three days with no electricity or water. Kids showered in the rain. It’s not like we could even go to a hotel since the closest building with power was hours away.</p>
<p>They’ve been talking about everyone having to walk in NYC, I don’t remember that at all. I remember dh was away for some reason. It really wasn’t a problem. First we ate everything in the fridge, then everything in the freezer. I don’t think I ended up throwing anything out except stuff I should have thrown out years ago anyway! By the time we ran out of milk our local store had set up generators. We didn’t lose water - that would have been inconvenient!</p>
<p>I was home. I don’t remember how long we were out of power since this was just one of many power outages for me (one year we lost power 13 times.)</p>
<p>I was on Block Island with the family and a friend of S2. (Block Island, for those of you Out of the Area, is a small island off the coast of Rhode Island.) We were entirely unaffected, since the island has its own generator. In fact, we didn’t even know about the issue until the next day, when S2’s friend called home just to check in, to let his parents know he was fine and having fun. His mother freaked out when she heard from him. And that’s how we learned about the outage.</p>
<p>Of course when we finally got home, we had to throw everything out that was in the fridge and the freezer. Wasn’t the first time, wasn’t the last.</p>
<p>I was waiting to get into a teen night at a local establishment when the power browned out. I was super bummed because I’d been looking forward to going, but then when I got back home I found out how extensive and serious the blackout was. </p>
<p>We never actually lost power and saw most of the coverage on the news. My mom, who is prone to panic, was seriously afraid we were going to get looted. Silly. </p>
<p>Apparently my MIL, who works for the national grid (as a computer programmer), was in the room with a couple of her coworkers who dealt directly with the grid, saw them check some chart or message, jump up, say “OH S***” and bolt out of the room.</p>
<p>I don’t even remember that one. Maybe it didn’t affect us here in Maine. I remember the blackout of 1965 when I was in 7th grade. I think that was the first big one. Then there was the NYC blackout of 1977 or 78, where there was widespread looting. That was shocking. And we periodically have big power outages here that last for days, the most notable in my memory being the great ice storm of 1998. Come to think of it, I was in New Canaan for the ice storm of 1973, the town depicted in the book and movie of the same name.</p>
<p>I was in my office in Times Square. I usually wait out situations (I was the last person in my building to leave on 9/11), but that day I wasn’t in the mood, so I walked down 30+ flights of stairs and got the first bus to Staten Island that passed. Which was a good thing because the buses were all recalled to the depot and those last buses getting out were the last buses getting out. The thing I remember most vividly was the hoards of people outside the Port Authority Bus Terminal. The crowds were thousands big with nowhere to go. Some bridges could be walked across, but not the Verrazano, so people from Staten Island who didn’t get lucky were stranded.</p>
<p>Wow, zoosermom, I feel for the people who were living in Hoboken and working in NYC, as I used to. What were they going to do, walk downtown and walk though the Lincoln or Holland tunnel? Can that even be done? Ack!</p>
<p>Consolation, they were able to get the ferries running to Hoboken, so those people actually had less of a problem than the wretched, pathetic losers of Staten Island.</p>
<p>The commute to Hoboken is much different now, the ferry companies have shuttle buses running all over midtown and downtown to deliver passengers right to the terminal.</p>
<p>Consolation, Maine was not affected at all. The only reason I remember it is that one of our nephews was visiting his older brother in NYC when the blackout occurred. He had some good stories!</p>
<p>I remember leaving the office and jumping on the train thinking that it would be faster than the express bus. When the train got stalled at Lex. Ave, went upstairs and jumped on the express bus. I was dragging along but eventually got home. My D was a day camp counselor who went home with one of my friends, who had kids that also worked at the camp.</p>
<p>I remember having no cell service and using the land line (which would be a problem today because I no longer have a land line).</p>
<p>I remember when I worked in corporate life and we used to get little gifts like flashlights / radios and other items that operated without batteries. I remember all of my eyerolls when we got them and just tossed them on the laundry room shelves (along with all of those bath and body work candles that my D and her friends gave each other for the holidays). Went to the laundry room and pulled all of that stuff off the shelves (had enough to help out a few neighbors). There was a block party as every one brough out their stuff for the grill (I had a very happy dog).</p>
That would be the main reason we still have a land line. When the power outage happened another son was at Cedar Pointe with a bunch of friends. They could not call each other on their cell phones, but they could call our land land and then we’d call the others to relay messages.</p>
<p>He said it was the creepiest thing to be driving through a big city with no power at all.</p>
<p>We were on a college tour with S1 at the time, just checked into our hotel in Baltimore after touring Johns Hopkins, and caught a TV in the hotel lobby reporting on the blackout. We were thankful to be in Baltimore where there was no blackout, especially considering how hot it was.</p>
<p>Our family had just left home to head up to the Adironadacks when my FIL called to say they (at the cabin) were without power and something about it being widespread. We did not realize until we hit Buffalo exactly how widespread it was and what kinds of problems this would be. We were pulling a boat and needed to get gas before continuing on our journey. Massive traffic everywhere off the Thruway exits and almost all gas stations could not deliver the gas due to no power. Picture slowly making our way through the traffic pulling this boat, pulling into stations only to find out we needed to move on to the next! We happened to finally find one station that somehow had power (maybe a generator out back?). Thank goodness we had packed food to eat for lunch. We got to our destination without any more major problems, but I do not believe the power came on until the next day. Wouldn’t you know it was a rare time when we wanted the fans running at the cabin, but no power…</p>
<p>Consolation, I too remember the outage in 1965. Luckily my town (a suburb of NYC) wasn’t affected, but my father wound up sleeping under his desk at work.</p>
<p>In 1977, DH (who was not yet my husband) and I had spent the night in his apartment in Brooklyn Heights. We wound up riding bikes to my apartment on the Upper West Side, because my poor kitties were all alone. It was very spooky riding through midtown on a weekday with no traffic lights.</p>
<p>My sister was visiting. Luckily we only lost power for a short time and when we figured out what happened we ran around town looking for an open gas station. She had enough gas to make it home so she left. </p>
<p>H worked at a power plant. It was hectic (looking for the right word and can’t really describe how it was). He got home after 11 and that probably was because they make you go home after 16 hours. He worked some long days.</p>