That's the night that the lights went out in...
Georgia the Niagara-Mohawk grid
Today, a gal here at work was wearing a "I survived Blackout 2003" T-shirt. Shoulda known the souvenir merchandise would show up shortly. Me, I'll just wear a black T-shirt and pretend it says the same thing, heh.
My version of this historic event:
At around 4:12 pm, August 14th, I was in the middle of writing a lengthy, work-related email, when the screen suddenly went pop! as the lights went out. For about one second, there was an eerie silence; kind of like when the central air conditioning goes off at 6 pm every evening. Which, of course, is what happened; but everything else went off as well, heh.
B.Y. had just left for the day (his work day ends at 4), and the first thing that went through my mind (well, okay, the second thing; the first thing that went through my mind was probably what went through everyone else's mind: oh shit, it's a terrorist attack) was that B.Y. was trapped in an elevator. Trying to remain calm (because, shit, what if it really was a terrorist attack?), I hurried out to the reception area and found B.Y., safe. He'd gone to pee and the power went out just as he was leaving the men's room. What luck; I don't think the folks who were stuck in the elevators got out any time soon.
Eventually, we learned that most of the east coast was without power, but there sure was a lot of misinformation right at the beginning. A.E. and I walked down 16 flights to the street; it was reassuring to see that people were not panicking. However, A.E. seemed nervous; I was concerned more about him freaking out than my own mild nervousness, so I walked with him to his apartment (we both live close to the office) and hung out with him for a while. He thought we should stock up on water and food, so we found a deli that was still open and got some things. A.E. then discovered that he had no money at all, and of course all the cash machines were down. It's weird to realize suddenly how dependent we are on automation and technology; no ATMs, no credit card transactions, nothing. I had gone to the bank to get money that morning, so I lent him some cash to pay for his groceries.
We sat on the stoop of his apartment building and watched the traffic, which was astonishingly bad but again, most of the drivers stayed calm. The sidewalks were packed with people; it really did seem like September 11th all over again. Very surreal.
I wanted to get home and find the candles/batteries/flashlight/transistor radio before it got dark, so I guess I left A.E.'s place around 7:30. Climbed up the 9 flights to my apartment, carrying a gallon jug of water, and found that the water wasn't affected. Wish I'd asked one of my neighbors who were congregating outside my building; I would've left the jug of water in the lobby. My apartment was surprisingly not sweltering; I waited a few hours before opening the windows since it was cooler inside than outside. Found the bag of 100 tea lights, which I had previously regarded as a foolish impulse purchase, heh. Glad I had them, now! Found a small flashlight, matches, one of two transistor radios, and an embarrassingly large supply of AA batteries in the drawer with my vibrator. I was ready for the darkness. Called my dad, who was thankfully at home; he lives on the 21st floor and his old bones would not have enjoyed thatclimb.
The evening was uneventful, except for some moron who decided to go up on the roof and didn't realize that the door was alarmed. I went out into the hall and chatted with a few other neighbors after the alarm was turned off; it's interesting to note that all the older women I spoke to (that day and the day after) each mentioned that lots of babies are conceived during blackouts. Uh, yeah; like what else is there to do? Frankly, it was way too hot and humid for sex; not that I was either offering or seeking, heh. We shall see in 9 months if the old ladies are correct.
When I looked out a window in the hallway, I was surprised to see that not every building was totally black. Lots of office buildings must have their own emergency generators on certain floors; I had no idea that there were so many, though.
The electricity came back on in my building a little after 12 noon on Friday, so my personal blackout lasted almost 20 hours to the minute. I stopped by the office, where the geeks were busy trying to sort out the servers and systems, because I wanted to check on my mini refrigerator. It hadn't defrosted too much, but the carpet was wet, so I worked on chipping the ice out of the freezer for a while. Also discovered that my computer was as dead as the door's proverbial nail. Dead, positively dead. This was not good news, but I decided not to get hysterical and simply deal with it on Monday. And on Monday, two of the geeks were able to put the hard drive into another CPU, and all was saved, yay. Gotta love geeks.
All in all, I was much, much, much luckier than most people: I didn't get stuck in an elevator or in the subway, didn't have to walk for miles and for hours in the dark, didn't suffer from lack of running water, didn't have to throw out lots of food, and didn't have to wait days for power to be restored. So, why should I buy the damn T-shirt?›
Today, a gal here at work was wearing a "I survived Blackout 2003" T-shirt. Shoulda known the souvenir merchandise would show up shortly. Me, I'll just wear a black T-shirt and pretend it says the same thing, heh.
My version of this historic event:
At around 4:12 pm, August 14th, I was in the middle of writing a lengthy, work-related email, when the screen suddenly went pop! as the lights went out. For about one second, there was an eerie silence; kind of like when the central air conditioning goes off at 6 pm every evening. Which, of course, is what happened; but everything else went off as well, heh.
B.Y. had just left for the day (his work day ends at 4), and the first thing that went through my mind (well, okay, the second thing; the first thing that went through my mind was probably what went through everyone else's mind: oh shit, it's a terrorist attack) was that B.Y. was trapped in an elevator. Trying to remain calm (because, shit, what if it really was a terrorist attack?), I hurried out to the reception area and found B.Y., safe. He'd gone to pee and the power went out just as he was leaving the men's room. What luck; I don't think the folks who were stuck in the elevators got out any time soon.
Eventually, we learned that most of the east coast was without power, but there sure was a lot of misinformation right at the beginning. A.E. and I walked down 16 flights to the street; it was reassuring to see that people were not panicking. However, A.E. seemed nervous; I was concerned more about him freaking out than my own mild nervousness, so I walked with him to his apartment (we both live close to the office) and hung out with him for a while. He thought we should stock up on water and food, so we found a deli that was still open and got some things. A.E. then discovered that he had no money at all, and of course all the cash machines were down. It's weird to realize suddenly how dependent we are on automation and technology; no ATMs, no credit card transactions, nothing. I had gone to the bank to get money that morning, so I lent him some cash to pay for his groceries.
We sat on the stoop of his apartment building and watched the traffic, which was astonishingly bad but again, most of the drivers stayed calm. The sidewalks were packed with people; it really did seem like September 11th all over again. Very surreal.
I wanted to get home and find the candles/batteries/flashlight/transistor radio before it got dark, so I guess I left A.E.'s place around 7:30. Climbed up the 9 flights to my apartment, carrying a gallon jug of water, and found that the water wasn't affected. Wish I'd asked one of my neighbors who were congregating outside my building; I would've left the jug of water in the lobby. My apartment was surprisingly not sweltering; I waited a few hours before opening the windows since it was cooler inside than outside. Found the bag of 100 tea lights, which I had previously regarded as a foolish impulse purchase, heh. Glad I had them, now! Found a small flashlight, matches, one of two transistor radios, and an embarrassingly large supply of AA batteries in the drawer with my vibrator. I was ready for the darkness. Called my dad, who was thankfully at home; he lives on the 21st floor and his old bones would not have enjoyed thatclimb.
The evening was uneventful, except for some moron who decided to go up on the roof and didn't realize that the door was alarmed. I went out into the hall and chatted with a few other neighbors after the alarm was turned off; it's interesting to note that all the older women I spoke to (that day and the day after) each mentioned that lots of babies are conceived during blackouts. Uh, yeah; like what else is there to do? Frankly, it was way too hot and humid for sex; not that I was either offering or seeking, heh. We shall see in 9 months if the old ladies are correct.
When I looked out a window in the hallway, I was surprised to see that not every building was totally black. Lots of office buildings must have their own emergency generators on certain floors; I had no idea that there were so many, though.
The electricity came back on in my building a little after 12 noon on Friday, so my personal blackout lasted almost 20 hours to the minute. I stopped by the office, where the geeks were busy trying to sort out the servers and systems, because I wanted to check on my mini refrigerator. It hadn't defrosted too much, but the carpet was wet, so I worked on chipping the ice out of the freezer for a while. Also discovered that my computer was as dead as the door's proverbial nail. Dead, positively dead. This was not good news, but I decided not to get hysterical and simply deal with it on Monday. And on Monday, two of the geeks were able to put the hard drive into another CPU, and all was saved, yay. Gotta love geeks.
All in all, I was much, much, much luckier than most people: I didn't get stuck in an elevator or in the subway, didn't have to walk for miles and for hours in the dark, didn't suffer from lack of running water, didn't have to throw out lots of food, and didn't have to wait days for power to be restored. So, why should I buy the damn T-shirt?›