Blackout

[kristen]

My power went out at around 5 pm. Some friends and I went and had a picnic. Then I came home and went running. At 8:30 I sat in the dark with flashlights with my family and we listening to a Canadian radio station. At around 9:30 our power came back.

I was logged on mobile AIM via my cell phone the whole time

I think people overreacted to the whole situation

[Yan Wang]

Hm. I just installed a new cd-burner. Finished writing a 700mb cd in 2 min 50 sec... on my second CD, with 3 seconds left, BZZZT (power goes off). I thought it was my computer (which crashes a lot now), but then I realized that my power surge light was out... this occurred at roughly 4:10pm (what, Kristen?? How'd you have 50 more min of electricity??!)

I went to my violin lesson at 4:30pm... Obviously, there were no lights and it was incredibly hard to read all the 16th and 32nd notes in the Etude i was studying. My dad arrived at 5pm to pick me up and noted that he took almost the entire 30 min to just loop around the block back to me because traffic was sooo bad (this is about 2mph he was driving at).

At home, we turned on the radio and kept NPR on all the time. We turned on the gas grill and started making food - pissed me off that all stores had to close because of this. My mom came home and finally realized that electricity was out around 6pm because she works at Cornell and they have their own generators...

After dinner, I set up the badminton net and played with my dad for half an hour. Luckily, there wasn't any breeze that I could feel, but even so, the feather shuttlecock still went askew if hit above 10 feet. Lol.

I went to my room later, pocketed my pocket torch (thanks for buying it, Vicki - did you have power in Michigan?) and made sure I had that on to light candles with. I sat around listening to music for a while, and then decided to go read a book by candlelight for a while - I saw Order or the Phoenix lying around and read the last couple hundred pages for the heck of it. Went to bed, and I have no clue when the power went on in the house because I slept for 12 hours. Gimme a break, I just finished summer school and our 2-day, 3 hr/day regents yesterday.

[Michelle 236]

last night after CT and the rest of the east coast got their power back about 40 houses in old lyme remained w/o power for and additional few hrs. and yes i am one of those lucky peole i live in one of those 40 houses!!!!! so what did we do? we went to the movies!!!! it was quite amusing when everyone in the car was yelling "they have light!!!!!!" when we drove by the houses who already had their power back

[mtaman02]

Hey All,

As a Blackout Survivor of 2003 I must say Us New Yorkers Took The OUttage Really Well. Though Some took It as a memory of 9/11. As one person told the news the difference between today and 9/11 is that at least on 9/11 The Trains Were Still Running.

NYCTA aka MTA Has delt with this issue very professionally and calmly and b/c of this no one was injured or hurt when leaving a Dark Train going into a Dark Subway Tube. For Thos In New York City: Trains NYCTA, LIRR, Metro North Will Eventually Be Back Up The MTA Wants to insure the rails are in good repair as well as signals and switches. As soon as the City (5 Boroughs) reaches 100% in power restoration the MTA will begin onducting its 6 - 8 testing of all Subway Equipment!

I suggest everyone stocking up on Batteries and Lights because I forsee The Blackout Occuring again.

[Yan Wang]

You know what I want to see - photographs from space of the NE/midwest United States around 9pm last night. Must be sooo weird to see these big patches of black where you'd normally expect to see millions of spots of light.

[Nate Smith]

Chestefield/New Baltimore, MI is back up and running...for how long is another story...

[Ian W.]

They said LI would probably not have steady power throughout the day, but all day has been perfectly fine. The fact that it's a really nice day out, 84, and not too humid, probably helped, a lot. My lights haven't even flickered a tiny bit once.

I think that our problem is LI doesn't produce enough power for itself for the really hot summer days. But, if no one uses A/C, we can provide enough power on our own grid, which is what I heard they did (we're quite literally an island, in the power sense, now ). Doesn't matter to much for me, as I don't have A/C anyways, and my house only has 100 Amp service, so we can't even use that much to begin with.

[Madison]

Originally posted by Mike522
As a Blackout Survivor of 2003

Don't you think you're being a bit dramatic?

[josh_johnson]

I was talking to an employer at a job fair here at Kettering University in Flint, MI when the power went out. It came back on in less than a minute. (I'm fairly certain they had backup generators). The campus hasn't lost power since, but from what I have heard on my amateur radio, power in most of the rest of the town is still out.

We are currently under a boil water advisory. Because of the water, the school made an announcement that they are providing bottled water, but they only had enough for 1 bottle per person. I don't know how long they expect that bottle to last us. I guess it is a good thing i have several cases of Mountain Dew and Code Red.

[Steve W]

Up here in the Great White North we are still suffering. There are some parts of Toronto working but a lot still down. Outlying areas (my home) still no power. Not able to reach people in Huntsville Ontario(further north). I will be getting lots of OT once power starts coming up. Glad I am at work with AC to spare.

[Brandon Martus]

Bah. Stupid power.

My apartment (Rochester Hills, MI) is still out, im at my parents house (Sterling Heights, MI) where power was restored about 2 hours ago.

At least this time I may be able to keep up with my non-functioning sump pump.

[Adam Y.]

quote:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Originally posted by Mike522
As a Blackout Survivor of 2003
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------



Don't you think you're being a bit dramatic?

Well not really. It really was a serious problem that could have been a lot worst.

[Madison]

Originally posted by Adam Y.
Well not really. It really was a serious problem that could have been a lot worst.

It could have been far, far worse. But, there really wasn't anything to survive. We sat around, we listened to the radio, some folks in NYC had to walk a bit to get home, or maybe they're stuck there now, but they're certainly not in terrible danger.

To call yourself a survivor suggests that your life was in danger. Did you feel like your life was in danger? I didn't.

[geo]

I was on the computer when the black out occured. I thought it was local power outage. I live in Toronto. There is no power in my house until this morning 4am. It was nice to see stars in the city though.

[Jack]

woo..

I finally got our power back after like 26 hours (and I'd guess that Brandon got his back now too.. ).

I don't realise how addicited i am to the tv / computer until the sun sets at 9pm and I walk to the computer say "guess not.. " walk to the tv say "guess not.. " and then wonder what in the world to do

anywho.. we still haven't turned our ac back on so it's still hot..

oh well..