Where were you August 14, 2003? The Great Northeast Blackout.

[AnitaPeterson]

I had just moved a couple of weeks before into the Quebec side of Ottawa. Quebec has its own separate grid, and most of its electricity comes from hydro plants, so it wasn't affected at all. I had no idea about what happened until I crossed the bridge into Ontario, and saw all the traffic lights had gone out. By nightfall, it had become clear that the situation was serious.

Those few days of blackout were unforgettable - but I was most impressed by the solidarity that people showed to complete strangers. Some folks went into the intersections and started to direct traffic, to prevent road congestion. Stores gave away for free all their perishable merchandise. People organized block parties with music and portable electric lights.

It was also frightening to realize how fragile our modern existence can be. I don't know if I read it somewhere, or it just came to mind, but I realized that the distance between civilisation and barbarism is only two weeks.

 

[ComputerWizKid]

In Connecticut, but not really impacted. We had a much bigger power outage problem with Hurricane Sandy than from the Great Blackout.

Same here I was without power from storm Sandy for 7 days

The so called big blackout I lost power for 15 Minutes

 

[zinfamous]

I was in Haiti trying to find a spot to shit that wasn't infested with Cholera.


Oh, I'm sorry....I couldn't here you over the sound of my lack of sympathy.

 

[iamwiz82]

Same here I was without power from storm Sandy for 7 days

The so called big blackout I lost power for 15 Minutes

Obviously, since it only affected you for 15 minutes that was the extent of it across the entire continent. :hmm:

Sandy never affected me so it was just a rain storm. :awe:

 

[ComputerWizKid]

Who remember this image? I think I got it from this forum

I never delete anything
I still have the original Napster exes on my hard drive
Call me an e-Packrat:biggrin:

 

[Broheim]

sitting in Denmark with lots and lots of power in the outlets..

 

[GagHalfrunt]

Same here I was without power from storm Sandy for 7 days

The so called big blackout I lost power for 15 Minutes

I lost power for 30 seconds or so in 2003. The power went out and came back pretty quickly as some backup system kicked in. I remember my computer rebooting and my cable TV box resetting, but I don't remember any real downtime. Sandy was 48 hours dark.

 

[Hugo L.]

I was at home in good old Great White North and things were fine and dandy.

 

[thegimp03]

In London the night before flying back home from a summer studying abroad.

 

[rcpratt]

I was in 9th grade, gallivanting outside like 14-year olds do in the summer.

Now I'm working for the power company. Whoops.

 

[metalmania]

I took the stairs down, there were lots of people on the street. I walked 6 hours to get home. Not bad, just a little bit long.

 

[dfuze]

In north central CT, we never lost power but remember watching that stuff on the news.

 

[Oyeve]

I was working at Arista records at the time. When the power went down I went outside to smoke a cig, as the building lost power at least once a week. It wasnt until I saw many people in the streets milling about did I realize that we had a blackout city wide. So i went upstairs and shut down the servers gracefully and packed my shit and left, taking 2 brand new laptops with me. I figured I would blame the blackout for the "missing" laptops.

True story. Still have one of em left. Was my kazzalite machine.

 

[TraumaRN]

Was 18 and life guarding outside in metro detroit. Was in view of our local power plant and remember it suddenly belching lots of black smoke for a moment, thinking that was weird...then we lost power and we were all sent home. I remember my parents cooking massive amounts of food so that it wouldn't all goto waste.

Then went out by Metro Detroit Airport marveling at how it was dark even there and seeing so many stars out that night. Then me and my girlfriend at the time had sex on the hood of my car cuz it was so dark out. Fun times!

 

[Train]

Was in that small pocket in Ohio (parts of Toledo) that didn't go out. I seem to remember packing my stuff to go to Lejeune for some training.

Watched videos of all the people walking on the expressways in NYC on the news, like woah, this had to be a terrorist act to knock out that many state's power.

Found out a few days later a college friend died because his GF lit candles while he was asleep, then went to sleep herself. Place went up, she got out, he didn't.

 

[Gerle]

I was stationed in Yuma, AZ, I don't remember this so I guess it didn't affect us at all.

 

[GTaudiophile]

On that day I would have been living on the Greek island of Naxos, Greece. I was there for over 3 months that summer. So probably getting laid.

 

[highland145]

Came to the realization that I shouldn't have pushed that red button. Thought the "DO NOT TOUCH" sign was a joke.

Sorry.

 

[AdamK47]

North Carolina. I was 7.

What's it like to not know first hand what life was like before the Internet?

 

[JulesMaximus]

I was at home in CA watching it on TV.

 

[Puppies04]

I was in England watching TV because we don't build things out of cardboard or live in a country that tries to kill us constantly.

 

[Thump553]

That was the blackout supposedly caused by a suicidial squirrel in Ohio as I recall. It was just an inconvenience here in CT. The great New England blackout of 1965 was much more memorable-there were widespread reports of riots and looting (but I don't think all that much happened).

But hey a blackout without a hurricane or flood is just a temporary vacation from our plugged in life, enjoy the change.

 

[rh71]

some pics here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/14/2003-northeast-blackout_n_3751171.html

I worked and lived on LI so it wasn't a big deal for me other than being in a dark house but my wife was stuck out in Manhattan. EDIT> oh she was just my gf at the time. She was one of those people in the pics who walked to Brooklyn (also had to do that for 9/11) then managed to get a local bus to a LI town 25 mins from home and met someone there who was willing to wait with her in front of their house when I finally got to her at 8pm by car.

Days like that make me want to keep a landline and a corded phone that uses the tel line for power. It came in handy that day as some cellphones worked (not ours) and I was able to talk to her sporadically. But it's all fiber now with battery backup only. What good is a corded phone if the battery backup is dead and I have no operating landline as a result?

 

[HamburgerBoy]

In Texas, with our own power grid.

^_^

EDIT: Actually, I remember watching this on TV in my aunt's kindergarten room. My immediate family was there dropping off books and doing some volunteer work. I remember a family member remarking how stupid terrorists were, saying how easy it would be to mow down a bunch of people in the congested streets.

 

[rh71]

Found out a few days later a college friend died because his GF lit candles while he was asleep, then went to sleep herself. Place went up, she got out, he didn't.

Belleville man? It's in the wiki above.

In New York City, six fatalities were reported. Two were deaths from carbon monoxide, two from fire, one as a result of a fall from a roof while breaking into a shoe store, and one as a result of having a heart attack in a neighbor's apartment after climbing the 17 flights to their floor.

seriously dude?