Backout Stories

As a left out West Coaster, I want to hear some blackout stories. Where were you, how did people react and what'd you spend your time in the dark doing?

I was watching previews for tomorrow's General Hospital and the lights dimmed.� We thought maybe there was a blown fuse but they were okay.� Couldn't turn off the TV because we didn't have enough power for it to complete the task of turning itself off.� things just kept turning on and then shutting off by themselves.�
My parents started a barbecue and my brother contributed in the making of beer burgers.� They were ok.
Things just shut down and stayed down for about 3 hours or more.� It came back to us at 8ish, from what I understand (dunno, i wasn't keeping track of time).
It reminded me of that summer my family went wihtout electricity because we couldn't afford it.� I was 7 or 8 then, so it was fun :)

*S*

Heard a reminiscence from someone today regarding his time spent as a cadet reporter in some provincial town out back Queensland. One of his tasks was to go to the maternity ward every Wednesday and take a photograph of each baby born in the previous seven days. These were then published in the local paper and readers voted which of the ten or twelve candidates was to be declared "Baby of the Week."

One Wednesday he rocked up to the ward and ran out of film before he could finish his job. There were 65 babies born the previous week, instead of the usual dozen or so. Back at the office he checked out the archived issues of the paper circa nine months earlier. Yep, there was a 36 hour blackout afflicting the town about then.

Hope you people in the northeast of the USA will ramp up maternity ward facilities in time for May 2004.

*laugh* that's really cool :)

Here in northwest Ohio we lost power for under 10 minutes. Parts, mostly in Toledo, were without power for a bit longer (a few hours), but I think everything is back to normal.

Hrm...I'm glad I'm an early bird here at work and leave before 4. I just got in and am hearing that the power blew here and was out for a couple of hours. People lost stuff they were working on. At home we just had a big dip (everything went off but one TV) and a smaller dip but that's it. Didn't realize until flipping through the channels at 5 what had happened. Thought it was just a normal brownout situation.

The first one happened just as I was walking into the apartment. Paul was all confused and thought I had done something. :) He heard the door open and close, then the power went out. Heee. :)

Apparently there was a huge line of cars leaving here (work) after it went out and it was an icky traffic situation. (Mild, of course, compared to what some folks had to deal with!)� Yay happy me not being here! :)

First I knew about it was when I saw that poll this morning!
:D

If it was shortly after 4pm eastern, I would have been in my car, driving to VT and listening to cds....
So, yeah, I had no idea.

Readiing articles now... and, i just checked, and my box at home is offline.... so it must've been more than a few minutes in noho.

Weird!

normal NPR broadcasting was interrupted to announced that a major blackout covering large portions of the Northeast US and parts of Canada around 4:30 or so (i was on the Wall chatting with Paul and co), I was clueless simply because our block of buildings and a major portion of downtown Rochester was still operating at full power (we are across from Kodak's main building, so that might have something to do with it).

Home and most of the city outside of that downtown area was without power.� I went to a concert downtown, then came home and the nextdoor neighbor told me that the guy across the street was having a get together, so we sat in his backyard with a few other folks and drank and admired the stars and talked about movies and growing up and socialized healthcare and spirituality, told gross stories, and noticed street lamps starting to come back on around 1:30a or so.

It was fun, but I would have preferred to stay home, as a bit of a hangover is creeping into my brain.� It was nice to be able to take a warm shower tho.

Ang.

Actually, I had thought nothing of it until just now... but I was going through the drive-thru at wendy's to get fries... when I pulled up to the window she was like, "sorry, we lost power for a moment.. what was your order again?"

I just kinda figured someone kicked the cord on the register.. but that musta been when it happened in noho.

This is largely a cross-post from my poll comment:

I was at work, interviewing someone for a job - she was in the next room doing a little Excel Spreadsheet test, and I was at my computer.� I heard the AC make a weird noise, and then everything stopped.� I had to walk home 50 blocks - Once I got out of mid-town and into Central Park, it was a pretty relaxing walk.� I stopped for Ice Cream about half way home.

People were partying on the street throughout the night, but I stayed in and listened to the radio, filled up water bottles, and called friends.

At 4AM I woke up (that's 4AM in the morning, for those who think this is that "annoying wrong phrases" forum), and there was a smoke alarm going off in my building.� Now, I was using candles, and I figured other people were too.� But there was absolutely no movement in the building.� So, I tried calling one of my neighbors, but there was no answer.�

After deliberating, I decided to call 911; if there *was* a fire, I didn't want to be the idiot who heard the alarm but didn't do anything.��The firefighters came and checked it out - turns out the door to the roof was open.�

So, all is good.� I was freaked out, and started packing a bag and I got the cat carrier out, but everything worked out fine.� I got power around 5:30, and haven't put the AC on yet - we're supposed to be conserving.� I'll probably go out in a bit and hang out in Riverside Park.

I work in midtown Manhattan.� The light dimmed in my office, then within a second everything was out.� I shut down the server first, and grabbed my walkman which had a radio on it so I could keep up to date.

My office left the building 30 minutes later and went to the bar for a few drinks.

After that, we headed to my boss's apartment on 1st Ave and 34th.� Walked up 24 flights of stairs in the dark to get there.� Stayed for a couple of hours and worried myself sick because I was to pick someone up at the airport that night, and the flight still made it in at 10:15 PM.

Left the apartment with other co-workers at 9:30 to go ot the bus station.� The scene was surreal.� People sleeping on the sidewalks, many drinking publicly or playing games, regular people directing traffic, Times Square completely dark, the Empire State Building without a light on.� And seeing stars in the sky in the middle of Manhattan.� I've never seen anything like it, and I doubt I will again for a long time.

Got to the bus station and saw the huge line of people just to get a bus to the MEadowlands.� However, police told us that NJ transit and Path was running, so we headed down that way.� I took the first train out, which left the station at around 11 PM.� Got the airport okay, and managed to find my friend, and take her with me the rest of the way home.� Got home at 12:30 AM.� Power only went out in my house for 5 seconds.

Woke up at 6:20 AM only to see the lights were still out, and no trains were heading in, so I didn't go to Midtown today.

That's my story.

oO See the lights go out on Broadway, I saw the Empire State law low...Oo

oO When the light go down in the city, and the sun shines on the bed....Oo

oO Where were you when the lights went out in New York City....Oo

Well, I was writing a casenote that I had been procrastinating on writing for the past 2 days because it quite frankly the interaction was very involved and�I was trying to finish everything else before I tackled it....So, as I was typing, there was a flicker on my computer monitor and then all of the sudden all the power went out.� I thought I may have blown a fuse but then checked out the rest of the people on my floor and found out that their power was out.� All the phones in the building were out as well.� I pulled out my little portable walkman radio and then the details started to trickle in and we learned the magnitude of this power outage.� Also, having just gotten back from FRFF, I still had my flashlight and spare batteries in tow ready to be of service.

Our executive director went around the building�and said that we could either try to�find our way home�or stay and help out with some of the kids, older adults, and whatever else may come up.� Seeing that the subways were not working and that I really didn't need to be anywhere say for an Indigo Girls concert in Summerstage that I presumed was cancelled (I learned today from reading the paper that it went�on with generator power,�oh drat!), I volunteered to stay.� There were kids who were in summer camp that needed parents to pick them up.� There were some older adults who were waiting for Access-A-Ride or�car services�to pick them up (traffic was NOT moving at all), so they were stranded.� There were also homebound clients that needed to be checked on either via the one working payphone or by making visits.� Our agency offered water and sandwiches to people who were walking by who seemed to trek from long distances.� I called home and everyone had already made it home safe.� Anyway, I ended up trying to�keep an older woman comfortable while we figured out how/when she could get home.�

I was offered a couch at one the assistant director's apartment but decided I wanted to get home.� I left work at about 7:30 and decided�to just hoof it.���So I started from East�70th Street and�walked straight�down 2nd Avenue�towards the Willliamsburg Bridge.� As I was walking,�it seemed that everyone was in good spirits.� Delis and restaurants were selling food on the sidewalk.� There were people who were at bars drinking and at restaurants eating.� People were walking in the streets, as after I passed the 59th street bridge, there were virtually no cars for several blocks.� The occasional car or bus would whiz by until the next backup.� Regular folks and the police were doing a great job of directing traffic at major intersections in lieu of traffic signals.� Aside from a few asshole drivers, most drivers took turns crossing intersections and let pedestrians pass by in turn as well.�� People�were joking every so�often and just going with the punches.�

I was able to use my cell phone at the lower east side and asked my brother to meet me a bit off the Williamsburg Bridge so that I didn't have to walk the rest of the way home.� As I was walking over the bridge, I could look up and see stars...it was a pretty odd but nice site to see.� At the base of the bridge on the Brooklyn side, people were giving out water to weary pedestrians.� I eventually met up with my brother at the our�predetermined meeting location and then headed home enjoying the last bits of A/C for who knows when.� Arrived home at about 9:45PM and ate dinner, and then pretty much sat in the glow of a bunch of flashlights (again I bought these because of FRFF :) and candles, as we tried to ascertain when power would turn back on.��My landline phone worked, so I was able to call others.���There was no�running water, so�there was no shower�last night.� Someone opened up a hydrant in the front of the building, so we were able to get water that way (and my family also filled up buckets and pots with water before the pressure gave out).� I appreciated the fact that I lived on the 4th floor in my building instead of the higher floors (my apt. building is 22 stories).� It was hot and sticky, but I managed to get a few hours of sleep�around�2AM before waking up�around 7AM to see that power was not restored.��I tried calling work, but couldn't get through, so I assumed power was still out.� I rationalized that since the subways were not working, that they weren't expecting me to walk BACK to work and stayed home.

Walked around and was able to pick up a newspaper and some Gatorade (following John's advice about water not cutting it when it's being hot and humid).� I chatted with my next door neighbor who experienced both the '65 and the '77 blackout and how he was prepared with gas lanterns, candles, and flashlights.� During the '65 blackout he and his wife, who was 6 months pregnant, were stuck on the�subway and managed to walk and bus their way home.� Power finally went back on at about 3:30 PM and there was much rejoicing from the everyone who was outside.� So after 23 hours, power has returned for now.� The fan is on, but no A/C for awhile cause we have to conserve.� Now, I have to go through the fridge and see what is salvageable.� But maybe a shower first.� Overall it was not a pleasant, but�not at all terrible and at times�enlightening (no pun intended)�experience.�

This one time, I was trying to back out of this parking spot, and, like, backed right into this volvo station wagon and smashed their rear taillight.... it su... what? why are you looking at me that way?

OH!
BLACKout stories!!!
Sorry.

shup. I wasn't able to fix the title :)

Cross-posted from my blog:

At around 4:10 pm yesterday, the TV and computer turned off. Power outages are not unusual in this building, so I didn't think much of this, until i realized that the air conditioner, which is plugged into an outlet which usually does not go out, also clicked off. So something was off, but I figured that there was just something even more fucked up with the building than usual... so I took a nap. I woke up, I guess an hour later, and the power was still out. I went outside and the streets were packed. The traffic lights were out and the subways were roped off. I... well, I giggled. I looked around, it was almost a carnival atmosphere. I had no cash so I called dad collect.

"Hey dad. Power's out up here."
"Gella, the power is out everywhere."
"Oh really? The whole city?"
"New Jersey, Connecticuit..."
"You're kidding..."

So I didn't make it to Brooklyn yesterday for dinner at dad's. I walked down toward the river and sat in the playground on 97th street. I read for a while. After a while I closed my book and just watched the children playing in the sprinklers. I pondered the events of the last few years... what a freaky time to be a young person living in New York City. I wondered what the little kids in the sprinklers were thinking, if they were making any connections in their minds between this and what happened two years ago. The young ones, this has been their whole lives. I grew up during a drought. One year it started raining in the summer I wondered why it was so wet. My parents told me that this was normal. I wonder what these kids think is normal.

I came back to the apartment and gave the hamster some water. Guy from upstairs came by to check on me. He gave me a gallon of water and some matches. He was freaking out as he always does. Aparently he called Jason and Kathleen (for whom I am apartment and hamster-sitting) and told them that he was fleeing the city. As it got dark, I read by candlelight until my eyes hurt. After that, I blew out my candle and listened to the people outside talking. After a bit I heard a gasp from outside.

"Look! You can see stars!"

I put on my glasses and stuck my head out the window. Sure enough, the sky was actually black, rather than the usual orangeish brown from the streetlights, and there were, indeed, stars visible. About as many as one would see in Westechester on a regular basis.

I woke up sweating several times during the night, but all in all, it wasn't so terrible. Around 6:07 am I was awakened by the sounds of whooping and whistling. I looked over at the clock which was blinking 12:00. My first instinct was internet. It wasn't until I found that I wasn't online that I thought to turn on the TV. All the channels were out it seemed. I went to CBS which, of course, was on. CBS is always the only station on in an emergency. At 8:05 AM I saw my high school Hebrew teacher at Penn Station on the news. He was trying to get to his mother in Jackson Heights.

That's really all there is. Things were fine from 6:07 on... except that there's still no hot water.

I feel rather glad not being one of these people who got stranded when the airports shut down or had to sleep on the sidewalk because it was too hot inside.

Power went out Thursday when I was at work at the record store with a store full of customers and me in the midst of receiving product. Had to ask everyone to leave the store and lock the doors. That's always fun. Our mall has a rule that the power has to be out for at least one hour and then you need the ok from mall admin before you're allowed to leave. But seeing as the power outage happened at 4:15 and mall admin goes home at 5 and they didn't tell us anything, everyone packed up shop at about 5:10 since we were told how extensive the blackout was by maintenance. I spent my hour in the dark, growing warmer store by cashing out the till as much as possible and straightening wherever I had enough light to see.

There've been a lot of break-ins in area liquor stores and some price gouging going on at the few gas stations that got power back. We've had citizens out on the street directing traffic since there just aren't enough officers to spread around town. We have power here right now but a few blocks away, it's gone down again so we might not be out of the woods yet. There's talk we'll get hit here with another black-out sometime tonight that will last at least 2 hours maybe more. We're eating our way through whatever is in the fridge and freezer that's salvageable (had to polish off the ice cream last night) and throwing out the stuff that's been thawed too long. Plus conserving water and energy as much as possible.

At least we've got a full tank of gas on the barbeque and the backup charcoal one as well so even if we keep losing power we'll be ok. I think we're going to open the store back up in the morning too if we don't lose power at that point.

Um ... except it was freakin' HOT throughout the blackout area yesterday.� Height of summer and all, y'know.� Maybe some people are in the mood to snuggle when it's beastly hot and humid and you can't even turn on a fan much less a/c ... but I'm sure not.� :)�

As my own contribution as an American woman, I'll try to schedule my child bearing/conception so as to accommodate the blackout.� Lucky (?) for me,�I have not as late�been involved in�such activities�that would bear a negative�influence�on�the maternity ward conditions of may 2004���

Maybe it's because it's late but when I read that post [which reminded me of the surge of kids born after the blizzard of 97 {?}]�� I felt it had to be done :)
*S*

That happens all the time. There were big blackouts in 1965 and 1978 that produced the same effect. Also blizzards do that. It was funny, lisa and I were talking about this as we sat there in the dark and we realized that it makes a lot of sense, because, really, there was very little else to do. :)

I was just reading how that's an urban legend. Blackouts and Blizzards and such don't make statistical difference on the birth rate.

Are there any day by day stats available from those individual maternity wards that are supposed to be affected by such events, but may be subject of urban mythmaking instead?

I'm asking because birth statistics taken over a month or a year, statewide or nationally wouldn't show up a bleep, but a day or two either side of nine months after the event the staff of the affected maternity wards might have trouble believing in those statistics.

Boy, some of you got power back fast!

I was sitting at a computer in the basement of Ford world headquarters. I was about to send an email asking for some edit time next month for a video on the Frankfurt Motor Show. All of a sudden the lights flickered, and I thought "oh oh!" then everything went off. It was pitch black, as there are no windows in the basement.

Ironically I had been shooting in a factory that morning, and had had to watch the silly safety video that they make you watch before they let you in. One of the things in the video was "If the power goes out and you are in an area without windows, stay put until the emergency lighting comes on." I was amused at how this information was suddenly relevant. :)

So I sat there and in less than a minute, sure enough, emergency lighting did come on, in the form of one out of every so many banks of lights. Everyone was wondering what was going on. We didn't know the scale of what was happening yet, and assumed that it was just a normal power failure, so we all waited for the lights to come back one. Instead, the emergency lighting went out after 15 minutes or so. Eeek! Now it was pitch black again.

Fortunately a few people had flashlights and so we were able to find our way out. It was then that I learned (from people in the parking lot) of the extent of the problem.

I tried calling Lisa who was on the road with Maria in tow, but the cell phone wasn't working. So I headed home taking side streets to avoid the mess I assumed would be happening on the main roads. I listened to the radio on the way home, then sat in the driveway listening more and staying in the A/C.

After a while I remembered my little watchman TV so I went in and got it and watched the news. Shortly thereafter Lisa got home. We were trying to watch the news, but Mari was getting upset. I think the strange situation and the fact that we were telling her that we needed to watch the news and couldn't play with her were freaking her out. It turned out that we had no water in addition to no power.

At 6 I went to get Melissa from daycare. They had no power or water either, but said that they'd be open tomorrow just the same. :) When I got home I broke out the Coleman lantern, oil lamps and candles. We cooked sausages on the grill and ate some left over pasta salad. At one point Lisa went outside and said we had the best lit house on the street. :) At some point the water pressure came back on, so that was some releaf, althought the radio was saying to conserve it, and some communities were being told to boil it.

Anyway, we put the kids to bed and then spent some time doing what people always do in powerfailures and blizzards. ;) I woke up in the morning to discover Lisa was gone to Chicago. (This was expected, but I later found out that she'd left at 3 AM because it was so hot she couldn't sleep.)

So in the morning I had 2 kids to myself and no power. I used up the last of our milk for Melissa, and we brought her to daycare.

Lisa had called and said she'd made it to Chicago, and she reported that there was power a little ways past Ann Arbor. This news caused me to hatch "The Plan". Since my mom was being paranoid about venturing out with no traffic lights, it was just me and Maria. We dropped Mellie off and headed west. I had just enough gas to get out there, and I figured we'd get gas and the find a mall somewhere to stay out of the heat.

All was going swimmingly until I got past Ann Arbor. Then I ran into a big traffic jam on the freeway. I think all of Ann Arbor had the same idea that I did, only they were closer. I was getting low on gas now, and I was afraid of being stuck in traffic and running out, so I bailed off the freeway. The road I was on took me to the town of Dexter, but they had no power. I inched my way through town and came to a split in the road. The map of the area in my head was kind of fuzzy but I luckily chose the Dexter-Chelsea fork.

As we drove on I was getting really nervous about the gas situation. I was very afraid that we would run out and be stuck. As I got to Chelsea I was thinking that I had better stop there even if there was no power, because at least I'd be in a town. (Gulp!) Fortunately there was power there!!!!

I found a gas station with A/C and full refrigerators and everything! Mari and I had orange juice. The station didn't have any gas, but as we stood there drinking our juice, the tanker arrived! We walked around town for a while marveling at the open stores and the very croweded restaurant. Then we got in line and eventually got gas.

We drove out to the edge of town and found another crowded restaurant for a well deserved lunch. Then, since it was late, we headed home with 2 styrofoam coolers of ice in the trunk, only to find that the power was back on when we got back.

So now I'm in my third and final day of solo dad mode. The power is on, but we can't drink the water without boiling it. That will last until Wednesday they tell us. Lisa is coming home this evening. I can hardly wait!

Those are the stats that have been analyzed. Of course whatever effect that exists would be blurred by the differences in gestation time. It really wouldn't be a day or two but a week or two that the spike would be spread out over. essentially you'd have to find a bell curve of small magnitude added to "noise" of the normal birth rate.

So i was at work just finished taking x-rays on a patient - i work at a dental office for those who don't know.� The lights flickered once and a minute and a half after everything just went dark.�Our office is in a plaza so the only windows were in the front waiting room., rending most of the office in complete darkness (with just the red exit signs glowing).� The person i felt the worse for was the poor sod that they had just started a root canal on.� I'm still not quite sure what happened to him as i was sent on a mission to try and buy flashlights from the auto parts store next door.�

I'm fully convinced that our was one of the last houses in all of rochester to get our power back.� It clicked on at 4:15 am...exactly 12 hours after it shut off.� and i was so hoping i wasn't going to have to go to work on friday!!!!!

Thanks. Did a little more googling on that and found that the data published in galton.uchicago.edu/~stat220/Handouts/handout8.pdf indicates that the "New York blackout baby boom" may indeed be an urban myth.

By inference, any similar claims, including the one I relayed earlier in this thread, have also been generated by the desire to not let facts get in the way of a good story.

The data in the pdf do show one marked pattern I had not anticipated: The downward spikes on Saturdays and Sundays are regular and of great magnitude. Now I'm wondering whether that means women don't like giving birth on those days, or doctors prefer a game of golf rather than assist a baby into this world on a weekend.

I was in the mall where I work, paying bills and getting some odds and ends for my trip to Owen Sound. The lights in the mall went out, so I hurried to Blockbuster to see if I could laugh at them while they struggled without power. I helped them out a little and offered advice. One of our terminals was working on an alternate power source, but there was something off about it. We ventured into the back and noticed that one of our components was plugged into the wall instead of the power bar (which was connected to the emergency battery). So we plugged it into the power bar, but as we were waiting for it to start working the emergency battery died. This friend of Jason's showed up with this dynamo-powered super flashlight/radio and told us what was going on. So I left, and went to Subway (I was on my way to find something to eat when the power went). They were making sandwiches at Subway so I ate one, then went back to the store, where I encouraged my fellow employees to "save" the Haagen Daazs by eating it. :D

I was supposed to meet Fiona at her apartment by this time, but still had to go home and finish packing (laundry was now out). The buses were packed, and my bus route got cut so that they could run shuttle buses between subway stations, so I had to take this other bus that goes like seven blocks further west, and then walk those seven blocks, but no big deal. All the kids were out on the street playing cricket, as usual.

The first thing I did when I got home was call Fiona. I was afraid she might have left work early and gotten stuck in the subway when the power went out at 4:20, but she was okay, she had just got home from walking all the way from Bloor and St-George (far). I told her I'd be there fairly soon and hung up. My phone was not very charged (I'd just plugged it in maybe an hour before the blackout) so I was worried about it, but then Chrissy called me and I hadn't heard her voice in about a million and a half years!! So, that was exciting :D And I packed in the dark, and decided that I'd make a really good blind person because I knew where everything I owned was. I guess that happens when you live in a basement and don't often bother to change the light bulbs.

So I finally left, catching a bus that took about an hour longer than my usual bus would have. When I got to Eglinton is was already dark, and I walked for about half an hour to get to Fiona's. Some drivers are morons. They'll turn off their brights out of respect for other drivers' eyesight, but not for any pedestrians, oh no. So everyone on the street spent the night getting blinded by drivers. At Fiona's we sat on the porch for a while and talked, then something possessed us to walk South down Mount Pleasant until we got excessively freaked out by the cemetary. We got some Aurora Borealis action going, which was nice (happened again last night also).

Fiona's apartment got power a little before 5 am. I woke up about ten minutes before it happened, weirdly enough. We left the apartment around 8:30am to head down to the bus station. People were not taking the radio's advice and staying home from work. What was even more pathetic though was that they were packing into buses like crazy all the way from North York, then getting downtown, realizing their place of employment wasn't open, getting right back on the bus and heading home. We saw a business man in a pink shirt and tie riding his motorcycle home from work.

None of the buses were even bothering to stop, so we walked all the way from Mt Pleasant and Davisville to Dundas and Bay. There was power all the way from Davisville to Bloor. A bunch of morons had left all their store lights on when the power had gone out, but hadn't bothered to come into work, so there were a bunch of stores screaming "OPEN", wasting power and not actually being open. I saw more dogs than I've ever seen in my life. I feel so sorry for these dogs who apparently don't get walked at all when the power's on. At Bloor and Yonge the power was out and all the people who'd been directing traffic the night before were now home, asleep I'm assuming. The intersections were well-handled anyway. I saw a rollerblader with a big sign that said "TORONTO IS IN A PANIC." Fiona and I and a bunch of other people waiting to cross the street laughed at him. A lot. Moron.

We expected the walk to take at least two hours, but it ended up taking just under 1:45 because we just made the 10:15 bus outta there. On the way to Summerfolk, Fiona made small talk with the guy sitting next to her. Halfway through the conversation I realized that the reason he looked so familiar was that he played Calvin Treager on the last two or three episodes of Sports Night. I'm still convinced of it. The power was out all the way up Avenue road and out of the city, out in most of Barrie and lots of other towns on the way north, but when we got to Owen sound it was business as usual. Except of course�that all anyone could talk about was the blackout.

Except for the one lady who explained to us how her face exploded. But that's totally another story.