Where were you when the lights went out?

[dhermann1]

Ten years ago today the Northeast US was hit by a cascading blackout that left 50 million people without power for hours, and in some cases days. I wound up walkng home over the Brooklyn Bridge for the second time in just two years.
Where were you that day? And anybody remember the big blackouts of 1977 and 1965?
Any other experiences with massive blackouts?

 

[vitanola]

We were in our big house in Jonesville, MI, near the edge of the blacked out area. Our house was comfortable in the hot weather as it was well ventilated. We simply put candles into the chandeliers in the parlor and dining room, brought the coal-oil lamps up from the cellar and began cooking the contents of the freezer on the gas range. A family who lived down the street in an all electric modular home found their place to be nearly uninhabitable, so they moved in to our spare bedrooms for the duration. Not much change at all, though we did invite many of the neighbors over on Friday for a big feed. Our house was brightly lit and quite a hub of activity for those three or four days.

Now, our county seat in Hillsdale has a municipally owned electric utility which at that time had generated no power of its own for more than a decade, as grid power was so cheap. When the blackout occurred, the management of that utility called in all employees and several retirees. By Friday morning they had disconnected from the grid and set the mothballed 1919, 1926 and 1940 vintage diesel generators Fairbanks Morse engines and Westinghouse alternators) to running using home heating fuel delivered by our local oil supplier. Industrial customers were ordered to close, retailers were asked to limit their usage to minimal lighting and basic refrigeration, and homeowners were ordered to keep their central air conditioning systems turned off. Hillsdale was a spot of light on the edge of the great darkness.

In 1977 we were visiting my aunt and uncle in Astoria, Queens when the blackout hit. In that close-knit, mixed ethnic neighborhood (Greek recent arrivals, Italian old-timers from before the War and hold-out Czechs from before the construction of the EL) folks poured out on to the street, which were lighted by auto headlamps. Neighbors visited, barbecue grilles fired up, and a generally good time was had by all - THAT FIRST NIGHT. In the morning, the Daily News reported the looting in other neighborhoods in lurid detail. The tension and fear gripping the block in the wake of those reports was palpable, and folks holed up in their homes andmapartments until power was restored.

 

[HudsonHawk]

I didn't experience the blackout in '03, as I was in TX, which has its own power grid. My mother tells the story of being in Grand Central Station when the blackout hit in '65. She says people were remarkably calm.

 

[Atticus Finch]

Dang power goes out here for days almost every hurricane season.

AF

 

[1961MJS]

Hi

My Mom's house in Illinois has a new gas stove, sold to her by an appliance dealer who only (usually) sells electric appliances. He sells her a gas stove because he lived next door for about 30 years and his family has benefited from being warmed by the old one. For about a week, we ran our furnace blower off an extension cord from his house. His new house, his old house (where his son lives) and my parent's house all have Natural Gas Generators now. They can't keep them in stock.

The main thing I noticed, was the cold, and the complete lack of television.

My Aunt was without power for more than 30 days during an ice storm in the Winter back in the 1970's. Her house is at the end of the Rural Electric line. There was more than 10 miles of power poles down between her and the power station. My uncle bought a generator to run from the power take-off on his tractor the next Spring.

Later

 

[Redfan45x]

It's a surreal sight seeing a city blacked out. That's for sure.

 

[Zombie_61]

Where were you when the lights went out?

In the dark.

 

[I Adore Film Noir]

I was on an elevated train leaving Boston during the blackout of '65. It took a while for the generators to kick in and everyone was remarkably calm. After catching my bus, I reached my stop and remember walking the few blocks home in the dark and quiet.

 

[Foxer55]

For the 1965 blackout I had taken the U.S. Army train from Munich to the sanctuary city of Berlin in East Germany the day before. The next morning when I got up and went to the PX, there were the headlines and blackout photo on he front page of Stars & Stripes - New York City in the Dark.

Actually, my most memorable experience from those times was being on duty in Germany when JFK was assassinated. I was in a nuclear weapons unit on a big depot in Germany and the whole place was locked down, trucks were sent out to gather all the off post personnel, and we weren't sure what was going to happen as the assassination was an unanswered question. Nobody understood if it was a Russian plot or what was going on. I must say I was impressed with the calm leadership of everything and nobody overracted to the situation. We just prepared for the worst and stayed in standby mode until it was all sorted out. The Germans were very disappointed and gave a lot of sympathy over Kenndy's loss as he was, and remains, a favorite with the German people. I understand even yet today you can find memorial pictures in some German establishments with a picture of Kennedy and the frame drapped in black.

 

[Baron Kurtz]

It didn't affect us in Indiana, IIRC, but I remember the blackout happening.

We got a lot of power outages every summer during storm season anyways, so we couldn't quite see what the big deal was.

 

[sheeplady]

We didn't have power for three days where I was living at the time (Ithaca, NY) at my apartment complex. My then boyfriend (now husband) had power restored within a day at his place, despite living two miles away (different sections of the grid). My parents, who live up in the Adirondacks (a mountainous and very rural area which often loses power for days at a time in the winter and sometimes in the summer) never lost power. The most prepared people in the state for a long term power outage, the Adirondackers, mostly had power.

The only thing I remember significant about that summer is that a stray cat crawled into a wall in the apartment two stories below me, crawled under to the tub and died. The stench was horrible and it took them two weeks to figure out where it was coming from as that renter was away on vacation. That apartment had to be entirely rehabbed and it took a long time for the smell to go away. So I was already spending a lot of time at the boyfriend's place due to the smell.

 

[CaramelSmoothie]

Back in July of 2010 the power was out for about 48 hours due to a transformer exploding, I believe. It was the most miserable 2 days of my life because it was so darn hot.

 

[HudsonHawk]

Back in July of 2010 the power was out for about 48 hours due to a transformer exploding, I believe. It was the most miserable 2 days of my life because it was so darn hot.

Longest I've been without power was about 3 weeks, following Hurricane Ike in 2008. My neighbor directly across the street had power about a week before I did.

 

[Seraph1227]

I was at work, got to go home early, that was cool. That night was surreal with people walking around our community lake with flashlights and such. All the neighbors socializing, met my neighbor that night. He had lived next door for five years.