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Blackout 2003

15-Aug-03 -- Power went out at 4:15pm in midtown Manhattan on Thursday evening, August 14, 2003.  I was making some copies at the copy machine and the paper jammed.  My co-worker was helping me pull out the jammed pieces of paper and suddenly everything wound down.  She and I both thought that I had done something to cause the power to go out, but soon thereafter we realized it was not me at all.  There were a few low-power items still on in the building, but everything went out including the office phones.  My cell phone was one of the only ones working.  We were soon told we could leave as we planned how we were all walking home, thinking about the people stuck on the subways and how much worse it would have been if it had happened one hour later during the real rush hour since we all are on the trains around 5:15pm.  Apparently there were 350,000 people in the subways at the time as it was.  Just imagine the people in elevators in addition too!  My friend Peter was one of the people stuck on the subway and as they were being led out of the tunnels he took some pictures.  I noticed a LOT of people took digital pictures throughout the night, although I'm not sure how many would turn out well.  Peter was then asked by a transit worker to surrender his camera!  Apparently pictures of subways tunnels are not allowed?  He stood his ground and the other passengers supported him so the transit worker backed down.

I was able to make a few quick calls home before the cell phones started getting jammed and confirmed my daughter was in the house with her friend Amy and my friend Tony, who is watching her most of the time this summer.  Tony said one of the neighbors in the back of my building was blaring his radio so that people could hear what was going on.  Inasmuch as we had no batteries for a radio, although we have several radios that can run on batteries, at least they knew how broad the problem was.  Tony and Alex scrambled for candles even though there was a lot of hours left before dark.  Alex kept on pointing out the different appliances that weren't working as she was still grasping just how many items in the home were dependent on electricity.  She was surprised the microwave and refrigerated were affected!  I thought this exemplified how much we depend upon electricity as she had never been without such conveniences.  Tony asked me to pick up some batteries for a radio and candles on my way home, as well as ice, as if there were going to be stores open.  At this point no one understood the gravity of the problem or how extensive it was, although on cell phones we did determine that most of the city and suburbs were out.

As I started walking downtown I saw people getting on buses from the front and back and not paying.  I thought that was ridiculous but now I see these people were smart, even though the buses weren't able to travel that fast since the lights were out and there was no one directing traffic and there were logjams at most intersections and later I heard that fares had been suspended anyway.  People were flooding the streets and sidewalks as well, many civilians -- including a woman I saw with a walker -- started directing traffic!  Some people had their car radios on, even though some of the networks were down and we could hear that the outages were as far as Michigan, Connecticut, Ontario and NJ.

My best friend from law school was stuck in her office until 4am in downtown Brooklyn.  She lives in NJ.  She is also well along in her pregnancy, which reminded me of my ex-wife, whose last day of work before maternity leave was to be the day after the blackout.  I later found out that she had to evacuate her office building in Manhattan and WALK home (much further into Brooklyn than where I live) in her condition, arriving at 9pm only to climb four flights of stairs, all of which was particularly troubling as she lost her last pregnancy at seven months!

So Thursday evening I walked down to 23^rd Street and First Avenue since it was on my way home and I figured that I might catch one of my friends who lives in a building there on his way home.  I waited about an hour watching the masses of people until I saw one of them outside of his building.  For most of the flights up the stairs through the dark lobby, we had to go up in pitch black.  Fortunately enough people had left doors open to let a bit of sunlight in and others had flashlights so that it wasn't too perilous, but still exhausting.  Hector, Ari's partner, had been home but the cell phone did not work and I did not have the landline number handy.  Moreover, the doorman did not have a way of buzzing them to let them know I was waiting.  So in the pitch black Ari and I walked up 12 flights of steps and made it to their apartment where the water was running out from the sinks since the water does not go up that high (only to the 6^th floor without electricity).  Fortunately he and his partner had lots of bottled water and so we were able to beat the heat and humidity a bit.  There was also a temperate breeze.

Later that evening the radio reported that even if the power were to be restored right away, it would take 6-8 hours for the subways to run again.  Looking out the window after dark I saw a lot of buses with people in them going uptown, so my friends and I surmised that I would probably be able to take buses down to Canal Street and then over the bridge at least.  So in the pitch dark now, I took a little candle held with a paper towel so as not to spill wax on myself and risk extinguishing it and I very slowly walked down the stairs.  I walked slowly and tried to make the turns every so slowly so as not to lose my only light.  If I did not know when I reached the basement, I would be pretty screwed, particularly as the very last floor was a car garage, or so I thought.  Even when I did make it to the lobby, being the only one in the staircase, it was very difficult to make out the lobby's walls and elevator banks from the few car headlights going by outside.

The plan to catch a bus was not as foolproof as we had thought, though.  Little did we know from the 12th floor windows that the buses were full of police officers going to different intersections to direct traffic rather that people getting their way back to the outer boroughs.  There were virtually NO buses with people in them taking them anywhere.  I thought I'd be a little cooler by taking off my socks while walking, but as I started to feel blisters, I put my socks back on, thank goodness.  After a while I just said "fuck it" and took off my shirt and tucked it into the back of my pants.  I didn't care if anyone was shocked to see my torso, and it wasn't like I could really be seen anyway with no lights but for the oncoming cars and the flares the police officers left on the ground. 

The area that I walked through in Manhattan (the East Village) had a lot of buildings with emergency power (hospitals) and there were actually a few people enjoying candlelight drinks in a few cafes, but I wanted to get home so I did not even entertain the thought.  I rested momentarily only a few more times before I got home.

Meanwhile, my daughter had asked if she could spend the night at Amy's house.  They had tried reaching me a dozen times telephonically but it seemed that at any given moment the cell phone would work for one company or another.  Fortunately my temporary hosts had a different cell phone company than me, so I was able to reach her regularly and told her she could go, as Amy's mother had a car and only lived a few blocks away.  I did not know if I was going to stay the night in Manhattan and my friends were planning to go camping the next day anyway, whether they were able to go to work in the morning or not.  Getting out of Manhattan by car was a lot easier than getting in, even if there was someone willing to drive through the chaos to pick me up.

The entire trip that I made was about 10 miles.  The moon was nearly full so there was some light on even the darkest of streets through the trees.  The walk over the Manhattan Bridge was particularly surreal, looking back at the city with only a tiny fraction of building lights illuminated.  The darkness of the buildings was still silhouetted by the moonlight.  I still miss the Twin Towers though.

I had tried calling another good friend in Ft. Greene, Brooklyn, which is right over the Manhattan Bridge from Manhattan.  He and his partner live on the 15th floor but neither his landline nor his cell phone worked as I tried calling even from a pay phone that happened not to have a long line of people waiting for it for some strange reason.  So since I could not reach him, the walk all the way home was inevitable.  I later found out that he had barely made it home himself.

As I was turning the corner to Park Slope I was amazed to see a bus coming my way.  I squeezed myself on the sardined bus, much to the chagrin of some of the passengers.  I had quickly put my sweat-covered shirt back on before I did so, but didn't even bother to button it.  So the last half mile I was lucky enough to have a bit of a ride.

When I got home around midnight I was pleased that at least we had water.  I was glad that there were a sufficient number of candles that Tony was able to use and he cooked me some dinner.  I elevated my sore feet, which after having traveled in work shoes all those miles, were beckoning for rest.  I took a cold shower and chatted with some of my neighbors outside and we compared war stories.  It was very difficult to get to sleep without a fan, but there was still an intermittent breeze through the window.

At 4:30am, about 12 hours since I witnessed the loss of power, I felt and heard the fan turn on.  I got up excited and was thankful that at least I could turn on the fan.  I turned off the air conditioners and scrambled to my computers, witnessed my server come up and waited about 20 minutes for the cable modem to come back on.  The digital TV did not work, but I was happy just having the computers powered up and now online.  Hours later power came up for some of my friends in other parts of Brooklyn.  Many parts of the City were still without any power throughout Friday.  Obviously I am not going to work today and I joked with a neighbor about how badly someone must have wanted another three day weekend at the end of the summer as this was in effect what took place for so many of us.

Many New Yorkers were without power for 27 hours.  I know this pales in comparison to the 4 hours of electricity a day the Iraqis apparently have had in 130 degree temperatures for four months, but I am afraid that might be by design of the "coalition" there, but so much for the electric company ads in New York touting how much redundancy and reliability they have. 

Many people said that Blackout 2003 was worse than 9-11 because while there was not necessarily the fear of terrorism, it was in the back of our minds.  While there was more confusion than fear on September 11 from the onset, at LEAST we had most of our communications intact! 
 

This page was last updated 28-Dec-2007.