All you NY, OH, PA, Canadian etc dopers okay?

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
41

This Torontonian is back, posting from a friend’s house in Georgetown, which got power early yesterday.

Like many, I was at work when the power disappeared. I was staring at a design document on my screen whe suddenly everything went dark. There has been several minor outages this year, and at first we just figured that someone at a nearby construction site had put a backhoe though the power lines again. But my co-worker in the next cubicle was speaking with someone in New Jersey, who said that the power went dark there as well.

We began to have a feeling this was bigger than usual. The ventilation system had ceased when the power failed, so in a few minutes, the air in the building began to warm. I called several people in other cities outside Toronto: a friend in Stouffville, my aunt in Peterborough. No power. The phones and servers still had power, and a few people on the help desk had conected to the net to seek headlines, and there was a ‘breaking news’ scroller across CNN that said ‘power outage: details to come’.

Then the UPSes failed and the phones and net connection went down.

As it was almost quitting time anyways, I left the office and caught the 16:45 bus to the subway. It was an unusually friendly crowd on the #82 bus to Islington subway station; we joked and laughed, free of our normal reserve. One lady had a walkman with batteries and headphones, and kept us updated. The traffic was rather normal (for the freeway during rush hour), and we got to our destination in good time.

When we got to Islington, the trains weren’t running, and the TTC had organised shuttle buses to cover the subway route, but of course there was no way they could handle the numbers. A truly enormous crowd waited at the bus stop.

Since I live only two subway stops east of Islington, I ddecided to walk eastwards along the shady side of Bloor Street. Many others were doing the same, but it was by no means a mass exodus. As I crossed over Little Etobicoke Creek, I noticed a subway train standing silent and unattended on the bridge with its doors open. That’s when the reality of the situation began to sink in.

42

As I walked eastwards though the Kingsway neighbourhood, many of the shops were closed, but others were selling their fresh fruit and frozen food quickly. The traffic signals were out, but people were coping. On the road from Kingsway to my neighbourhood, the buses were running as normal, and I got to my apartment without trouble. I did notice that the air was thick with the smell of barbeques.

Of course, my apartment was dark and still. I had jugs of water and some snack food, but little else. I could fin’d my flashlight. I located two AA batteries and put them in a walkman with FM, so I was at least able to listen to the radio. I dug out my camping supplies and located my candle lantern and spare candles. But wait: no matches. I went over to the store to get some. In the darkened convenience store, flashlights and batteries were sold out. There was a single candle lit like a star, guiding us to the candle supplies.

I talked to the building superintendant. She’s from Yugoslavia, so she was quite able to handle minor details like power outages.

Dusk came. I walked to the top of the hill, where I could get a view of the downtown skyline. The aircraft warning lights on the CN Tower and the tall office buildings were still blinking, and they showed ghostly scatterings of yellow emergency lights. Nothing else.

I walked back to the apartment. Kids were playing basketball in the neighbourhood court as usual. Many people were sitting outside their buildings, and the people across the road were having a lawn party. Inside, I lit my candle lantern and listened to the radio.

When it was dark, I went outside to see a stunning sky filled with stars. Without even trying, I saw meteors streak across the sky. Someone was flying a remote-controlled model plane above the plaza, and it hung in the sky like a jewelled UFO.

Eventually I went inside and went to sleep.

43

Here in Toledo, we on the East Side experienced about 5 seconds without. Lucky us. Some parts of the South End were without untill the early morning. I was cooking dinner at the time, and happily went about my way. My nephew on the other hand compleatly freeked when he realised that not only a few Toledo TV stations were out, but also were Detroit and Cleveland (We got a hell of an antenna folks) Our local ABC affiliate hyjacked CNN and we watched and sat in the only room with the air running all night. Mayor Smilin’ Jack asked us to not run unnessisary appliances, but I’m here to tell you it was nessisary! Normaly we’d have at least 2 TVs and 3 lights on. So we just stayed cool and stayed on ABC (checking the Niners score periodicly)
I’m soooo proud of all of us here in the States and Canada as well, who kept thier cool, helped thier neighbors, and generaly stayed out of trouble. YAY US! I guess the good thing to come out of 911 was that now when stuff like this happens, we have learned to take it all in stride.

now, for a striking rendition of the Oscar worthy song from South Park:the Movie…“BLAME CANADA” :smiley:

44

I’m checking in from Ottawa, Canada. We were fine; my family keeps a large supply of sausages and hamburgers on hand because we barbecue a lot. Our barbeque even has this neat little propane-fuelled element on it, so we were able to cook some rice. I remember everytime I was out barbecuing I’d look at it, laugh and ask why anyone would want something like that. My mom and sister weren’t as lucky - they were on the highway in between Ottawa and Toronto when the power when out, and they had an eighth of a tank left. Fortunately, someone gave them enough gas to get to her brother’s house in Peterborough, where she spent the night.

Right now we’re going through rolling blackouts because all of the power plants aren’t back on line yet. Apparently they shut themselves down automatically in an emergency, and it takes time to start them up again, especially the nuclear plants.

45

I exited Manhattan by ferry. Hoboken NJ had closed itself to ferry traffic (town too full?). I took a ferry that was landing fairly near Hoboken, took the ferry’s shuttle bus as far as it went, walked the rest of the way, found Hoboken fortunately not closed to pedestrians. Busses going to various destinations could be obtained adjacent to the PATH Terminal, but where could one get which bus? Hard to determine. And I was hungry. I walked across the street and obtained pizza. The place had no power, but nevertheless had reasonably warm pizza (brick ovens retaining heat?). Then, onward to a bar! No lights, but beer and restrooms were available. By the time I went back across the street, things were less chaoic. I got a bus to Fairview, where I could change to a bus that got me home. During the two bus rides, I could see an occasional home or business that still had (or again had) power, but most were dark. Lots of people hanging out outdoors, as it was cooler outside. In my town, two restaurants had kept power, stayed open long past their usual quitting time, and did a great business. I stopped at one for a while, then on to home. Power still out when I got home, but it came back about 45 minutes later, at about midnight.

In case of weather and other emergencies, we have a recorded message to call at work to find out if we’re supposed to come in or not. Fridday am, it said to come in. Subways completely out, busses operating at about 25%, commuter RRs either out or operating a very reduced schedules, but we’re supposed to get to work. They know most of us won’t be able to, they just aren’t willing to give us a free day off. I was going to give it a try, via ferry. I can walk to work from where the ferry drops you off. The trick would be to get to ferry on this end. And to get on it; bound to be a lot of people trying the same thing. But the head of my department called everyone in the department he could reach, and told us to stay home. I was happy to comply.

46

I wokw yesterday around 6 in the morning, but didn’t go to work, because the Premier had declared a state of emergency. Instead, I slept in. Around 11, I woke, had a snack, and realised I didn’t have any money. Then began the expedition to find a working money machine.

I took the bus back to Kingsway, then the shuttle bus along Bloor. The bus was not crowded. Traffic was light. Most of the way downtown, there was no power, but once we got to Bathurst, we found lights and signals, which went as far east as Bay. There were lineups at the money machines. I got off at Yonge, backtracked to Bay, and found a working Royal Bank machine in the basement level by the Chapters bookstore (which was closed).

From a payphone there I called some friends. They suggested I meet them in the north of the city, as they were going to take gas to another friend whose truck had run out. So I took the shuttle bus north along Yonge Street.

This bus was incredibly crowded, but people were goodhumoured about it. Some areas along Yonge had power, some didn’t. We had to detour around one area where Yonge was blocked. It took around an hour to get to Yonge and Steeles, at the northern boundary of the city, where my friend was waiting… with his air-conditioned car. :slight_smile:

We headed east along Steeles. Power was patchily available, and where gas stations had power, there were huge lineups, often blocking the curb lane. It was quite dangerous to drive past some of them.

In several intersections, civilians were directing traffic. At Steeles and Markham Road, three people were in the intersection, and they appeared to be discussing something, and not doing a particularly clear job of directing traffic. As we rolled up to the stop line, I noticed that the car on our right, a Subaru wagon, was unoccupied and just standing there in line. While we tried to figure what to do, two of the people walked leftwards out of the intersection, and the third walked over to the Subaru, got in, and drove away. We were left with an uncontrolled intersection.

We continueed east and met our friend, and gassed up his truck. I started to wonder about my Dad, who is a frail pensioner and lives on the eighth floor of a building in Oshawa. I’d called him earlier and he was okay, but I wanted to see him anway, as the power was still not on in Oshawa. Very graciously, my friend agreed to go east to Oshawa.

We left the city and drove through the peaceful summer countryside. When we got to Oshawa, the traffic signals were on, and I began to have hope that power was restored at Dad’s apartment. But once we turned off the main road, all was dark. We got to the apartment. Of course the intercom wasn’t working, so we called up from a cellphone to let Dad know that we were there.

The building doors were open, and we headed for the stairs… which were unlit. I navigated by feel, and rapped my head against one of the access doors which was half-open across the landing. My friend navigated by the lght of his Blackberry. He was able to read the numbers so we knew what floor we were on.

We got to my Dad’s apartment. It was good to see him. We talked for a while, and just as we were leaving I was standing in the kitchen, and I suddenly noiticed that the fridge was on! We tried a few lights. It was true! The power had come on and we hadn’t noticed!

It was much easier going down the stairs.

We made our way back to Georgetown along the 407 freeway, picking up another friend on the way. By this time power had been restored to the areas north of Toronto, but I could still see dark areas to the south. When we got to the house in Georgetown, everyone else was there, and we had a good dinner and then sleep.

I’m there now, and I just checked the Toronto Hydro website, and it looks like power is pretty much restored to the city.

So I am deeply grateful to my friends, who drove hundreds of kilometers back and forth across the Toronto area yesterday to collect us, feed us, and keep the kids sane and occupied.

Many thanks.

47

The power in our little corner of suburban Detroit came on about 6PM last night. Fortunately, everything in the freezer was still half-frozen except the ice cream, so that was okay.

Rick got the day off, but since hospitals never close, I had to work. The hospital had a generator running, so we had some power, but not enough for the air conditioner. I spent the day reassuring patients and taking them down the hall to the recreation room where there were games organized to distract htem from the heat and boredom-not a bad day, all in all.

48

No time to post the details, but I am fine - I was in the last neighborhood to come on-line, at 9:03 p.m. Friday, but after almost 29 hours it was most welcome. OxyBF and I spent the day Friday in Hoboken, which had power and airconditioning and food and things. We returned to the city to discover that I live 1/2 block on the wrong side of 14th Street - I’m at 15th, and buildings that fed off the 14th and south grid came on line at about 2 pm.

I just got off the phone with Eve, who had lots of adventures getting home to New Jersey but survived, as did her cats. They got power Thursday evening, in fact. But because of further computer problems ensuing from the worm repair she undertook on Tuesday, she has no internet access - so no SDMB and no e-mail until she’s back in the office. But she thanks everyone for the concern and well wishes.

49

Gee, you walk right by my place every day. I can see the Islington station from my bedroom window. Cool! Should buy you a beer sometime.

50

Everything’s fine here. Power came back on around dinnertime, Friday. At the time, I was at my parents’ house, which got its electricity back a few hours earlier. I always had some water pressure, but I didn’t get full pressure back until sometime last night. My cable and internet were down until just a few hours ago. I’m not running my a/c right now, because they’re asking us to conserve electricity. Heat sucks. We still have to boil water before drinking it, which is a major pain in the ass. All in all, I’m doing ok.

51

It’d be a pleasure! We could meet and discuss Harrowing Transit Tales and the Freeways of Doom… :slight_smile:

52

My parents had a harrowing tale to tell. They finished their cruise and debarked in New York City. They said that LaGuardia airport was dark, hot and a madhouse with all the people laying on the floor. At one point, they were set to get on a plane to Washington D.C., so they were going through the security check: checking luggage, taking off shoes, etc. At the last minute, the announcement came on that the flight was cancelled.

A stewardess at the airport took pity on Mom and Dad and took them to a place where shuttles hung out. They met a young asian man who commuted between D.C. and New York once a week. They shared a cab to Newark, where Mom and Dad caught a plane to Dulles. They got home on Friday night at about 11:30pm.

They’re happy to be home, but they said that the situation in New York was not as calm and orderly as the authorities announced on TV. They realized that the officials didn’t want to create a panic, but they thought a lot of people were inconvenienced needlessly. They told a story of a distraught man who had his wallet stolen at LaGuardia. He was busy pleading with a ticket agent that he had no ID, no money, and had to get back to D.C. The last my parents saw, he was still trying to get some help.

My parents were irritated with the cruise line. It seems the cruise officials knew about the blackout and still deposited the passengers in New York and provided no help in getting people to their homes. Mom and Dad travel lightly, and they’re quite mobile despite being in their lates 70’s. They said quite a few of their shipmates were infirm and elderly and had lots of luggage to maneuver. My parents said that the cruise ship should have informed the passengers about the blackout as soon as possible and possibly dropped them off in Boston so that they could have made other arrangements. Then, the ship could have gone on to their scheduled stop in New York. My parents suspected the cruise ship wanted to pick up passengers scheduled for the new cruise. Hardly anyone showed up for it.

I’m just glad they’re back safely.

53

I live in a part of Akron(OH) that went out at 4 and got power back at 8:47 that night. That was the good news.

Fried my cable modem. That was the bad news.

Bottom line, I have limited ability online right now. Geting new computer(don’t ask–long story).

Hope to be back by Wed night.

54

Well

I was at work on Thursday , when the power went off at around 4:15 , and continued to work right up till my normal 5 pm finish ,but mostly on the outside, as with blackouts you never think that they are gonna last more than 20 min at most.

Getting home while listening to the radio , no traffic lights ,and its toronto, new york and quite a lot of other places affected and the only information recived is that smokin bloomberg thinks it should be rectified by 11 or midnite at the latest.

What to do , no internet , no Tv , Premier Ernie saying only essential workers (for some reason , this did not include Tim Hortons employees, a fact I shall be bringing up with my MPP) should show up for work.

Friday , go into work (not essential ,but am a new employee) wait a few moments for the bosses to confer and am sent home. Grab some books and head out for the beach, come back home ,listen to the radio as varius places come back online. At this point the DJ on the radio was saying , now when the power comes on , dont just turn on the computer and get on the internet, #@% that, I am in withdrawal symptoms from the internet , screw the A/C , i want my email.

Other than that , a lot of block parties , boozing , probably a babyboom expected next may.

In all , its something I want to read in books ,not participate in.

Declan

55

I forget which media outlet it was, but at some point during the coverage, a reporter mentioned that there was a major babyboom after the 1970s blackout. Can anyone confirm that? :wink:

56

Well, we’re not the most efficient organization imaginable…

Friday AM, when I called the recorded message number to find out if we were expected to come in to work, the message was that we were operating as usual. I did not doubt for a minute that this message was for real.

Last winter, NYC was hit with the 4th-worst snowstorm since they started keeping records. The recorded message the next AM said that “as transportation is near normal, we will operate as usual.” Near normal? In Manhattan, maybe. Outside Manhattan, no; absolutely not. For a lot of us, getting in to Manhattan was literally impossible. Nevertheless, anyone who couldn’t get in had to use a day of his/her vacation; anyone who got in, say, 3 hours late had to use 3 hours of vacation time.

Idiotically, these decisions are in the hands of one person. He does not have to consult anyone else. He is free to make a show of being “tough” or whatever. So I didn’t doubt that we really were being told, “get in to work today, or else.”

But when I got in Monday AM, I learned that, actually, we’d been closed on Friday, and everyone actually did get the day off without losing a vacation day. It seems the guy who makes these decisions and records the messages was on vacation – and no one else knew how to get into the system and record a message! The standard “everything is normal” message remained up because no one was able to change it.

It would seem that it never occured to any of the honchos that an emergency could possibly occur when the guy who makes these decisions wasn’t available.