# Who else is out of power? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [August 14, 2003, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-else-is-out-of-power/195244 "2003-08-14T21:24:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Shirley\_Ujest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shirley\_Ujest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shirley_Ujest)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2003, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-else-is-out-of-power/195244/1 "2003-08-14T21:24:27Z")
Ours keeps flickering on and off. I am in northern DTW suburbs. ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2003, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-else-is-out-of-power/195244/2 "2003-08-14T21:33:41Z")
Ours is completely out. No lights. No phone. No computer. Having to watch TV by candlelight. The hamsters that power this message are running at 100 mph and smoking! ---
**Author:** ![AbbySthrnAccent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/eb9ed0/32.png) [@AbbySthrnAccent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AbbySthrnAccent)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2003, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-else-is-out-of-power/195244/3 "2003-08-14T21:37:56Z")
[The outage includes NY, Cleveland, Detroit and on up into Canada](http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/topstory2/2048534) ---
**Author:** ![Shirley\_Ujest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shirley\_Ujest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shirley_Ujest)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2003, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-else-is-out-of-power/195244/4 "2003-08-14T21:45:22Z")
Naturally, being the weenie that I am, I just realized that if you have no power you can’t read this. ---
**Author:** ![Beadalin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3be4f8/32.png) [@Beadalin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beadalin)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2003, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-else-is-out-of-power/195244/5 "2003-08-14T21:48:30Z")
> [@](#): > > Naturally, being the weenie that I am, I just realized that if you have no power you can’t read this. Well, at least you gave this Doper a chuckle! Reminds me of those (probably apocryphal) print ads: Illiterate? Call us for help. ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2003, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-else-is-out-of-power/195244/6 "2003-08-14T21:50:28Z")
Shirley, I just assumed you wanted a real wild playtime going to kill the boredom of waiting to find out how serious stuff really is. I didn’t even consider you might be serious. Not to make light of things that could be quite serious. Just “following suit” if you will. ---
**Author:** ![rocking\_chair](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rocking_chair/32/2918_2.png) [@rocking\_chair](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rocking_chair)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2003, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-else-is-out-of-power/195244/7 "2003-08-14T21:54:08Z")
the power out is massive, the niagara mohawk grid is down. i hope all our dopers in ny, west pa, south canada, ohio, mich, vermont, nh, ct, etc are staying calm and cool. according to mayor bloomberg they are trying to reroute power from the west and south. it will take hours for it to recover. they are still getting people out of buildings and subways. speculation is that there was an overload that caused a waterfall effect. i saw on cnn that they are looking into many possible causes including the computer worm/virus. ---
**Author:** ![ivylass](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/9de053/32.png) [@ivylass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivylass)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2003, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-else-is-out-of-power/195244/8 "2003-08-14T22:44:34Z")
Stupid question, **Zeldar** …how are you posting with no computer? ---
**Author:** ![ivylass](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/9de053/32.png) [@ivylass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivylass)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2003, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-else-is-out-of-power/195244/9 "2003-08-14T22:56:31Z")
:smack: Never mind, **Zeldar**. My Whoosh-o-Meter lost power in the black out. ---
**Author:** ![badmana](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@badmana](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/badmana)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2003, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-else-is-out-of-power/195244/10 "2003-08-14T22:59:06Z")
I’m posting through the power of my mind. And if power is out, how can you watch TV by candle light? ---
**Author:** ![racinchikki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/eada6e/32.png) [@racinchikki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/racinchikki)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2003, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-else-is-out-of-power/195244/11 "2003-08-14T23:16:19Z")
My mom, who lives just south of Albany, New York, reports that the entire Capital District is out of power- EXCEPT for Latham (just east of Albany across the Hudson River), which is fine, and the town of Canaan, on the Massachusetts border. She’s driving to Latham to get gas in her car right now. Had to call her and find out what was going on. Luckily, the power outage didn’t hit around there until 4:30, and the a/c had been on all day, and the sun was going down, so things haven’t really heated up inside yet. ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2003, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-else-is-out-of-power/195244/12 "2003-08-14T23:27:29Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by ivylass \* > \*\*Stupid question, **Zeldar** …how are you posting with no computer? \*\* What, none of you people got laptops? ---
**Author:** ![detop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bcef8e/32.png) [@detop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/detop)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2003, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-else-is-out-of-power/195244/13 "2003-08-14T23:32:22Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Shirley Ujest \* > \*\*Naturally, being the weenie that I am, I just realized that if you have no power you can’t read this. \*\* Actually, I thought you had one of these old-fashioned coal-powered computer 😃 ---
**Author:** ![5-HT](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/5/f19dbf/32.png) [@5-HT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/5-HT)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2003, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-else-is-out-of-power/195244/14 "2003-08-14T23:36:07Z")
Thank og my parents invested in a generator a few years back. Of course, if it doesn’t come back tonight(and despite predictions, I doubt it will), I’m not sure where I’m going to sleep since my room has been turned into a home office. ---
**Author:** ![London\_Calling](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@London\_Calling](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/London_Calling)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2003, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-else-is-out-of-power/195244/15 "2003-08-14T23:54:16Z")
The things we have to do to get **december** offline . . . ---
**Author:** ![Spooky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Spooky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spooky)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2003, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-else-is-out-of-power/195244/16 "2003-08-15T00:01:38Z")
My parents live in Rockland County NY (just north of the city) and their power is back on. But they are leaving the AC off for the time being, and they have candles at the ready just in case. ---
**Author:** ![Mr\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9dc877/32.png) [@Mr\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr_Jim)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2003, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-else-is-out-of-power/195244/17 "2003-08-15T00:07:33Z")
I’m in southeren Ontario and my power just came on after nearly 4 hrs of blackout. I have to say it was very unnerving as I was at work. By chance, a co-workers father who is a policeman was in and he used our emergency phone to call his station and when he came back and told us nearly the whole province was out, I swear to god I’ve never been so scared in my whole entire life. I was thinking terrorists as I’m sure many other over-reacters were. I live 30 min from a power plant and I had all these horrific visions of someone holding it hostage. I was much luckier than people stuck in subways, elevators and amusement park rides(!).