Monday 25 August, 2003 at 7:20PM (Nereus)  ::  permalink  ::  comments (4)

Oops! That last week or so shot by real fast without me posting. Ok I said I'd post about the massive blackout we had last month, so I better get onto it. It's lost a bit of its news appeal now, but since it was one of those moments that will go down in history, I should really write about it since I was here in the thick of it. I'll try and make it somewhat dramatic for you. *snicker*

The time: 4pm Thursday 14th August, 2003.
The place: Brooklyn, New York.

The day is cloudless and extremely humid, temperatures pushing into the 90's°F (over 32°C) for yet another day, while air conditioners whine incessantly away on their maximum settings all over the city. I'm sitting at the computer in our apartment wearing a pair of silk boxer shorts, and I'm still sweating. Outside and six floors down a few people splash around in the apartment building swimming pool, making the most of the conditions. Just another day in the Big Apple.

4:11pm the computer screen suddenly goes blank - the power is off, the moment defined by the sudden absense of the usual sound of the air conditioner and the background hum of the computer tower over the last hour or two. The car horns on the streets nearby seem to increase in frequency.

It's not the first time a circuit breaker has switched off when we had all systems go in the apartment, so I open the fuse box to fix the problem. All the fuses are ok. Strange. I hear someone yelling outside by the pool area, so I pop my head out the window and hear the doorman telling someone that the whole building is out. The people in and around the pool stop and look around dumbly, wondering if they should be overly concerned. The car horns out on the street increase a little more.

I attempt to call IceQueen at work to tell her our power is out but the cellphone won't work. Hmm. A subconscious wariness creeps over me. The normal phone is still functioning - we had purchased a cordless only days earlier, but fortunately kept the old fixed-line phone as a backup. IceQueen tells me the power is out at her work, and apparently all of Manhattan is out as well. For millions of New Yorkers, the subconscious wariness turns to conscious thought - terrorism.

Someone brings out a transistor radio by the pool and everyone stops in their tracks and stares at it as the announcer advises that there is a total loss of power right up the eastern seaboard and into Canada. Roughly fifty million people are effected.

There's an ominous silence as the radio is switched off after the news bulletin. Nobody speaks for what seems like several minutes, all lost in their own thoughts.

I call IceQueen at work again to tell her what was on the radio but she is aware already of what's going on. IceQueen has more information - apparently there is a fire in a large power station site and that is reportedly the initiator of the blackout ..the main point is that it's not an act of terrorism (words to that effect are announced later on public radio). I breathe a sigh of relief, as do countless others affected by the blackout as they hear that news later on - from southern Canada, right along the east coast from Maine down to Pennsylvania and across to Michigan, Indiana and Ohio. That's a huge area. huge. IceQueen and her co-workers are discussing how to get home. No power = no subway.

Shortly after, I discover we also have no water. This is going to be fun. I decide we'll need some supplies and quickly get changed into street clothes and head out of the apartment - straight into the total pitch darkness of the corridor and then stairwell. By the time I get down to the 4th floor, my fingers are being burned by the cigarette lighter I'm holding up for light. Yes we had a flashlight, but no batteries for it (yeah yeah I know..). A girl comes into the stairwell from the 4th floor weilding a flashlight so I go the rest of the way down with her.

Outside is confusion. Many residents are standing out in front of out apartment building looking a little lost, but nobody is panicking. The intersection down the road is choas. No traffic lights of course, so cars are all over the place and most people are just sitting there leaning on their horns ..a lot of good that will do, but I guess if that helps them vent their frustration, then so be it. Unmarked police cars with sirens blaring race in different directions on the side roads. I wonder if they know where they're going even?

I stop for a moment to talk to one of our neighbours and tell him about the power station being on fire (allegedly). He looks relieved. I leave it to him to pass the info on to everyone else as I head to the local shops.

The sidewalks are unusually crowded, it seems the power cut has bought everyone out from their homes to wander around like lost sheep. At least they're talking to each other which is something good to come out of this - nobody is a stranger for the moment, we're all in the same boat.

At the shops I manage to buy the very last two D-size batteries they had, along with a 9V battery for our alarm clock radio. Lucky. That's the flashlight sorted. We already have a few candles, although the shops all around have been cleaned out already, so just as well. I fill my bag with five 4litre bottles of spring water (it can't hold any more than that) and grab a few 2L bottles of coke to carry as well, and some basic food and fruit that don't require refrigeration or cooking. The lady who owns the shop talks me into buying an ice cream ...they're starting to melt already.

I make it back up the 6 floors to our apartment with all this stuff and call IceQueen for an update. They're still discussing it, but it looks like they'll be walking the 7 miles or so home (we don't have a car - no need for one in NYC ..usually). Meanwhile I get things organized around the apartment in case we're without power when it gets dark.

The radio tells of millions of people out on the streets of Manhattan and hundreds of thousands slowly walking out of Manhattan to their respective homes in the five boroughs like some mass exodus from a dead city - a clear resemblance to the aftermath of 911. As it turned out, many thousands spent the night sleeping outside on the streets of Manhattan or at Grand Central with no way home - the police were only allowing traffic to flow out from Manhattan, not back in. The few taxi drivers left in Manhattan were (in some cases) reportedly tripling their fare prices. Yeah, gotta love those NY taxi drivers. To the few drivers that were monopolising the situation, I'd like to personally say a big 'fuck you' (the ones that were caught have since been prosecuted. Good work).

The phone rings. It's a Kiwi accent! Reporter Scott MacLeod from the New Zealand Herald is calling me for an interview. I smile to myself at the irony of the situation. It's good to hear a voice from back home, regardless of the circumstance (it turns out he got my number from my mother after finding out from some source that I'm in NYC - I don't know Scott personally). A few days later my mum sent me a copy of the NZ Herald - the interview made page three of the weekend world news edition - a full page story which continues further in. I hope that's not my 15 minutes of fame.

I call my mum in NZ to tell her what's going on - she confirms giving my number to the reporter and tells me to take care. A little later IceQueen calls - she's on her way home on foot. Poor weasling, that's a long hike. About halfway back they managed to score car service the rest of the way. Very lucky.

Later as night falls we light the candles and have a pleasant dinner of pita bread, kielbasa, cheese and a salad, which is more than welcome given the high temperature and humidity. Still no power or water. We talk and play cards and listen to the radio by candlelight.

As we live in the tallest building for several blocks we have a great unobstructed view from the windows that make up one wall of our lounge - at night there's a sea of light we look over, with the two lit towers of the Verrazano Bridge in the distance. Some of the sunsets we experience from here are amazing. This night the view is alien. There are no lights whatsoever, the only indication of the Verrazano Bridge being the occasional glimmer of a set of car headlights crossing over. It's eerily quiet out there.

Friday morning 15th August: There is still no power or water when we wake in the morning. We do very little other than reading or playing games and listening attentively to announcements on the radio. Apparently there has been minimal looting in NYC overnight, although we hear other cities haven't been so fortunate. As the day heats up, we relocate to the swimming pool for the rest of the day. It's a great day for it. We end up chatting to a lady from another part of NY. She was stranded by the blackout in Brooklyn and a friend of hers who has an apartment in our building told her to stay there ..the friend is stranded elsewhere in NY. As evening approaches we head back upstairs to our apartment and start preparing for another night without power, although we're hearing reports on the radio that some parts of NY are back live again.

Friday 6.45pm 15th August: 26½ hours after we lost power, the sound of the swimming pool pump breaks the relative quiet. Lights come on and dormant air conditioners suddenly clatter into life. People still relaxing around the pool and out on the street start clapping and cheering loudly. Other residents lean out their windows (myself included) and add to the impromptu celebration. IceQueen and I both give a yell of joy and relief. Strangely enough, this is the first time I've felt like I'm a part of NYC.

Minutes later I laugh as dozens of house burglar alarms start howling.

It's over.

I've heard reports since that some smaller towns were up to 40 hours without power. Last week we saw a t-shirt in a shop with "I survived the blackout of '03" written on it. Of course.
[ entry backdated a little for relevance ]