A voice from the dark (now light)

[Swamp_Fox]

Hi all, the Power is back here somewhat here in Brooklyn New York. I lost power about 4:15pm on Aug 14th. It was a wierd experience the power dipped then surged then zap power is out. My neighbors and I made the best of it we had a black out party. We set up our "Command Center" that consisted of 2 beach chairs, bridge tables, my multi-band radio, cellphones flashlights loads of various batteries oh and I wired my landline house phone with 75 feet of wire to the front stoop for communication then we were set for the long haul. We got our power back around 4:33am (yes I was up). We have to conserve here for a bit so no AC for a while.

I would like to hear from others who were in the affected Black Out areas to see how they made out and to see if they are ok.

Larry (Swamp Fox)

 

[bsbkmacgowan]

Yup, our power went out about the same time. I was on the phone with my sister in Indiana at the time and figured it was a local blackout. Originally I thought it was just our condo building, because there is a lot of TV and movie filming going on right now in our neighborhood and the crews have been known to blow the circuits from time to time.

When I couldn't reach Brian on his cell phone (I got a dial tone, but then no sound for about 15 seconds until a busy signal started) - I knew it was more than just the neighborhood.

Brian finally was able to call me about a half hour later; he had just finished up with fixing his last client's computer when the power went off (she did have an uninterruptable power supply, though, so that was helpful!)

Once he got home, we filled up a bunch of 2 litre pop bottles that we had ready to recycle with fresh water just in case we had to resort to drinking that.

Boy, was it ever quiet in our apartment! No AC, no computers, no fan in the hallway... eerie! Towards nightfall, we went up on our rooftop patio area (with about 2 dozen other folks) and watched the stars come out... something that doesn't happen that often in the middle of Toronto! We were treated to excellent views of both the moon (a gorgeous orange harvest-moon color) and even Mars, evidently. Bright orange-red huge "star" in the southeastern sky, about 10 or 15 degrees up from the horizon. My only disappointment? That this power outage didn't happen a couple days earlier when we might have been able to see the annual Perseid meteor shower, which I had completely forgot about this year!

Power was back on for us around 5:20 this morning. Whether we will lose it again or not remains to be seen, though. I wouldn't be surprised, that's for sure.

That's it for now! (Film at 11?)

Sandy (and Brian, Bonnie & Kellie!)

 

[JudithM]

Larry, you missed an important item if my neighborhood had this type of party - beer ! I spoke to family & friends in upstate NYS - most had power at home, but street lights were out, etc.

 

[Swamp_Fox]

I left out that important detail because after all this is a family board , but off the record there were several adult beverages on hand (and cigars)

Larry

 

[LJC1861]

I had just gotten to the DS (66th And Columbus)where I work part time and the power went out. Now, normally I would have been on the subeay at 4:11 p.m. but because I got out a little early from my day job I was not....WHEW.....

It was a little tense at the store, as we couldn't get through by phone to anyone except our teck support people in California, and that on a cell phone that the charge was low on. We closed the store and set out for home at 6 p.m. I got on a bus, went 5 blocks in 25 minutes and decided to walk the rest of the way....approx 2.5 miles to the West Village ( 11th St.) It took an hour, but I made it.

Power was still out the next day so my roommate and I decided to get out of town. Lisa works on Staten Island and that is where we had the car. She got stuck over there on Thursday and spent the night at her office. So, I set off on foot and walked the 2.5 miles from our house to the ferry terminal dragging a small suitcase. We picked up the car and drove to NJ to visit my sister who has a pool, air conditioning and power.

We just got home and our other roommie told us that the power did not come back on until 2 p.m. on friday.....22 hours! I think we were one of the last neighborhoods to have power restored.

While we were in NJ we hit Walmart and put together a new emergency kit that included a cheapie phone....those work when the new fangled kind don't, battery opperated lights and a few other essentials.

Linda

 

[AZ JazzyJ]

I got home from work around 8:30 and the sun had dipped below the horizon. Trina and the kids were out for the night so I was all alone. I stumbled into the house nearly tripping over a skateboard and a scooter that someone left just inside the door. It was pretty dark in the house and I felt like Stevie Wonder so I started singing "Don't Worry 'Bout a Thing" while I sat in the living room in the dark. It was so quiet and peaceful that I just sat there. I had heard on the car radio about all the power outages and could not believe 50 million people were in the dark just like me. At around 10:00 Trina and the kids came home. They walked in the house and found me just sitting there in the dark still singing. Dakota went over to the wall and flipped the switch and turned on the lights. How was I supposed to know that the power outage was in New York and not Arizona? Looking back, I probably should have figured it out when all the traffic signals and the street lights were still working. I did sing nearly the entire Songs for the Key of Life album though so it wasn't a total waste.

Jeff