Uptown Girl (lispsugrl) wrote,
Uptown Girl
lispsugrl
  • Mood: cheerful
  • Music: tv...air conditioning...ELECTRICITY!

The Lights went out in Manhattan!

As I'm sure everyone in the 21st century knows, the power went out in Manhattan and most of the Northeast/midwest. What a ridiculous scene! I'd like to say I'm very happy to be back in the great 21st century! Let me see...I guess it started Thursday afternoon. I was at work and talking with a coworker about a project we were working on...then POOF! The lights went out in the office at 4:11PM. Immediately I asked if this was normal...as in has it happened before at work? They looked at me and said nope. At this point we thought it was localized...maybe our office or something....nothing major. In fact, one of the guys joked we'd should go to O'Caseys because maybe they have electricity (lets just say this guy enjoys his scotch). One of my coworkers lives in Brooklyn and called home to find out that the electricity was out there too! Then people started to worry...I mean we had no idea what was going on! My boss has a radio but it only tunes to the bloomberg station...and naturally there was no live programming yet. However, I have an mp3 radio with an fm tuner! This is when we finally heard that the blackout not only encompassed NYC but almost all of NY state, Toronto, Ottawa, Cleveland, and Detroit. Well once it was known that there was no more work to be had that day, someone pulled out his scotch and started drinking. LOL! Fortunately I was not in a subway, elevator, or something of that caliber. I was on the 39th floor of a bldg earlier Thursday but fortunately on that front I was only on the 10th at work. Over 600 trains were in service in NYC at the time of the blackout since rush hour was about here. People were stuck in elevators. My roommate was in Conn. so I wasn't sure if she was going to be able to get back to the city...or if she'd even want to! I called my parents from work to tell them i'm fine and walking home. My boss lives on the Upper East Side as well so we walked together most of the way with one of his friends. My cell phone didn't really work for the first hour or so but then I was able to get through to my roommate to tell her I'm OK and walking home. I knew she'd be a little worried and want to make sure I was ok...and I wanted to make sure she wasn't on a train or something! There were so many people on the streets. From above it looked like an ant farm as people poured into the streets and tried to squish onto a bus...a very hot commodity! Traffic was insane in midtown. I don't think I have ever seen a traffic jam like the one I saw then. People walking...cars trying to get anywhere...specifically somewhere with electricity! Once we got to 60th street we were in good shape because everyone was heading uptown at that point....so we weren't fighting people traffic anymore. There were business men with brown bags covering beers,....drinking in the streets! So much for the open container law on this day. Regular people were standing in the middle of intersections trying to help direct traffic in order to help out since the power knocked the traffic lights out. Bought a bottle of water on the sidewalk just in case there's no water pressure. Along the way bloomberg had a news conference saying in 3-4 hours everything should be working again and expect a normal Friday. So I went home and sat outside on the steps of my apartment bldg. While I was sitting there, I had one person ask if I had somewhere to stay. New Yorkers are nice people...you just have to get underneath that rough layer:) I met some people from my bldg...all very nice. Ended up walking down to the park by the river since it was a little cooler. Too hot to go inside. Had about 8 voicemails from friends and family making sure I was ok. Thanks everyone! I appreciate your concern:-D I also apologize if I didn't get to everyone because I needed to save my cell phone battery for emergency purposes. Good to know people care about me! Around 8 I headed back to my apartment since it was getting dark (this is when they originally said things would be back). Apparently bush spoke too...grr. He didn't have to deal with it>_< Around 9? my roommate walked in...I was shocked to see her since metronorth was down. Fortunately her boss gave her a ride back from Conn. since he lives in the city too. We ended up huddling around my mp3 player to hear if there was any chance of power coming back. WE couldn't find matches or a lighter to light candles! A sure sign thta we're non smokers. We knocked on our neighbors door and met them for the first time:p We ended up hanging out with them for a little while before heading back to our apt and trying to sleep. JUst so weird how dark it was...my roommate used her cell phone to walk up the stairwell! We ended up chatting about random stuff as I think the heat was getting to us. Ended up waking up every half hour/hour from the heat. Schvitzing like there was no air conditioning to save me! I kept trying to turn the light on when I went to the bathroom...didn't work;-) Woke up around 6am and still no power.. It was a Friday so I was a little confused on what was happening with work. Listened to the radio and Bloomberg said to treat it like a "snow day." Snow day only its 95 degrees out:p Got in contact with my boss and he said there was no power at work either...so forget it. At that point layed down and again...sleeping on and off throughout the day. Read another 100 pages of Harry Potter...wanted to read more but I was so lazy and tired. Ended up taking a shower by candlelight. I know...how romantic;) At least the water was on...they said on the news a lot of high rises on the Upper East Side had no water! Around 5 went outside to call my dad from the pay phone. We were trying to figure out how I could get out of the city if there was no power...aka the ferry. My boss called again to make sure I was ok. I called him saying that everything was ok just no power...he said he had heard the upper east side was the last place to get power. oh joy. So I was turning the corner to get some water...when all of the sudden I hear some alarms,.....I turn around and see a traffic light. It sinks in...the traffic light is WORKING! Everyone on the street starts cheering and you could see a hop back in the steps of new yorkers. It was a major boost of energy. I WAS SO HAPPY! So as of 6pm yesterday I HAD POWER!!!!!!!!!!! woohoo! I ran back up the steps of my aprtment...not trusting elevator yet...and my roomie was in the hall. We started jumping up and down...cheering:p At that point it was time for air conditioning and calling my parents to tell them everything was on. Subways wern't running yet but once full restoration in place...they would. So here I am...a part of the blackout of 2003.

I must say I'm very impressed with NYC. Very remarkable how everyone handled the crisis. There wasn't panic. Next to no looting...I think they said 20 or 30 arrests in Brooklyn. Not too much price gouging...now I know that can be hard to price gouge when everything is already so much more expensive in Manhattan:) NYC really is the most resiliant city in the entire world. It's so interesting to see the pictures now. NYC with no power is weird. The space photo was the most interesting though...so much light is removed with no NYC.

So that makes one bank robbery/bomb scare and the largest blackout in North American history...less than two months of work....I think that's enough excitement for a while:-D
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