Where were you during the blackout of 2003?

[Wingnatic]

I was at work about a mile away from my house and finished off the work day . My wife had a trip home from Farmington Hills vis the freeway so no problems there until she got off the freeway and the main streets were dicey with no traffic lights . The kids were at my in laws in Indiana which wasn't affected . My wife and I went to friends in Flint where it wasn't affected either and watched blackout coverage on channel 7 who was running on a generator and the news desk was alittle dim and the on air reporters were dressed casual but you could tell they were sweating

[rb336]

On my way to see the Stooges @ Pine Knob

I had, and still have, a land line and a corded phone so I could talk to a few people. I don't have the corded phone out, but I keep it close at hand. My neighbor has a generator so I was able to put some food in his freezer

[gnome]

I have to hand it to Kwame for being a calm and confident leader during the crisis. He was everywhere taking care that the City didn't burst into flames. He was all over WJR delivering the message that we will get through this.

also hats off to those at WJR for humping it up all those stairs to get up to Studio A. The on-air folks were great and the techs who kept things running were outstanding.

[gazhekwe]

I was working on a project on my computer when there was a brief blip, not enough to knock me off line. I saved my project and then power went off again briefly. A few minutes later, everything was down for the count.

We tried to get ice the next day, impossible. Spent the evenings playing Scrabble and Dominoes by the oil lamp. It was fun. We had lunchmeat and cheese in the fridge and lots of veggies, so we didn't go hungry even though all our appliances are electric. Since then, we have invested in a charcoal grill, a small generator, and a bunch of coolers. I guess we can replace the bottled water we put aside for another time back then, huh?

When we heard some towns up thumb way were coming back on line, we headed up there for a restaurant meal and some more batteries. We stopped at a nice place maybe Almont? and waited in a long line. A table for four came up and it was our turn, so we invited the next couple back to join us, and we four had a fun time trading survival tips. Our power came back later that evening, I think it was Day 4.

[Danny]

I was at Meijer's in Livonia heading to my friend's house in Redford TWP. when the lights suddenly went out. I thought it was a powerfailure in that supercenter so I left Meijer's. When I was walking to my friend's house all the traffic lights were out. after I have arrived at the home. Their lights were out, too. My friend took to home to Detroit home and my lights were out there, too. I don't know what's going on. Maybe the power grid was out or some phenomenon. The whole nieghborhood was very dark. There was no moon out tonight. All of my neighborhoods were outside perparing for the worst. [[ Like a riot!) But there was no riot. Detroiters were side by side looking out for each other. All was calm until the lights went on.

[Honky Tonk]

The neighborhood party/grocery store, where I used to live in Detroit, had their doors open and was allowing people to shop for food, ON THEIR HONOR! [[registers didn't work) Employees assisted customers with flashlights. Not being a grocery guy, I bought a few items to get me by. I went back and paid my tab when the power came back up.

[Bobl]

Driving home from work, I was amazed at how polite and orderly people were at intersections with no working traffic lights.
The next day, it was anarchy. We did a lot of grilling out, and avoided driving. If we had known how long it would last, we would have gone to our favorite getaway spot near Grand Bend, Ontario, while we had gasoline in the car.

[GPCharles]

Had just left the Comp USA store at Southfield and Ford Road. Drove back to GP in a long but orderly procession down I-94. Electricity at the cottage in the Thumb but 3 cars and none with more than 1/8 tank of gas. Damn!

[sumas]

We were at home. Ate fantastic as we had a bbq grill and neighbors worried about freezer stuff and brought things over. It was kind of a party. We delivered coffee to neighbors as we had a gas stove and a percolator.

[TKshreve]

I was on a golf course in Harbor Springs/Petoskey with a couple co-workers. We went up to sneak in a small vacation and some golf. My father called me that day and said "where are you?". I was perplexed by his concern. Then he explained to me the entire eastern grid was down. It wasn't until we finished the round and headed back to the house we realized it would be random books by candle light and semi warm brew by the camp fire.

Could have be much worse.

[Django]

I remember when we got home from Cleveland that day I went to my party store at McDougall X Warren to buy a few beers and they were selling everything at the door. You put your order in and Mike would go and get what you wanted then collect the money. Ice cream was all half off and I bought a very soft ice cream sandwiche and a Klondike bar. I remember a lot of grilling going down on Farnsworth that evening.

[compn]

i remember a kinda blip or brownout then the whole thing went down.
i went in the basement to check on the breakers, but obviously it was ok.
then i heard the water gurgle backwards due to no water pressure. never heard that before. thats when i knew it was a huge power out. tons of radio stations went down. i wonder if they even have backup generators now?

my friend called me and asked me to look up a hospital number in a phone book. he was surprised i answered since a bunch of other people he called all had wireless phones, which obviously didnt work in a power out. thats one reason i kept the original phone line and made a seperate line for the phone-over-cabletv. just in case of emergencies when the power is out.

that night was so dark. i went outside to grill some chicken with a flashlight and the mosquitos were eating me alive.

next day i went to the grocery store and bought some food. there were huge lines and tons of employees making sure you didnt bump into stuff. it was crazy but a fun experience. then i remember trying to get food from restaraunts the week after and everyone didnt come into work ... and they didnt clean out the fridges... so a lot of places were closed for cleaning.

i remember everyone pointing fingers at each other for the blackout. was it ohios fault? michigans fault? new yorks fault? canada's fault? round and round that went haha.

[sumas]

kind of forgot about that, stores giving stuff away. Really really missed my ice though.

[msamslex]

I was at home on the computer, I forgot what daughter was doing but she was home with me. Got some kind of power surge? then it tried to stay on, and went out. I unplugged the computer and went outside. Next door neighbor ran out too wondering if our power went out. It was eerily quiet. Next thought was saving the food in the frig. Neighbor says we'd better hop in the car and go up to Pars on Greenfield for dry ice.

Neighbor made her way up Joy Rd. to Greenfield safely and Pars already had a line, folk leaving with their ice warned us Pars was charging $25.00 for a small block!! I don't know how much a small block would normally cost but judging by folk's attitude as they left with ice, price gouging was taking place. We pooled our money to buy one block since neither of us having enough to each buy a block at those prices.

Got our ice and made our way home. We split the block three ways so my senior neighbors on the other side of me could have some for their frig. We all took stock of our cold and frozen stuff. Senior neighbor always ordered stuff through the mail. UPS was always at their house. They had a few boxes of food from Omaha steaks. We fired up the grill and cooked whatever was in the boxes, steaks, burgers, etc. Stuff we had in our own freezers. Used up whatever cold stuff we all had for sides. We all pitched in and cooked while the seniors relaxed at the picnic table in the backyard. Had a nice spread and great conversation. It was nice to just visit and talk a bout whatever. We had been neighbors for over 30 years.

One thing I remembered when the power went out was that a couple days before there was some type of power surge like it was going out but didn't. Then the blackout hit a few days later.

[MrNittany]

Oh wow, I remember this. 10 years already, that doesn't seem possible. I was actually working part-time Fridays through Sundays during summer [[apart from my regular job) for a packaged ice company: Party Time Ice up in Shelby Township [[they've been bought out by a much larger out-of-town company in the 10 years since).

That Friday was pretty crazy though. Saw a lot of animal-like behavior in people: people waiting in line at our distribution center [[we were NOT price gouging) fighting with each other, talking openly about just stealing from us instead of waiting in a 60-120 minute line. Some drivers literally trying to run our trucks off the road.

After that, it was a long 1-2 week process getting all our customers back stocked up and normal. [[there was of course the boil water advisory which was in effect all the way through that Monday)

That experience did make me realize one thing: it wouldn't take society long at all to truly break down if something real bad happened.

[stasu1213]

I was coming home from work. I lived on Cadieux at the time and the lights were out at the paint store. I just thought that it was just a neighborhood blackout which had happened a couple of times months prior. I had went to my apt building and a neighbor had informed me that the blackiout was all over the eastern part of the country. I was running low on gas and decided to go to the gas station to get some gas but soon discovered that the pumps were out. People weren't treating the intersection of Warren and Cadieux as a fourway stop and they were just barely missing one another going through the intersection. I was going to see the Dream Cruise being set up but that was cancelled. I did go out and take a walk at 12:00am that Friday morning. I could not see my hand in front of my face but I could hear the leash of a dog as someone was walking it across the street from where I was walking. The moon was my only light as well as my flashlght

[SDCC]

Home, which at that time was A2

[mkhopper]

I was at work near Southfield and Rotunda Rd.
Cell phone use was really spotty and it seemed that those of us on Sprint were really the only ones who could dial out with any success. I couldn't get anyone local though, so I ended up reaching out to friends on the other side of the country. "Hey, flip on the news and check to see if we just got bombed or something..."

After about an hour, it set in that the power wasn't coming back up anytime soon, so everyone just left. Southfield and the service drive were completely packed. No one was moving at all. I lived in Redford at the time and I didn't feel like waiting in the line on Rotunda just to get across the Southfield, so I backtracked over to Schaefer heading towards Grand River. I knew that intersection would be hell, so I ducked over to Greenfield at W. Chicago. Grand River was smooth sailing the whole way.
Actually, the entire trip through the city was pretty free of any real traffic tie ups.

Then it was just a matter of staying hunkered down at home, waiting for the power to come back.

I think the whole ordeal made for an interesting test though. I cringe at the thought of how bad off we would all be if something really big were to go down where power didn't just magically turn back on after a day or two.

[surenowinlife]

I was at work in Royal Oak with a fleet of my delivery trucks running their routes. It took hours to get everyone back to my warehouse with all the traffic congestion.I lived in Ferndale on the third floor of the apartments next to current day Rosies on Nine Mile. All or most the neighbors that nite bbq'd on the rear patio and drank what ever cooling beverage we could mix! The next am with still no power I really needed coffee.Looking out our kitchen window I could see the faint glow of Pink lights from the Ferris Wheel set up accross Woodward for the dream cruise kids area.I took a walk and crossed Woodward and could smell food oders coming from a concession trailer setting up and brewwing coffee!! My day was saved..............................