Where were you during the blackout of 2003?

LodgeDodger · August-12-10, 09:13 PM

Originally Posted by Gannon

[[couple that study with the one that happened to catch the clean air during the FAA shutdown of the skies during 9/11, and you've got some tremendous environmental impact information regarding our current lifestyle and economy)

I'm ready for ol' Mom Nature to sneeze us off the planet...and I think we deserve it, virus that we mere humans are to her.

Perhaps you may be, but Mother Nature digs me.

**ggores** · August-12-10, 09:58 PM

At last count there were about twenty five people going up to pine knob for the Stooges reunion show that day. Who knows who bought those tix, or how they were distributed, or how everyone was supposed to get together when we got there... all everyone knew was that EVERYone would be there.

Well, as we all know, there happened to be a coastal blackout, caused by a tree branch twig falling from an elm and onto a powerline in Ohio, thereby unplugging the whole region, from Yonkers to Ann Arbor.

Left work around 4:10 and caught my ride in Harrison Township. Drove up. Hung out at that damn party store, there were people from Chicago, St. Louis, and Virginia who had trekked all that way to catch that show. Yes, it was ignorant to think that if DTE owned Pine Knob, perhaps they would pull in 50,000 watts per amp of generator and make the show happen. It dint happen!

For a brief few hours... it was almost like magic... all them folk at this little party store, and then when it got to be about one oh clock in the morning, everyone had to get. It was getting dark.

I did not have the joyful experience of generators, cases of bier, or of neighborhood friendliness the following two days - ironically enough. Oy. But about two or three weeks later The Stooges DID do a re-make show. And good goy! It was like... it was friggin hot and muggy. Hot as a mugg!

Other than that little tale, I basically sweated it out at the Metro Towers Apartments that weekend, completely cutoff from anywhere's near the ghettohood. It kinda sucked.

I will never forget that day. Heh.

**psubliminal** · August-12-10, 10:24 PM

Originally Posted by rb336

Like many detroiters, missing out on the Stooges reunion

Same here. I was living in Utica at the time, waiting for Record Jeff [[Desirable Discs, Record Graveyard) to pick me up for the Stooges show.

**faygoredpop** · August-12-10, 10:44 PM

I was working at American Express in Dearborn talking to a client when our lights were dimming. I remembering telling this to the client and they said the same thing was happening to them. All of a sudden we lost our computers. We thought it would come back up so we sat for a few minutes. After it didn't, and someone came in and said there was a states wide blackout they closed the phones down. Thank goodness it was close to my quitting time anyways.

I also remember that my mom was going to fill up her car after work and before she picked me up, my car was in the shop. It turned out she was near empty. We made it to her house. I stayed there and we cooked on the grill for dinner and called my sister to come over and have something to eat, she was fine for dinner but her and my niece came the next morning for breakfast.

Thank goodness we had some lanterns so we did at least have some lights but I do remember trying to sleep in the heat, that was bad. It was great to go out and do stargazing though. The only time I have been really able to see the stars in the city.

**Lowell** · August-13-10, 12:56 AM

No doubt about the time it hit Farmington Village.

Lights out on Grand River at Farmington Road.

"Revolution is three meals away."

**Russix** · August-13-10, 02:24 AM

Originally Posted by Lowell

No doubt about the time it hit Farmington Village.

Lights out on Grand River at Farmington Road.

"Revolution is three meals away."

Ich habe gefunden ein Farmlander.

**Chub** · August-13-10, 03:25 AM

I was at Pine Knob and on stage for Sonic Youth's sound check when we heard a very loud thud noise come over the house sound system that made everyone jump out of their shoes. We all thought it was cool that Sonic Youth was making so much noise that it blew the PA. I then remember hearing the stage manager yell something to the effect, that the power was out across the whole state. My brother and the rest of his band were really bummed out that the show was cancelled that night. It was a dream for him to be opening for the Stooges and Sonic Youth. Only good news that night for us, was that the show was being rescheduled, not canceled.

**MysticalHalf** · August-13-10, 06:48 AM

I was working at the Detroit Institute of Arts during there remodeling phase, deep in the catacombs of the small offices, where your only access was a small 9' by 4' elevator. I remember starting at 7am that day and doing the normal 8 hour day. We normally get off at 3:30pm so I was anticipating my departure, because of the normal 90 degree summer day we were having, around 3 o'clock we got another truck and i thought to myself ,wow this could end up being a lot of stuff and end up being a 10 hour day, Luckily it was just a quarter of the truck and we finished around 4pm still moving the flat carts and wall moving carts out of the halls of the building by way of small elevator. Around 4:10 or so I got to my car that was in the not so cheap parking lot by the DIA, I remember thinking how hot my car was [[ not knowing how hot the rest of the night would be sleeping wise) i proceeded heading towards home in Wyandotte, listening to the newly burned CD I had made the night before, got to about Fort and Clark and realized the signal lights were out all the way down south fort st. heading downriver. I decided to turn down clark and head for Jefferson and made my way through delray, river rouge and ecorse all with no working street signals. It was a rather uneventful drive home, I wondered what happened but didnt think to try the radio though. Stopped at the local store on Quarry and Pennslvanya and got a 24 pack of budlight and 2 packs of Marlboros as was my usual custom, and headed home, I got home to all my neighbors outside talking, all wondering what happened and buzzing with gossip. I decided to get on my bike after a nice cold shower and go and see how my friends were fareing, my larger friend was of course sweltering in the heat, I of course got a chuckle out of it but proceded to throw him a few beers. Headed home for dinner and ate 2 steaks that were thawing rapidly. Afterwards i spent the rest of the night outside with my friends, family, neighbors all sharing stories on our thoughts of what happened and other events of the day, It was probally the most fun i had that entire year to be honost, nice and quiet. Only problem i had that night was the back sweat that i received from the sleeping with no air thing, which is a must at 80 degrees or higher for me. Woke up the next day expecting the power to be on but i was wrong, I called work to see if i had to work and they told me it was poitnless, seeing that we relied on the elevators. Thats when i figured it was going to be a day by the pool kind of day, I sat out back, and drank and smoked and thought about how long this might go for, then around 5 or 6pm I remember everything coming back on, and everyone going back in doors to there air conditiong and back to there Tech crazy lifes. It was a real good look on what it would be like in case of disaster and a good look on how simple life can be sometimes when you don't have all the things your used to having.

I liked what Goat said about having a once a month 8 hour no electricity time starting at 6pm on like a Saturday, it wouldn't really hurt the economy and it would bring people back to simple times and it would make people communicate the old fashion way by talking with there voice, face to face, instead of tech messages, or face book, or cell phones. It was a wonderful experience and i had fun. Thanks "tree branch and/or little squirrel who fell on power like" haha

**SMRJim** · August-13-10, 10:56 AM

Originally Posted by East Detroit

Intern?

Did you play golf?

Intern, that's it! Yeah, we golfed. Don't need any electricity for that! Everybody at the course was either on their cell phones or trying to use them and not getting thru. I remember hanging out after golf a little bit to let the traffic die down. Drove out to Brighton bright and early the next morning to get gas and a couple of things from the store. Longest line I was ever in at a gas station. By 8 AM or so the line to get off westbound I-96 out there was backed way up onto the freeway. Talked to many of the neighbors that next day. Stored my 'important' stuff from my frig/freezer at my neighbors house - they had a generator. I remember it being a hot, muggy day.

**agirlintheD** · August-13-10, 11:22 AM

Having surgery at Providence -Southfield.

**DW313512** · August-13-10, 02:05 PM

jcole

Off the subject - I never heard of Almont, so I google mapped around it. Beautiful place.

**jcole** · August-13-10, 02:25 PM

Originally Posted by DW313512

jcole

Off the subject - I never heard of Almont, so I google mapped around it. Beautiful place.

Thanks; it is quaint.

**jams** · August-13-10, 08:49 PM

I served beers by candlelight!

Priorities!

**dtowncitylover** · August-13-13, 04:29 PM

Ten years tomorrow.

Here's a NYT article on Detroit's story...

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/08/16/us...ted=all&src=pm

**Gistok** · August-13-13, 04:36 PM

I remember... it was a kinder gentler America back then...

**Detroitnerd** · August-13-13, 04:37 PM

In the center of the Detroit Public Library's Main Branch, reading a newspaper. Nothing gets darker in a blackout than the center of a marble building with two doors each about 50 yards away.

**Detroitdave** · August-13-13, 05:55 PM

Home in LA , but I called and spoke to my mom and Grandmother :-)

**Ltdave** · August-13-13, 06:59 PM

i was home from work in Port Huron... within MINUTES, the refineries in Sarnia's Chemical Valley were belching black BLACK smoke from their towers. standard actions when power is lost so things dont blow up i guess...

well a LOT of people thought there was another attack, because there was no radio. we had dinner at a coney island that night that had everything but things done in toaster ovens or fountain pop...

i soon heard the power was out all over the county and i heard somehow that FORD and GM were telling employees to stay home until further notice. chrysler never made that announcement. i drove to detroit the next morning and until i got to chesterfield/clinton twp, things really didnt look all that much different. there were about 25 of us that showed. some from fowlerville/metamora/howell area that never lost power...

i wired in my genset after the 2nd day but it was more for convenience than need...

**courtney** · August-13-13, 07:31 PM

I was in the middle of dying my hair. Trying to wash it out with almost no water pressure was not fun. The better half was working at Ford [[I think he was at PDC that day) and started heading home after the power went out and got home around 6, which wasn't too bad considering we were on the far NE side, between Mack and Warren near Moross.

The kid was 8 months old and teething like mad.

We had to hook up the oven with an inverter to the car battery to cook a casserole the MIL had dropped off that morning, which was enough for us and our next door neighbors.

It was a long long 3 days until we got back power Sunday afternoon.

**JBMcB** · August-13-13, 07:46 PM

At work in Farmington Hills. Thought nothing of it at the time, as the idiot road crew redoing the road along 12-mile would often drive a backhoe through the buried electrical main, so we were used to temporary blackouts. After half an hour we turned on our radios to see what was going on. Took two hours to get home. We had just bought a house so we had a nice long weekend to work on it.

**rex** · August-13-13, 07:54 PM

I went down to the river too and drank coldish budweiser by the atwater parking lot near the river. Fed the rats the live in the rockwall. I was at Meijers on the east side. They had left the store open with the generators which failed just as it was my turn to check out.

**aoife** · August-13-13, 08:16 PM

I was at work when everything fizzed out. We had to assume the emergency drill and find our flashlights so we could get down the stairwells after first making sure the student assistants were accounted for.

It was fun at first- the whole neighborhood was out, everyone BBQing their food before it spoiled, chatting in the street. We camped in the backyard since the house was so stuffy. When it became apparent the power was not coming back for a few days we skipped town and headed to my Mom's in Grand Rapids. I was 6 months pregnant and the novelty of it all wore off quick.

**Django** · August-13-13, 09:17 PM

I had just put my 10 year old son on a flight out of Cleveland to Austin. Me and my girl decided to check out the beach on Lake Erie when we noticed a strange buzz among the people. When we found out the power was out all over the East Coast all I could think about was a terrorist attack and my son who was up in the air for the next few hours.

**Marlon_JB2** · August-13-13, 10:29 PM

I wasn't doing much of anything. I was just in my bedroom, playing a video game and listening to music with my headphones when I noticed that my ceiling fan had stopped. I had a laptop so it had started to run on battery power. Mom came in my room and said that the power was out. That's when the phone started ringing. My sister's car was down so me and my mom went to pick her up from work and that's when I started to hear rumors about a terrorist attack. We all went home and mom cooked burgers and a salad. Thank God for a gas stove. I continued to drain my laptop's battery by gaming and after that was over... Me and my mom went outside and played "Guess the car by the headlights" and went to sleep.

My sister was begging for the car and mom said no way since she only had a half tank and nobody knew when the power would be back on...

That's pretty much it!

**wingedwheel1983** · August-13-13, 10:55 PM

I was in Iraq on my 1st trip. I remember getting emails from loved ones here in the D mentioning the electricity. I don't remember the grid being much better in Iraq. Lol