Where were you during the blackout of 2003?

[MizMotown]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northeast_Blackout_of_2003


It was just right before the start of the 2003 MI State Fair. Had to use giant generated lights to light as much of the place up as we could. There were people staying on the grounds at the time [[i.e. vendors, carnival workers, farm folks, staff, etc...) National Guard had to bring in water trucks because the water was unsafe for cooking and washing. Folks were running out of gas. I remember pulling into the gates and my car was sputtering and the YADA YADA COFFEE guy came running up out of nowhere with a gas can full of gas! He was my hero. lol.....

I just remember how eerie it was. No working street lights or traffic lights up and down Woodward. Folks going in Rite Aid one at a time....

surreal in a way.... a glimpse what could be if we ever faced disaster....

[R8RBOB]

I was at Moffett Field, California when the blackout occurred. I remember I was in my office when I happened to go on to the CNN website and splashed across their page was news about the blackout. I remember seeing video of people going to collect ice. I called my mother and she said people thought it was a terrorist act, that bin Laden had struck again.

[Johnlodge]

I drove to Manistee and decided it was time for a couple days of vacation. First saw lights again around Lansing [[power had just come on there).

[gazhekwe]

I was right here at my desk. Power flickered, came back on for a minute, then went down for the count. We weathered the whole thing right here. Got out the board games and played by the light of a kerosene lamp we keep around for emergencies. We ate lots of cold food. My mother was living in Henry Ford Village at the time, and they had no lights or elevators. They had people on each floor to help anyone who needed help, and they had cold bottled water for the people. Also they had meals for them. Good thing, because we didn't have gas to get down there and back. We tried to find ice, but by the time we got anywhere, it was all gone.

Near the end of the blackout here, we heard they had power somewhere up toward Port Huron, so we headed up there. Found gas for the car, and found a very crowded restaurant full of power refugees. We stood in line and ended up sharing a table with another couple so we could all get seated faster. That part was fun.

[Bigb23]

I was at home, [[N.E. Oakland Co.), when we had a short brownout and then the power came back on. Down at the corner the power was still on at the gas station, but there was a massive run on gasoline, and they were out by the the end of the day with no new deliveries.
The funny[[?) thing is, the power goes out in my neighborhood on a somewhat regular basis. I think our power must have come from the Marysville plant.

[cman710]

I was at my parent's house in Staten Island, NY. The power went out and I checked outside, because usually you can see if a few surrounding blocks have power. When it looked like a large area around the neighborhood was dark, I figured there must be a larger problem. We found out the scope of the outage when we put on the radio. It was very hot, but we weathered it okay. I was supposed to be flying out to Ohio a few days later and was delayed for a day, but made it eventually.

[dtowncitylover]

I was home when the TV flickered and went out. It was a great couple of days. I've never seen so many people walking, riding their bikes, being so friendly. I wish the power never turned back on!

[kryptonite]

I was at work and suddenly the office went dark. We waited for a while and were all eventually sent home. It took a while to drive home, no traffic lights were working, all intersections had to be treated as four-way stops. Everyone was very courteous to other drivers.

Once home, there was no AC and the weather was hot and humid. I slept on my back porch for a couple of nights. I could hear my neighbors diving into their swimming pool.

I partied with neighbors, my entire neighborhood was having cookouts, some bars were set up on picnic tables.

It was blast - I would repeat the experience anytime. But I love camping, so to me it wasn't the least bit inconvenient.

[kenp]

We had power were I lived and alll the hotels and resteraunts were packed. Stores were sold out and traffic jams everywhere. Interesting thing was that on Sat I went down to the Dream Cruise which was still going on and at Pine Knob the Stooges concert I was going to was postponed.

[Islandman]

Working at Kelly Services HQ IT department in Troy. That was long ride home to Fraser with all of the lights out.

[1KielsonDrive]

Downtown hanging out at bars that were practically giving beer and booze away so it wouldn't perish in the heat. There was a friendliness and camaraderie about people on the streets, maybe due to shared feeling we were all in this together, that was uncommon for most places and times. Hung out with Jams for a while at his place of business and then wandered around talking to old friends and acquaintances. When I finally got home late that night to Ford Lake, it was entirely blacked out. The only lights to be seen were of boats casually cruising around in the near total darkness. Beautiful and serene.

[gnome]

Pulled in radio stations all the way from Tenn., Ky and Mo.

[Maof]

At Costco with my two little ones. Left and new something was wrong when the traffic lights weren't working sooo, picked up a few bags of ice just in case. We ended up sleeping on the living room floor and sofa for a few days,[[too hot upstairs). It was fun for the kids. A little bit of grillling and few carry-outs and even sitting on the front porch.

I love my air-conditioning!!!

[Danny]

It was at my Detroit ghettohood home sleeping.

[eno]

I was in my car northbound on Telegraph just south of Maple when I thought the radio had gone out in my car. The traffic lights had gone out but I didn't make the connection between the two. I made it through Maple and was waiting for the traffic to make it through Long Lake when WDET came back on the air and announced the news of a widespread power outage. I was heading to the Stooges concert that night at a leisurely pace to stop for food and gas along the way. I figured the Stooges would be cancelled so I dropped by a work station to make sure everything was OK and made myself available in case they needed me.

[Ravine]

I was at Moffett Field, California when the blackout occurred. I remember I was in my office when I happened to go on to the CNN website and splashed across their page was news about the blackout. I remember seeing video of people going to collect ice. I called my mother and she said people thought it was a terrorist act, that bin Laden had struck again.

Wow. Same thing my friend Milt said. I remember thinking, Man, c'mon, don't start with that shit... followed by thinking, Dang, I hope not.
Still a beer drinker at the time, I did quite a bit of driving around, trying to find an open party store. Wound up in the Allen Park area, where I lucked out. Guy said, They're not cold, though, sir. I said, Oh, that's OK... trying to be nonchalant and hide my boundless glee at being able to load up four or five 40-ouncers.
I suppose there is no point in omitting the admission that one of 'em was popped open before the key was turned in the ignition.

[JJD]

I was at work, had to drive from aubirn hills hom to the cass corridor with no AC. I was down to boxers and undershirt by the time I made tit home 3 hours later. Fired up the generator and AC at home, then went over Honest Johns for beers by candlelight. I thoughroughly enjyoed the blackout, but also thought it was terrorist attack at first.

[Gannon]

It was the weekend of my sister's wedding.

I was living out past Ann Arbor at the time, but was hanging at my father's in Dearborn.

Power went out, then came back on immediately. Just when my dad complained that it was out long enough to have to reset all the clocks...boom. Dead.


I strolled over to the Southfield Freeway, to watch the insanity since Ford let out all their people early...and was sitting high up on the grass looking down on the stalled traffic when a young lady jumped out of her car and started running up to me with a bottle of water...thinking I was stranded.


Her beautiful intent and action was quite a contrast with what was happening in my mind...I was quite sure it was another attack, especially when a huge pillar of smoke arose from the distance in the general direction of that big petroleum processing plant off 1-75 and Schaefer. I only learned a few days later that they HAVE to burn off the process if it doesn't complete when the power goes down.


My Corktown Aunt got power back first, leading us to surmise one of Kwhyme's Konkubine's lived nearby...but the venue and hall both got their power on in time. We got to the hall and found that they never bought flowers, so I ran over to English Gardens and emptied their stock of roses for TWENTY BUCKS because they hadn't gotten power back and figured they'd just wither away anyways.


A friend lived only two miles west of me and never lost power, but the house in Dexter was dead for the whole time. So I was at the extreme western edge of the whole deal.



Has anyone ever seen the satellite photo of the blackout? It looks like someone was making one of those hand-shadow alligators over the map. I'll see if I can find it, I've got a copy stored on one of these damn computer backups. Funny thing, there are only TWO very bright lights on that map, which I'm guessing are government installations. I always wanted to look them up and see what they were.


Cheers

[1KielsonDrive]

Pulled in radio stations all the way from Tenn., Ky and Mo.

That might've made it worthwhile by itself.

[rb336]

Like many detroiters, missing out on the Stooges reunion

[Ravine]

I think The Ig, fervently wishing to provide a dazzlingly energetic show to the home-town crowd, had mystically drawn up all of the nearby power into his body, naively failing to take into account the fact that doing so would simultaneously kill off the juice for the amps at the show.
But that's The Ig, for ya: can't say that he doesn't mean well.

[Gannon]

I still believe it was an attack...but not from any of the usual suspects.

A reporter on NPR made an official swallow his tongue when she asked him, after he said it would take weeks to determine the cause, WHY they could have issued their definitive statement that it WASN'T an attack within 45 minutes of it starting.



Then, during the whole thing...the operators of London's Underground boasted that THEIR system would never suffer the same fate that New York's did...and then during rush hour not two weeks later, they got hit with the same thing.



Then....almost a decade later, the government finally announces that they've secured the entire electrical grid from any outside attack.


Ahem.


As IF we'd forget everything they said earlier.


It was an attack...but from whom, we may never know.


Cheers!

[yupislyr]

At home already, thankfully.

Went down to the river later that night

[catch22]

I was working as an IT contractor at a large auto parts HQ in Southfield. I was in the data center talking over some pending network changes with my co-workers. The overhead lights and air conditioning died and stayed dead. We had about 90 minutes' worth of power in the center's UPS and it was a scramble to get everything shut down in an orderly fashion before it croaked or anything melted down due to the lack of A/C. We made it, barely. Drove home in complete darkness around 2:00 am. They got their power back about 6:30 pm the next day and we spent a long night getting everything back online. They decided to get a site generator after that.

[Russix]

The instant I flipped a switch, the power went out. So after an hour of trying to figure out what was wrong with the fusebox, I enjoyed the rest of my blackout vacation. Anyone look at Mars too?