The Great North American Blackout of 2003

Aug 16 01:45 UTC 2003

So what did you do during the Great Blackout, and how long did you have to
do it?

response 2 of 99:

Aug 16 03:48 UTC 2003

Dozed off in front of the radio, woke to hear that George Bush had sent troops
to invade Canada in reprisal for their unprovoked attack on America's power
grid.  No wait, that was a dream.

response 4 of 99:

Aug 16 06:29 UTC 2003

Made a trip to 'Arbor - unaware that it was anything but some local power
company screw-up, until I turned on the radio mid-trip. SemiSlug was canceled,
though two or three people did show up.

Came home, stopped at the local Meijer to pick up a fresh deep cycle battery
to replace one with a surface charge of 8 volts. Managed to get a light and
a fan, plus the computer equipment, powered some of the time.

Today, took off looking for fuel. Listening to radio reports of where power
was coming on, I decided to get just before the wave front, as it were, and
after three tries found a station with not too long a line.

Took fubar battery to Meijers and collected the core charge.

Got power back at 2pm, while I was out, and water around 9PM.

response 6 of 99:

Aug 16 13:16 UTC 2003

(where are you now, carson?)

Lesseee.  Took my long-haired bunkie to work around 17:30, when the power had
been out for an hour.  No power at work, but they found things to do with
flashlights and little else.  While she was at work, the rug rats and I went
out to the sailing club, where I did some painting.  After sunset, drove back
to Ann Arbor, hung out in the parking lot until my LHB got off work.  Read
by flashlight until we fell asleep.  Friday, took folks to work. 
(Daughter-mine wasn't needed; my long-haired bunkie wasn't so lucky.)  Then
went back out to the sailing club to do some more painting, reading, etc.

Got home around 14:30 to be told that power came on at or about 14:00.  Ended
up going to Chelsea, since the stuff around the house was closed (got gas at
the Marathon at Packard and Stadium first; I'd hoped not to have to, but that
didn't work out.  The line wasn't bad at all.)  Went back out to the sailing
club, just because.  (Power came on out there at or about 18:30.)  Picked up
my LHB at 20:00, and drove over to the Pumpkin, where I proceeded to plug
stuff in and turn on switches, during which fun activity I was joined by i.

Dinner was at Fazoli's on Stadium at Liberty.

A fun time was had by (almost) all. :)

response 8 of 99:

Aug 16 15:34 UTC 2003

Was at the UGLi, in the computer lab, when the lights did a crazy dance and
computers went off and came back on for a few seconds before finally dying.
Not knowing it was wide-spread, tried to call DPS (UM campus police) but
couldn't get through, so called AAPD (not the emergency number, no), which
was the first time we heard it was city-wide.

Somehow the Grad still had power; went up and checked news online & read
NYTimes's early report identifying the problem as a cascade failure of the
Niagara-Mohawk grid, then walked home.  Glen street was barely moving.

Somewhere around 6 my dad got home -- the Exhibit Museum never lost power,
either, so he didn't even know there was a problem until he left to come home.
Listened to radio and read by candle/flashlight until going to bed.

Friday, sat outside listening to radio & reading until about 1, when we
noticed the porchlight had come on.  Went inside and noticed the clocks had
been on for half an hour. . . .

My dad went out to stores to find food -- hadn't had much, but had no ice,
so lost what we did have -- and got stranded at the mall when the thunderstorm
rolled through mid-afternoon & made it impossible for him to drive.  Made it
back eventually, and we had hot dogs from the grill for the second night in
a row.

The Ugli continues closed today, but is to reopen Sunday.

response 10 of 99:

Aug 16 16:06 UTC 2003

I was in line at Price Chopper when the power went off.  After about 5 
minutes, the backup generators had kicked in, and the lights went on.  
Took them about 15-20 more minutes before they were able to get the cash 
registers up and running.

Got through the line, went back to my apartment, sat on the front porch 
with roommates for a while, then went out to dinner.  The restaurant had 
power (apparently they were running from the grid, not the backup 
generators, because all the tv's were fully operational).  Drove back, 
noticed street lights were on ... until about a mile away from home, 
where everything was off.  Got home, sat around on porch for about 45 
minutes, then power came back on. (about 2115 thursday, IIRC)

response 12 of 99:

Aug 16 16:53 UTC 2003

Got up on Friday morning, heard about power blackouts in the US, thought,
"hmm, that's interesting"*, went to work, got on with my life, went out, came
back and went to sleep, got up, tried to log on to GREX, failed, thought,
"hmm, that's annoying"**, got on with my life, bought a suit, came back,
logged on to GREX, thought "Thank Christ, what a relief"***.

* That's the polite version.
** That's also the polite version.
*** You think that's the polite version?