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Grex > Agora46 > #162: The Great North American Blackout of 2003 | |
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scott
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The Great North American Blackout of 2003
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Aug 16 01:45 UTC 2003 |
So what did you do during the Great Blackout, and how long did you have to
do it?
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| 99 responses total. |
scott
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response 1 of 99:
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Aug 16 01:48 UTC 2003 |
Luckily (well, I forget how much is luck vs. plan) my storage locker place
doesn't allow volatiles, so my camping stove was stored here instead. That
got me coffee in the morning. Then I'd just bought a new cylinder of propane
for my tiny grill, which served to cook up the meat that would have gone bad.
Got online a few times with my laptop.
Oh, and I turned on my police scanner and sharpened a bunch of knives. Well,
I had the police scanner on for early news, then in the process of looking
for something else I finally found the whetstone I'd been looking for.
Then today in a burst of bored energy I nearly completed my 3rd chainmail
shirt - probably an hour left to finish the armpit seams.
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janc
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response 2 of 99:
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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.
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jlamb
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response 3 of 99:
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Aug 16 04:20 UTC 2003 |
Looks like people are having problems getting on grex.
DNS seeems to be down.
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drew
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response 4 of 99:
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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.
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carson
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response 5 of 99:
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Aug 16 09:40 UTC 2003 |
(what blackout? we haven't had a blackout in at least two years.)
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gelinas
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response 6 of 99:
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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. :)
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goose
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response 7 of 99:
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Aug 16 14:38 UTC 2003 |
Did the club have power Joe? We never lost it on the other side.
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dcat
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response 8 of 99:
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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.
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polytarp
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response 9 of 99:
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Aug 16 15:44 UTC 2003 |
Huh? Mostly, I just listened to the radio! The BBC even! Wow!
And then my power was on at like 2AM or something thereabouts somewhere 'round
there.
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ea
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response 10 of 99:
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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)
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scott
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response 11 of 99:
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Aug 16 16:08 UTC 2003 |
I first tried to call DTE, but it was busy, so I walked up to Stadium to see
if the traffic lights were out. Then I went home and turned on the police
scanner, where I heard somebody mention that this was ahpening in other
states. Then I dug out a regular radio and found somebody still broadcasting.
Some of the AM stations were eventually just broadcasting the audio from a
TV station.
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twenex
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response 12 of 99:
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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?
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keesan
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response 13 of 99:
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Aug 16 17:15 UTC 2003 |
I enjoyed the unusual quit - no airplanes, few cars - and the lack of
streetlight glaring through my window (20 feet away). Listened to birds in
the morning. Counted cricket calls - average 3, sometimes 2 or 4 or even 5.
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jaklumen
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response 14 of 99:
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Aug 16 17:39 UTC 2003 |
I did what I usually do, really... because the blackout didn't reach
this far west. I was wondering why Grex was down until I saw the
20/20 report and then figured it had something to do with it.
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eprom
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response 15 of 99:
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Aug 16 18:50 UTC 2003 |
I was at home when my UPS started beeping and the lights flickered and
dimmed for about 4-5 seconds. I thought it was because I was using too
much electricity, so I went around turning off my A/C, and lights.
Then went about my day as usual, a few hours later, I flipped on the TV
and heard the news about the big power outage. I live in Kzoo. It sure
looked like the NY'ers were have a good time. We should have more black
outs. I think I depend on electicity too much in my daily life. If it
wasn't cloudy, yesterday would have been a great night for watching the
persides meteor shower and Mars.
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furs
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response 16 of 99:
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Aug 16 19:19 UTC 2003 |
I happen to be in MI right now and was caught in the blackout
in my office in Southfield. The lights went out and I was on a conf
call. Because the phone switch is on a UPS, our phones worked for a
couple hours. I just kept going on the phone, then someone came in and
let me know what was really going on, so we got off the call.
I stayed at work until 7pm cause I was low on gas and I knew it would
be a waste of time to drive anywhere where I was going to sit and run
out of gas in the deadlocked traffic. So we sat around and played
Euchre for a while. Then I called all my relatives to
see who had power, and my mom had it up in Flint, so I went up there
and stayed.
I was on the phone until about midnight with my boss and others
deciding what we were gonna do (which was nothing, but it took them
until the next day to figure that out.) Our DR team called from
Atlanta to ask us what we were going to do, and when we would start
flying people to Denver to get them up and running. I just
said "Listen, this is going to be probably one day without work, so
basically we are going to wait it out." Gee, I was right! Our power
at work came back on at 7pm yesterday and my infrastructure guys went
in to bring everything up. Corporate spend 6 hours trying to figure
out what to do, then they finally decided that we would just wait it
out. It was just frigging ridiculous.
My cell rang off the hook yesterday from 6am until 6pm. People just
need to take a chill pill.
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richard
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response 17 of 99:
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Aug 16 19:22 UTC 2003 |
Managed to walk all the way home to Brooklyn in pitch black darkness,
pushing through throngs of people with only a poorly working flashlight
guiding the way. With no subways running, everyone was walking on the
sidewalks to get anywhere, and with no parking lights or walk/don't
walk signs working, you crossed streets VERY carefully. They suspended
side street parking rules and were telling people who were driving to
pull over and park their cars, because with no street lights and
everything pitch black, even car headlights don't help much. Better to
park your car, and hope you remember where you left it later, then to
risk driving and hitting someone in the street because you couldn't see
them.
After I finally got home, I popped open a beer and went up on the
rooftop of my apartment building where it was much cooler than it was
inside. There I could see the entire manhattan skyline pitch dark,
Jersey was dark. It was quite a sight. The only thing that appeared
to stay lit that I could see, was off in the harbor-- the Statue of
Liberty, which apparently has its own generator powering its torch.
Well after all, it IS Lady Liberty's eternal flame, so they CAN'T allow
that to go out right?
All in all, everyone here in NYC seems to have handled things well.
There were people taking turns on my street running out to direct
traffic at the intersection. Some of the bars and stores stayed open,
using candelight. Quite an experience.
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sno
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response 18 of 99:
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Aug 16 20:12 UTC 2003 |
Thursday I got kicked off of Pierce Lake GC because it was a State owned
facility and they went into emergency mode.
Filled my truck with gas in Chelsea where the electricity was still
flowing. Drove home and grabbed five five-gallon gas cans and drove
the side roads back to Chelsea where the pumps had since run dry.
Continued down I-94, checking the lines at gas stations along the way
until I found one with a short line at exit 145. Filled up and ate
dinner. Came home and set up my generator.
Last summer I hired an electrician to set up a breaker board for my
generator. I hooked that all up and fired up my juice. My house was
powered and we watched some TV (all blackout coverage) until bedtime.
Friday I reran my generator in the morning and then went to all the nearby
neighbors offering to roll my generator to them and pump up their
fridges, freezers, and sump pumps. I serviced about six houses on a
rotating cycle. One neighbor has water problems and was freeking about
the rain. I was at his house running his sump when the TV came on about
4:15 PM.
I worked very hard and received a lot of appreciation.
Today, I'm resting dammit.
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rcurl
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response 19 of 99:
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Aug 16 20:57 UTC 2003 |
Our 30 hour Holiday in Phoenix AZ:
We got up at 4:30 a.m. PDT in San Francisco on Thursday morning to make a
9:00 a.m. flight to Detroit via Phoenix: on time in Phoenix and boarded
the flight to Detroit at noon MST. We rolled out, but plane had backup
hydraulics problem, so returned to ramp where we sweltered for an hour,
and finally deplaned. Plane was finally declared inoperable so another
plane was brought in to be prepped. At about that point a rumor of a power
outage in the East began to circulate and finally the flight to Detroit
was cancelled and we were rebooked for a 6 pm MST flight Friday, and given
a room for the night at the airport Holiday Inn plus dinner vouchers.
Meanwhile, our daughter who had flown with us from SF had departed on a
flight to Columbus OH at about the same time we had been scheduled to fly
to Detroit. She got to Columbus OK to a emergency-powered airport and
picked up her car to drive to either her apartment in Springfield OH or to
our home in Ann Arbor. But Springfield was reported without power so she
opted for Ann Arbor.
We got to our Motel, had dinner, and called daughter on cell phone, and
discovered her in her car disabled by the road outside Columbus after the
car's battery had exploded. She was waiting for a tow truck from a non-AAA
garage because AAA garages were overloaded.
So back to the Phoneix airport in the AM to wait 'til 6 pm MST for our
flight. While waiting we got a cell call from our daughter who had gotten
the car repaired and driven to Ann Arbor to find the power was out, but
but it had came on again by Friday morning. We left on time and arrived
ca. 1 a.m. EDT Saturday in Detroit, to an emergency-powered airport. The
parking garage was unlit but the shuttle was operating. They were, of
course, collecting parking charges: the attendant was in his booth
illuminated by a candle. Home by shortly after 2 a.m.
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gelinas
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response 20 of 99:
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Aug 16 21:19 UTC 2003 |
goose: no, the club did NOT have power Thursday evening nor most of
Friday. We could see lights across the lake, in Livingston County,
but the Washtenaw side was dark (except for the folks who had their own
generators, of course. ;)
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tod
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response 21 of 99:
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Aug 16 21:43 UTC 2003 |
This response has been erased.
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russ
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response 22 of 99:
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Aug 16 22:00 UTC 2003 |
After I got home (an interesting exercise in itself, as the fuel pump
of the car couldn't take the heat at its advanced age and decided to
croak about 3 miles out), I got out my camping lantern and patched my
backup power system together from the UPS and storage battery. I had
never tried it before, but it worked the first time.
(Re item 161 response 1:
Yes, it's a deep-cycle battery, labelled for trolling motors. I'm
running through an APC 600 UPS (the internal gel-cells had failed
long ago, so I just patched onto the wires and went from there).
It's a sealed battery, so it requires no venting. I'm charging
it from an external charger to avoid compatibility issues.)
After taking care of the basics, I pulled a still-cold Coke out of the
fridge and sat down with the newspaper and crossword, and then I powered
up the computer and wrote what became item 161 and played a game or two.
That didn't take the whole evening, so before bed I went to the
bookshelf for some things I hadn't read yet. My little white-LED book
light from Meijer wasn't optimal, but it did the job.
Friday morning, power was still out so no work. I drove over to
where the VW had died, and of course the fuel pump worked just fine
after cooling off overnight. I drove it to the shop on the corner
and left it with them, farted around home for a while, dropped the
book I'd started the previous night in favor of Terry Pratchett,
and rather than trying to cook I decided to kill two birds with one
stone and get some hot food and a cold drink while recharging my
storage battery. Using the lighter plug and cord from a defunct
tire-compressor, I patched the storage battery into the Taurus's
power system and went for a drive. Found food, ordered, read book,
ate food, chatted with another customer about Linux, moseyed home
by back roads, found that battery had charged very nicely. I pretty
much sat around and read until the power came back on.
My only regret is that I didn't have a big enough inverter to run
my refrigerator. With another battery I could have run just about
everything but the fridge, including main lights and a fan or two
as well as the computer. I'm considering this, as the start of a
solar electricity system.
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scg
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response 23 of 99:
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Aug 17 00:40 UTC 2003 |
So, can we Californians gloat about your unreliable electric power now?
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gelinas
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response 24 of 99:
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Aug 17 03:01 UTC 2003 |
Feel free, Steve. :)
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