|
Grex > Agora46 > #162: The Great North American Blackout of 2003 | |
|
| Author |
Message |
| 25 new of 99 responses total. |
jaklumen
|
|
response 14 of 99:
| 
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.
|
eprom
|
|
response 15 of 99:
|
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.
|
furs
|
|
response 16 of 99:
|
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.
|
richard
|
|
response 17 of 99:
|
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.
|
sno
|
|
response 18 of 99:
|
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.
|
rcurl
|
|
response 19 of 99:
|
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.
|
gelinas
|
|
response 20 of 99:
|
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. ;)
|
tod
|
|
response 21 of 99:
|
Aug 16 21:43 UTC 2003 |
This response has been erased.
|
russ
|
|
response 22 of 99:
|
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.
|
scg
|
|
response 23 of 99:
|
Aug 17 00:40 UTC 2003 |
So, can we Californians gloat about your unreliable electric power now?
|
gelinas
|
|
response 24 of 99:
|
Aug 17 03:01 UTC 2003 |
Feel free, Steve. :)
|
jep
|
|
response 25 of 99:
|
Aug 17 03:40 UTC 2003 |
I live in Tecumseh. I got my power back around midnight on Thursday
night. Friday morning, I was just finishing breakfast when the power
went out again. There was nowhere to get gas; my Taurus was about
out, so I drove my pickup to work.
There was no power at work, but a few of us went to Pinckney on Friday
and worked for a while from my manager's house. When I got home,
around noon, the power had been back on for less than an hour.
I was able to fill up with gas without waiting in line around 4:00
Friday.
|
scg
|
|
response 26 of 99:
|
Aug 17 06:40 UTC 2003 |
Friday's San Francisco Chronicle had a headline saying "It could happen here,
expert warns: California vulnerable to blackouts."
Really?
Gray Davis was on TV tonight, claiming credit for this blackout not happening
in California.
|
beeswing
|
|
response 27 of 99:
|
Aug 17 06:48 UTC 2003 |
Waaah. Memphis had its power out for over a week from the straight line
winds storm.
|
scg
|
|
response 28 of 99:
|
Aug 17 06:59 UTC 2003 |
One of the San Francisco TV stations last night showed some interviews with
people in Iraq, who were saying something along the lines of, "they've left
us without power for three months, but they think it's a problem when they
lose power for a day?"
|
pvn
|
|
response 29 of 99:
|
Aug 17 09:42 UTC 2003 |
Damn straight, you ragheads! And whats more, we don't have to have a
big fucking super-power with big phucking military to do the regime
change for you too stoopid or lazy. We do it ourselves in the ballot
box with little or no casualties every couple years.
|
scott
|
|
response 30 of 99:
|
Aug 17 12:58 UTC 2003 |
Re 27: Well, we get ice storms every couple of years up here in the frozen
white wastelands, with accompanying power outages. This is actually the first
real power outage I've ever had in the summer, but in the last 7-8 years
I've had a couple multi-day outages during freezing weather.
|
furs
|
|
response 31 of 99:
|
Aug 17 13:16 UTC 2003 |
Which is WAY more convenient for keeping food cold!
|
beeswing
|
|
response 32 of 99:
|
Aug 17 15:53 UTC 2003 |
Nyup. We can't handle things like ice storms here, but we know to
anticipate problems in the winter. The storm that hit here was totally
unpredicted.
|
slynne
|
|
response 33 of 99:
|
Aug 17 20:33 UTC 2003 |
Yeah but when there is a power outage in the winter, I have no heat :(.
I dont even care about the no heat too much because I can always pack
up all the animals and head up to my parent's house but if the heat
goes, then the pipes might freeze. Luckily for me, the one time I lost
power for any significant length of time in the winter, it was during
an ice storm and the temp had risen to just above freezing.
On Thursday, I was at work trying to fix some problems related to a
virus we got earlier in the week when the power went down. It didnt
take us long to figure out that it was a big outage because some of our
stores are required to call in if their power goes out. Our phone
system has around 1/2 hour of battery backup.
Around 4:30p, the company decided to close the building. So everyone
left at once. That sucked. Even if the light at the one exit from this
office park was working, there would be a traffic jam. However, it
wasnt working so the traffic got *really* backed up. Some co-workers
and I took some popsicles out of the freezer and sat in the shade
eating them. We waited for about an hour. The roads had cleared
somewhat by 5:30 but it still took me 45 minutes to drive to Ypsi. I
was a little worried about the dogs because I knew they would be doing
a pee pee dance by the time I got home. Luckily, I ended up getting
home only about 1/2 hour later than I normally would get home and they
seemed fine with that.
I had about a 1/4 tank of gas so I had no trouble getting home. I
thought about going up to my parent's house because they have a
generator and also a lake which means it is cooler there. It was really
muggy and hot on Thursday night. But then, I figured that people get
crazy when the power is off and I didnt want to risk having someone
break into my house so I got out all my millions of candles and lit up
the joint! I read a book. I only had pasta for dinner but that is ok
because I like pasta.
On friday, a couple of gas stations in Ypsi opened up and the lines
were LONG. I thought about going to get gasoline but decided it wasnt
worth it to wait in line. When I went to go get gasoline on Saturday
morning, those gas stations had sold out of gas!
My power came back on at around 8:30a on friday. Nothing spoiled from
my freezer. When I checked on things at 8:30a, everything was still
frozen. I still had ice cubes. I didnt open the door until
the power came back on so it held all the coldness inside.
|
russ
|
|
response 34 of 99:
|
Aug 17 22:13 UTC 2003 |
Winter is certainly more convenient for a lot of cooking-related
stuff. Being able to just stick your freshly-boiled soup stock
outside the window and skim off the congealed fat a few hours
later beats most things Nature does for the cook in the summer.
On the other hand, when the power is out it's very nice not to
have to worry about draining your pipes before they freeze.
|
scott
|
|
response 35 of 99:
|
Aug 17 23:35 UTC 2003 |
Of course now that I'm living in a house with a woodstove the power failure
is during hot, muggy weather. I did hole up here for a 3-day failure a few
years back, though. Brought the cats over and everything.
|
jep
|
|
response 36 of 99:
|
Aug 18 00:01 UTC 2003 |
If there's a power outage in the winter lasting more than about 6
hours, my pets are goners. They're tropical fish. They're in 50 and
55 gallon fish tanks and so might last for a few hours.
Since I moved here, I've had one several hour long power outage in the
winter, and that was before I got my fish.
My fish help keep the power running in Tecumseh, I think.
|
carson
|
|
response 37 of 99:
|
Aug 18 01:04 UTC 2003 |
re #5:#6: (Chicago. beady probably has a more accurate recollection of
this: a couple of years back, during some pretty hot summer days,
there were a number of blackouts, including at least one that affected
the downtown area. the situation left Mayor Daley Jr. none too
pleased and he made a number of public statements to the effect of
"this isn't going to happen again." so far, his word has held up.)
|
scg
|
|
response 38 of 99:
|
Aug 18 01:49 UTC 2003 |
re 36:
Have you thought about putting your fish on a UPS, John?
|