Ontario/Eastern U.S. Blackout 2003
I don't know if many of you have heard but at 4:10 pm EST yesterday we experienced a complete blackout in the province of Ontario and the states of New York, Ohio, Michigan and others. Currently we are in hour 15 of the blackout and only 50% of Ontario has had their power restored. They're saying it could be another 48 hours before things return to normal. The blackout is affecting 50 million people, and still no one knows why this has happened.
You can imagine the effect this has been having. I was at work when it happened and the drive home was an absolute nightmare. A 36 km/21 mile or so trip took me over 3 hours to complete. There were no working traffic lights so crossing major Toronto intersections was extremely dangerous. People were generally courteous and we even had pedestrians standing in intersections and directing traffic. Streetcars sat abandoned in the streets and all businesses were closed. I was running out of gas on the way home but there were no gas stations open as it takes electricity to pump gas. It was absolutely bizarre to have nowhere to get gas or buy anything at 6 o'clock in the evening in Canada's largest city, almost like a ghost town.
Everything came to a complete stop. We had people trapped in the subways for hours as there was no electricity to help evacuate them. As I was listening to my radio on my MP3 player last night at 11 pm in the dark they were saying that there were still people trapped in elevators all over the city 7 hours after the blackout occured. I live 15 kms from Toronto and from my 16th floor balcony I get a very good view of all the surrounding cities. It was so strange to see no lights at all during the night - business lights, street lights. The only thing lit up were the emergency lights outlining the CN Tower. It was beautiful, however, to be able to see all the stars in the sky.
I was lucky - I had my power restored at around 4:30 am this morning. However, we are being told to conserve power as the power supply could overload again easily and further blackouts are still possible. It's going to be tough as the humidex factor today is supposed to reach 40 degrees celcius and 50 million people are being told to not to turn on their air conditioners. I know I'm sweltering. Water is also a problem as there is only a 24-hour reserve supply so we are being told to not even do things like flush the toilet.
Whatever the inconvenience this has been, it has been so heartening to see how people have pulled together. Regular people were directing traffic to help others get home, people have been out meeting their neighbours and generally helping one another.
Has anyone been hearing about what's been going on here in North America? Is there anyone out there who was also affected by this?
You can imagine the effect this has been having. I was at work when it happened and the drive home was an absolute nightmare. A 36 km/21 mile or so trip took me over 3 hours to complete. There were no working traffic lights so crossing major Toronto intersections was extremely dangerous. People were generally courteous and we even had pedestrians standing in intersections and directing traffic. Streetcars sat abandoned in the streets and all businesses were closed. I was running out of gas on the way home but there were no gas stations open as it takes electricity to pump gas. It was absolutely bizarre to have nowhere to get gas or buy anything at 6 o'clock in the evening in Canada's largest city, almost like a ghost town.
Everything came to a complete stop. We had people trapped in the subways for hours as there was no electricity to help evacuate them. As I was listening to my radio on my MP3 player last night at 11 pm in the dark they were saying that there were still people trapped in elevators all over the city 7 hours after the blackout occured. I live 15 kms from Toronto and from my 16th floor balcony I get a very good view of all the surrounding cities. It was so strange to see no lights at all during the night - business lights, street lights. The only thing lit up were the emergency lights outlining the CN Tower. It was beautiful, however, to be able to see all the stars in the sky.
I was lucky - I had my power restored at around 4:30 am this morning. However, we are being told to conserve power as the power supply could overload again easily and further blackouts are still possible. It's going to be tough as the humidex factor today is supposed to reach 40 degrees celcius and 50 million people are being told to not to turn on their air conditioners. I know I'm sweltering. Water is also a problem as there is only a 24-hour reserve supply so we are being told to not even do things like flush the toilet.
Whatever the inconvenience this has been, it has been so heartening to see how people have pulled together. Regular people were directing traffic to help others get home, people have been out meeting their neighbours and generally helping one another.
Has anyone been hearing about what's been going on here in North America? Is there anyone out there who was also affected by this?
Other than having Everybody Loves Raymond inturrupted every now and then for an "Important News Bulletin!" about the blackout, no, I have not been affected. But it is scary stuff... the longest I've been without power was 3 days after a thunderstorm, and wow, did it suck.
Sounds pretty harsh. I couldn't do without power, when we were having some killer thunderstorms (for England, nothing compared to the ones you get in the U.S) and we lost power for just a few hours, it drove me insane! 
We had a bit of an impromptu chat about this...
I wounder how much they say this will cost.. (spoiled food, lost person hours, etc..)
I wounder how much they say this will cost.. (spoiled food, lost person hours, etc..)
i live in a town with old power lines, so the electricity goes out once in a while, and i cant get used to it...
but my god... being trapped in an elevator for 7 hours, jeez id go insane in 5 minutes!
but my god... being trapped in an elevator for 7 hours, jeez id go insane in 5 minutes!
Yikes :-/ I live in the western portion of Michigan, and besides the power flicking off for a second twice, it hasn't affected us at all.
i live on 18 mile, if you saw the eminem movie you should know how close i am to detroit. i just got my power back up, but im in the 330,00 of 2 million who got there power back in this area. this is the biggest black out of all time. all of NYC, detroit, i like bonston and cleveland/toledo and chigaco went out. people got stuck in elevators and stuff it is cool.
in other news, i made a burrito over a fire of broken drum sticks. it is a statewide and local state of emergency and the donkey nextdoor yelled over the fence that i had an illegal fire. there was a 9pm cerfew for the city. america sucks.
in other news, i made a burrito over a fire of broken drum sticks. it is a statewide and local state of emergency and the donkey nextdoor yelled over the fence that i had an illegal fire. there was a 9pm cerfew for the city. america sucks.
August 15th 2003, 02:27 PM
Striker
Hmm... I thought Chicago was okay. I'm just glad this didn't happen on my last trip to TO. I'll probably be heading up that way again through Michigan in a couple of weeks.
I've learned that it isn't just America that sucks, it's the world in general.
I've learned that it isn't just America that sucks, it's the world in general.
Looks like my brain had it's own blackout and forgot to type a password 
(it's called old age Striker 
)
I live about 45 minutes from Ottawa, and while we small towners got our power on just before midnight (it was happy hour at the bar last night). It was still a complete shock. We had weathered *The Ice Storm* a few years back, but as I talked to a few friends in Ottawa, who were having *brown-outs* (where you get power for a few hours, then it's shut off) , regular people were directing traffic, and lots of people were having communal barbecue's. My daughter works for Bell Canada...they were overwhelemed with calls, so many in fact she worked several hours of overtime. Older people were literally stuck in their apparments, with the humidty factor raising to 38 degrees. Many business's were shut down, but we (Ottawa) had our fair share of looters etc.
While watching TV earlier, everyone had a theroy on exactly what happened. They went to the streets (where many people had spent the night) and were asking questions. One guy mentioned UFO's and another was predicting the end of the world.
In a way this reminded me of *The Ice Storm* , but at least we won't freeze, and as of yet our water is still running. Anyhow, it remains a very spooky situation.
>^..^<
)I live about 45 minutes from Ottawa, and while we small towners got our power on just before midnight (it was happy hour at the bar last night). It was still a complete shock. We had weathered *The Ice Storm* a few years back, but as I talked to a few friends in Ottawa, who were having *brown-outs* (where you get power for a few hours, then it's shut off) , regular people were directing traffic, and lots of people were having communal barbecue's. My daughter works for Bell Canada...they were overwhelemed with calls, so many in fact she worked several hours of overtime. Older people were literally stuck in their apparments, with the humidty factor raising to 38 degrees. Many business's were shut down, but we (Ottawa) had our fair share of looters etc.
While watching TV earlier, everyone had a theroy on exactly what happened. They went to the streets (where many people had spent the night) and were asking questions. One guy mentioned UFO's and another was predicting the end of the world.
In a way this reminded me of *The Ice Storm* , but at least we won't freeze, and as of yet our water is still running. Anyhow, it remains a very spooky situation.
>^..^<
Yes, I've heard about it since it was on the news. I also saw footage, and it was real weird to see a whole town in darkness.
I read your story with interest, since the only news we got here is general news, but no stories of people who actually experienced it.
It struck me that we're so dependent on electricity...
I read your story with interest, since the only news we got here is general news, but no stories of people who actually experienced it.
It struck me that we're so dependent on electricity...
Yes, I agree with you there, Binirit. We are very dependent on electricity. Normally I probably would have considered this whole thing a bit of an "adventure", but it has been so dang hot it hasn't been all that "fun" with no air conditioning. Nothing, I mean nothing, makes me crabbier than heat and humidity. Perhaps a little cheese with my whine.
Speaking of which, although we have our power back, we have been told to conserve it and not turn on our air conditioners as it could cause the system to overload. So last night I unhappily braved the 40 degree with humidex heat and left my little window unit off. Today I had to go to the pharmacy, grocery store and gas station (I very luckily coasted in on fumes *wipes sweat from forehead*). Imagine my surprise to find all these places fully air conditioned with lights blazing. And I was all worried that my little window unit was going to bring down North America's power grid. I was even writing copy in my head. "Sources say the cause of the power grid collapse was traced to a woman just west of Toronto using a window A/C unit. All she could mutter was, 'You don't understand. I'm melting . . . meeeelting'. Charges are pending".
Kat, I was thinking of The Ice Storm as well. Hope everything is okay with you.
Speaking of which, although we have our power back, we have been told to conserve it and not turn on our air conditioners as it could cause the system to overload. So last night I unhappily braved the 40 degree with humidex heat and left my little window unit off. Today I had to go to the pharmacy, grocery store and gas station (I very luckily coasted in on fumes *wipes sweat from forehead*). Imagine my surprise to find all these places fully air conditioned with lights blazing. And I was all worried that my little window unit was going to bring down North America's power grid. I was even writing copy in my head. "Sources say the cause of the power grid collapse was traced to a woman just west of Toronto using a window A/C unit. All she could mutter was, 'You don't understand. I'm melting . . . meeeelting'. Charges are pending".
Kat, I was thinking of The Ice Storm as well. Hope everything is okay with you.
Imagine my surprise to find all these places fully air conditioned with lights blazing.
Yes, it's usually that way isn't it? Once we were warned not to use any water (in a very hot summer) so I thought perhaps I shouldn't take a shower... and then you see people wash their cars...
Yes, it's usually that way isn't it? Once we were warned not to use any water (in a very hot summer) so I thought perhaps I shouldn't take a shower... and then you see people wash their cars...
