Post by: krissel on August 14, 2003, 06:30:28 PM
For some reason the western and southern portions of NJ aren't affected by this, fortunately. Our power blinked off for a few seconds when this started and when it came back I could only get three TV stations so I knew something was up. Oddly it was over a half hour before any of the major stations still running started to cover this.
Anyone remember 1965 blackout?
I was playing volleyball indoors and had just tried to save a poor shot and hit the ball really high up towards the ceiling, then.....darkness.
I thought the ball had hit the lights and knocked out the power in the gym and building. We had a single flashlight to share to undo our combinations locks and get our clothes. Feeling very guilty I left the building and saw that everything else around us was dark as well. Only then did I realize that I was not the cause of the Great NorthEast Blackout.
Just remembered my Dad telling me he was driving back to NJ from a business trip in Connecticutt that day and as he drove around a bend to a spot where he ususally saw a panoramic view of NYC lights he was shocked to see nothing where the city was supposed to be.
You can imagine what was going through his mind.
Post by: Bobun on August 14, 2003, 06:59:53 PM
Post by: Bill on August 14, 2003, 06:59:54 PM
I was at a costco store when I received a call from a friend who heard on the car radio that all of the east-coast was having a blackout. After a few minutes every Tom-Dick and Harries phone rang in the place. Few minutes later the TV section was way over crowded with folks wanting to see what was going on. This Costco's does NOT have a conventional TV antenna on their roof,nor cable.!.
Stood in line paying for my goods ... went outside and the parking lot was full of folks listening to their radios.
While driving home listening to my radio, don't know why my thoughts kept thinking about Jennie and that switch of hers. <gr>
Post by: Bobun on August 14, 2003, 07:08:33 PM
failure being that I was out on the road, again, not still. We had no idea of the happening until Mom & I stopped at our
bank , in town, and learned of the stoppage.
Post by: Dreambird on August 14, 2003, 07:14:41 PM
when some lady called in and said her power was out, she's somewhere in Ontario.
Post by: jepinto on August 14, 2003, 07:27:35 PM
QUOTE(Bill @ Aug 14 2003, 7:59 PM)
While driving home listening to my radio, don't know why my thoughts kept thinking about Jennie and that switch of hers. <gr>
I'm not in the NE! I dinna do it!
Been on the road all day, what happened?
Post by: Gary S on August 14, 2003, 07:44:35 PM
I keep thinking of the people in elevators.
Krissel,
Out here in the Midwest they called the 1965 outage as a Brownout.
So I take it you have power in NJ?
Post by: krissel on August 14, 2003, 08:20:41 PM
Of course I remember everything you ever told me...
Gary, it's hit and miss here in NJ. My immediate area and my folks are OK so far. But just to the south of me an area is out and having water problems already. I was talking on the phone to my sister who is in the northwest part of NJ and we both experienced a power blink at the same time about a half hour ago so something is going on, good or bad we don't know.
All my relatives and I are on well water so we run around and fill up extra buckets of water for flushing purposes.
Aside from half the TV/radio stations being dead, I've so far escaped the worst of it, knock, knock, knock.
SOAPBOX:
This is an excellent opportunity for our government to take heed of how easy it would be to take down our entire country by an attack on our power grid. So simple to do. And while they say there wasn't any computer hacking sabotage in this case, it's fair warning that standardizing on Windows will put this entire country in great risk for just such an attack. It doesn't have to be a plane, missle or nuclear bomb that causes chaos...
...a system bomb will do it.
Post by: Bill on August 14, 2003, 08:35:19 PM
Doesn't matter what caused it [lightening .. whatever], fact is that it's slightly beyond our full control.
Post by: Bill on August 14, 2003, 08:42:59 PM
QUOTE
I'm not in the NE! I dinna do it!
Post by: ljocampo on August 14, 2003, 09:26:10 PM
They said some funny looking guy in a red teletubby suit went over the falls in a barrel and knocked out the power station.
In '65 I was a teenage dish washer in a resturant and the boss aked me to stay and watch the place until they restored the power.
Post by: RHPConsult on August 14, 2003, 09:29:01 PM
So the question is . . .
Where was Bernie this afternoon?
That could explain a lot!
Post by: Bernie on August 14, 2003, 09:51:26 PM
Post by: RHPConsult on August 14, 2003, 11:23:15 PM
All of you in the Northeast should plan to be very careful during this massive power outage.
Don't you remember the last big one in Nov 1965 ? -- the number of babies born the following July and August was extraordinary.
So, do be careful how you amuse yourselves in the absence of TV...
PS: OTOH, you're not reading TS either, are you?
Post by: kps on August 15, 2003, 07:22:14 AM
My biggest problem was I left my car on fumes and all the gas stations were non functional. I had to get my gilfriend to pick me up.
Post by: WDL on August 15, 2003, 07:28:42 AM
MARS - The elimination of "light pollution" made it ideal to
observe Mars while it's temporarily orbiting so close to Earth!
Problem is (personal) I don't have a telescope and couldn't find
my binoculars! Must have been wonderful for the amateur
astonomers! A God-given opportunity!
TECHNOLOGY - Unlike 1965 where transistor radios were ubiquitous - the "everywhere" devices now are cell phones, laptop and hand-held computers & PDAs. None of those worked or were able to access the internet! One man on the street in Manhattan had a transistor radio and was surrounded by a crowd who wanted to hear what was happening! (BTW he called it a "transition radio")
GREED - DETROIT - Store owner - when people started rushing in to buy bottled water, he upped the price to $175 a case! Probably would have charged $10 a candle if he had any.
PREPAREDNESS - We experienced a most unusual local four hour power failure six months ago. We had lots of candles from camping, decoration etc. Our house was lit up with about 12 candles in an absolute sea of darkness. After about 20 minutes, someone in another house had found one candle and added a tiny light to the sea.
What we hadn't foreseen was that our three cats had never seen live flames before and were playing with the flames. One cat singed the fur on its belly walking over a short candle! Another knocked a candle over!
Next day went to a hardware store and bought two fluorescent battery powered lamps and batteries and have them at hand for immediate use. Unlike my binoculars, I know where the lamps are!
TERRORISM - As Krissel pointed out - if ever there was notice served on all of us (the developed world) about how vulnerable our technology makes us - how easily we can be paralysed - surely this was a warning to heed.
While the U.S. suffered the obscenity of Sept 11th - it's the entire developed world that is the target of the fundamentalist hatred. The U.S. is just the prime target by virtue of it being the world leader.
I won't get into how ashamed many of us in Canada are at the doofus prime minister we have, surrounded by a bunch of dolts in his cabinet. My blood pressure revs up and my veins and arteries can't withstand the strain.
WDL
Post by: Gregg on August 15, 2003, 07:44:14 AM
We went to bed early. It's been a busy week!
Heard a TV reporter saying the buses weren't running, even though they run on gasoline. Guess he didn't realize where that gas comes from.... gas pumps - electric gas pumps.
Post by: kelly on August 15, 2003, 08:27:50 AM
Then watched it on ABC.
Glad it wasn't me.
Long walk from Manhattan to Queens for example.
Post by: CyberPet on August 15, 2003, 09:37:04 AM
I just wonder what would have happen if it was in the coldest parts of the winter, now that would have been terrible. Not many seem to know how to keep warm and get fresh water nowdays without turing a tap or switching a flick.
Post by: kelly on August 15, 2003, 09:50:58 AM
The fact that there was a Heat Wave going on was a big part of it.
Seems it's much less likely in the Winter.
But you never know.
Post by: Bernie on August 15, 2003, 10:04:32 AM
Ann just last night said the same thing RHP
Post by: Paddy on August 15, 2003, 12:05:57 PM
Around 11 AM (when I last listened to the CBC) about 50% of Toronto had power restored. My sister, who lives in Coburg, 20 miles to the east of Newcastle, had power back as of 1:30 AM this morning and didn't lose it again like we did.
Line-ups at gas stations that have power are horrendous, and some operators have been engaging in price-gouging, charging $1/litre, instead of the usual $0.69 or so. The Toronto airport is a mess - with every Air Canada flight cancelled, no cell service working in the area, and a shortage of cabs etc. People are waiting three hours in line at pay phones and a CBC reporter said one line for rebooking flights was about a kilometre long!
The TTC has cancelled all subway service today and people were told to stay home from work.
We're planning another barbeque tonight - just in case!!!
I believe all of MA is fine - flights were being redirected to Boston all evening yesterday.
Post by: sluggo on August 15, 2003, 12:26:38 PM
Post by: Peter on August 15, 2003, 01:42:25 PM
Barn needs a new roof & some beams in the wall- completely destroyed our grain dryer ($28,000 new), melted part of a tire (still usable), and wrecked a belt conveyor (more $ than its worth).
Thankfully our 2 $42,000 tractors were moved before the flames got to where the were parked.
Thankfully no one was seriously hurt (my mom did get a mild burn all down her right arm)
Good to unload- right now we are rather frantic because we needed everything that was damaged.
Now- someone top that!
Peace-
Peter
Post by: Raven on August 15, 2003, 05:27:36 PM
It's times like this I'm glad I live in a small city in Northern Canada. Fresh air. No traffic. No SARS. No BSE. No West Nile. No terrorists. No power outages. Lots of friendly folks and awesome Northern Lights.
Just black flies! :-)
Actually I take that back. It's been so hot this summer, there are no bugs.
We're going fishing tonight on a cool, clean lake. Sun sets around 10pm.
Wanna come?
Post by: kelly on August 15, 2003, 07:46:53 PM
Post by: Bobun on August 15, 2003, 09:04:27 PM
I'd like to throw in the thought that this might involve a
visitation from an alien visitor. Hey! are you certain it can't be?
Tee Hee.
Post by: Paddy on August 15, 2003, 09:35:18 PM
Lights dimmed a bit a few minutes ago - we all looked at each other...but nothing more happened. The sheer size of this blackout made the vulnerability of the entire electrical grid in Canada and the US frightenly apparent.
Post by: kelly on August 16, 2003, 07:41:53 AM
Hope your Mom is ok.
That's the most important thing of course.
Possessions can always be replaced. People can't.