The Great Northeast Blackout of 8/14/2003
Hard to believe it's been 15 years. August 14, 2003. The Great Northeast Blackout of 2003.
I was working for a large insurance ocmpany at the time. Our office was on Pine Street in lower Manhattan, just north of Wall Street, just west of the East River, and just across town from the World Trade Center site (a 5-10 minute walk).
It was midafternoon, and suddenly the electricity went out. We looked out our windows, and saw that power was out in the neighboring offices as well.
Two thoughts occurred to us. Back then, Con Ed had recurring summer power outages, where everything south of Canal Street might lose power during peak demand. The other thought ... well, we were coming up on the second anniversary of 9/11 ...
In either event, I would be stuck in Manhattan for awhile. And I was supposed to pick up my daughter Jen later that evening. I called home to ask someone else (either my parents or one of my sisters) to pick up Jen ...
... and my sister told me that there was a blackout in our neighborhood.
As soon as we spoke to each other, we knew that the blackout was far more extenisve, and far more serious, than either of us had suspected. My sister's comment was "it must be the power grid." I later learned that she was correct.
So ... I was stuck in lower Manhattan. Jen (age 12 1/2 and about to start 8th grade) was on a teen tour bus, headed home to Long Island. Becca (age 11, sixth rade) was on a teen tour in Montreal, so no worries. My mother was in midtown Manhattan -- she'd gone to a hair salon on 23rd Street, and was meeting my father in Penn Station so they could go to the theater than evening. My father was on a Long Island Railroad train, headed to Penn. My sisters were all at home.
My office was evacuated (fortunately we were on lower floor, so the walk down wasn't too strenuous). My friend Monica (another Long Islander) and I decided to walk to Penn Station (about 4 miles) so that when the power came back on, we'd be able to get on a train home.
Four miles in the heat of summer...Monica kept looking over her shoulder, she'd taken the same walk on 9/11. She was also worried; our cell phones weren't working, and she needed to ask her mother to take care of her young daughter.
When we got to 34th Street, Monica felt faint. She'd donated blood earlier that day, and the walk took a lot out of her. I was lucky to find a guy selling oranges, I bought some and made Monica eat one.
Miraculously I found my mother at Penn, and Monica found a friend from her town, so that's wheere we parted company.
A short time later, I felt faint. An auxiliary police officer asked if I wanted to go to the hospital, and foolishly I said "no"; hospitals have generators, and air conditioning...
So, how did our family fare during the blackout?
Jen was on the camp bus, as I said. She was very popular that night, because her cell phone was the only working phone on the bus. My sisters F and A met the bus and brought her home.
My dad was on a train, about a mile outside the railroad's hub at Jamaica. He had to walk a mile to the station (not good in the summer heat, especially when you have a heart condition), where he was able to use a pay phone to call home (remember, this was when we all still had land lines). It was late afternoon when my sister H drove to Jamaica to pick him up.
But she couldn't continue to Manhattan, the police had closed all the bridges and tunnels to incoming traffic. Besides, she was running out of gas, and she couldn't buy more -- gas pumps run on electricity.
The bridges didn't reopen until almost midnight. At that time, H and A retrieved my car from the train station parking lot, then drove into Manhattan to rescue my mother and me.
15 years...
I was working for a large insurance ocmpany at the time. Our office was on Pine Street in lower Manhattan, just north of Wall Street, just west of the East River, and just across town from the World Trade Center site (a 5-10 minute walk).
It was midafternoon, and suddenly the electricity went out. We looked out our windows, and saw that power was out in the neighboring offices as well.
Two thoughts occurred to us. Back then, Con Ed had recurring summer power outages, where everything south of Canal Street might lose power during peak demand. The other thought ... well, we were coming up on the second anniversary of 9/11 ...
In either event, I would be stuck in Manhattan for awhile. And I was supposed to pick up my daughter Jen later that evening. I called home to ask someone else (either my parents or one of my sisters) to pick up Jen ...
... and my sister told me that there was a blackout in our neighborhood.
As soon as we spoke to each other, we knew that the blackout was far more extenisve, and far more serious, than either of us had suspected. My sister's comment was "it must be the power grid." I later learned that she was correct.
So ... I was stuck in lower Manhattan. Jen (age 12 1/2 and about to start 8th grade) was on a teen tour bus, headed home to Long Island. Becca (age 11, sixth rade) was on a teen tour in Montreal, so no worries. My mother was in midtown Manhattan -- she'd gone to a hair salon on 23rd Street, and was meeting my father in Penn Station so they could go to the theater than evening. My father was on a Long Island Railroad train, headed to Penn. My sisters were all at home.
My office was evacuated (fortunately we were on lower floor, so the walk down wasn't too strenuous). My friend Monica (another Long Islander) and I decided to walk to Penn Station (about 4 miles) so that when the power came back on, we'd be able to get on a train home.
Four miles in the heat of summer...Monica kept looking over her shoulder, she'd taken the same walk on 9/11. She was also worried; our cell phones weren't working, and she needed to ask her mother to take care of her young daughter.
When we got to 34th Street, Monica felt faint. She'd donated blood earlier that day, and the walk took a lot out of her. I was lucky to find a guy selling oranges, I bought some and made Monica eat one.
Miraculously I found my mother at Penn, and Monica found a friend from her town, so that's wheere we parted company.
A short time later, I felt faint. An auxiliary police officer asked if I wanted to go to the hospital, and foolishly I said "no"; hospitals have generators, and air conditioning...
So, how did our family fare during the blackout?
Jen was on the camp bus, as I said. She was very popular that night, because her cell phone was the only working phone on the bus. My sisters F and A met the bus and brought her home.
My dad was on a train, about a mile outside the railroad's hub at Jamaica. He had to walk a mile to the station (not good in the summer heat, especially when you have a heart condition), where he was able to use a pay phone to call home (remember, this was when we all still had land lines). It was late afternoon when my sister H drove to Jamaica to pick him up.
But she couldn't continue to Manhattan, the police had closed all the bridges and tunnels to incoming traffic. Besides, she was running out of gas, and she couldn't buy more -- gas pumps run on electricity.
The bridges didn't reopen until almost midnight. At that time, H and A retrieved my car from the train station parking lot, then drove into Manhattan to rescue my mother and me.
15 years...
Wow. That was quite the ordeal. I hadn't heard about it at all. (We were having occasional rolling blackouts about that time, but no major power outages.) It's amazing how much of our lives rely on electricity.
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