
Northeast blackout of 2003 - iancarroll
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northeast_blackout_of_2003
======
rdtsc
Remember that one. It was so strange. People didn't quite know what to do with
themselves. Usually they'd go home in the evening and watch TV. TV was not
working so they they just kind of ended up going outside and met neighbors
they had never talked to before. It was great.

The food was going bad in the refrigerators and freezers so neighbors got
together and those who had generators offered to store some of the food.
People were firing up their grills and grilling out together, talking,
socializing.

In the morning they were used to hitting Starbucks to get their caffeine fix
but local Starbucks was out of power, so I remember a few neighbors
complaining among other things that they have coffee headaches.

Next thing when the power came back, everyone went and bought generators.
Spent thousands of dollars on those things. But I don't remember them being
used much after that as there were no other such major outages since.

Oh and also they promptly went back to watching TV (and now probably browsing
the web) and being just as isolated as before from each other.

~~~
chasing
I wasn't in NYC for this, but it reminds me of two events I was in NYC for:
The earthquake of 2011 and the aftermath of hurricane Sandy.

During the earthquake many people fled their buildings, so we wound up at a
kind of impromptu block party at the restaurant across the street with
everyone excitedly telling their stories.

After Sandy, lower Manhattan was still dark. But people were out kind of
giddily enjoying the bizarre experience of dark Manhattan and sharing stories,
which gave the town an interesting sort of social buzz.

Anyway. The moral of the story: Despite NYC's grouchy reputation, New Yorkers
seem to immediately come together during these events to talk, hang out, help,
etc. It's a reminder that we live in a good town.

~~~
thesmallestcat
Everything is an event in New York. Even a minor earthquake 300 miles away
that shakes your silverware.

~~~
chasing
No, actually surprisingly few things are "an event" in New York. Even stuff as
major as the NYE Times Square Ball Drop are completely ignorable in most of
the city if you turn off the TV.

Earthquakes, though, are rare. And if you haven't felt one before, kind of a
crazy novelty.

------
venning
Two things about this incident have always struck me: How incredibly calmly
New York City handled what movies tell me should be a riot-worthy moment; and
how I have never met someone who wasn't living in the Northeast at the time
who is aware that this occurred (I mention it off-and-on).

~~~
budgersfing
Chicagoan here (W suburbs). Not only was I aware of it, I used it to justify a
$40,000 natural gas generator installation at my home (I'm a work-from-home
radiologist, so outages are unacceptable [and also need back-up internet, of
course]). Also have a full disaster-management plan and supplies in place. I
got plenty of jeers from neighbors and colleagues when I had everything
installed. Kept us going during a several-day outage during a heat wave about
5 or 6 years ago. We hosted 3 families for almost a week, with always-on AC,
refrigeration and basic lighting.

Couple shorter brownouts since then. Nobody laughing at me now.

(PS: I'm not advocating for general installation of these things, as they are
a major investment. But this was in my threat model.)

~~~
Reason077
Now days you could install a battery system (e.g. Tesla Powerwall) and solar,
instead of the generator.

This would probably come in significantly cheaper than the $40k, and pay for
itself over time through reduced energy bills.

------
woodruffw
I was on the overnight Amtrak from NY to Chicago when this happened. I was
only 7 or 8 at the time, so I had no idea what was going on - I was just
thankful for the extra ~10 hours to explore the train (and find the unlocked
snack cabinet in the cafe car).

------
mgkimsal
SE Michigan here:

We'd just had a long power outage (hours, from the night before) restored
around noonish at home. Few hours later... poof - all of Michigan gone due to
this. Quite annoying! :)

------
dblohm7
It hit during my last final exam of the summer term. We were lucky that our
prof let us complete the remainder of our exam under the glow of emergency
lighting.

