We had a blackout in all 5 boroughs of New York City (and I think all of NY State, parts of NJ, Connecticut, Vermont, Toronto and Ottawa in Canada) yesterday...started around 4:15pm...the office lights just went out, the company network went down, everyone evacuated the building. The traffic lights in Manhattan were all out. There were TONS of people on the street. Cell phone networks were jammed from everyone trying to reach people they know. There were conflicting reports of why the black-out occurred. I think it's all

The sun was scorching and there were long lines at all the hot dog stands from people buying water. I'm surprised they didn't increase the price of water... so my boyfriend found me in front of my office building on 6th Avenue and 53rd Street. He works on 3rd Avenue and 54th Street, so he walked across town (for those who don't know how Manhattan is laid out...Avenues go up and down and Streets go East and West). We walked over the 59th Street Bridge (aka Queensboro Bridge) from Manhattan into Queens like many other people and ended up calling his father to come pick us up in Queens when our cell phones were working again. We go camping so we had a freeze-dried food supply and had that for dinner. Camping food is actually pretty good.

The power was up at about 8:30am in Queens this morning, where I live. The subway system is still down so I'm not at work. My cable modem is down, but luckily I didn't get rid of my AOL dial-up.

Also, it was my boyfriend's birthday yesterday. We were supposed to go see a Broadway show. What a birthday!

 

Just is just a huge mess!!!

 

At least looting kept to a minimum...only one incident in Brooklyn. In the black-out of 1977, there were tons of rioting and looting and buildings set on fire. NYC sure has come a long way in terms of safety and community. There were a lot of block parties last night and people getting to know their neighbors and stuff like that.

 

Must be a new concept to New Yorkers.

 

It is

There's no TV...

 

We were hit, that's for sure, and I'm close to Canada!
Lots of my Canadian friends are off-line today, so it was very far reaching.

 

Oh shucks... freeze dried food... YUM!

 

yeah that was nuts. a huge area was effected. you dont see stuff like that everyday.