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Around 4:10 p.m. on August 14, 2003, electrical transmission lines running through Ohio disconnected--thanks to toppled trees that forced Cleveland area power lines to draw more energy--and blackouts started to cascade across the system. NYC was left, along with other parts of the Northeast, Midwest, and Canada, without electrical power.
Power did come back about 30 hours later, but not after New York residents were trapped in elevators and subways, unable to make cell phone calls (because lines were overloaded), walked home or stayed with friends, finished out whatever was in their or restaurants' fridges and maybe got a little busy, too (though there was no ensuing blackout baby boom). And that was just the precursor to investigating what happened.
The Department of Energy's final report attributed the blackout to a combination of human error (as in, please trim the darn trees around power lines) and equipment problems and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has since taken a greater role in overseeing reliability standards. Now, five years later, it's time to think about whether it can happen again.
The non-profit North American Electric Reliability Corporation president Rick Sergel said, “I can confidently say that the events that led to the 2003 blackout are now much less likely to occur." Less likely? Like how less likely? And with energy demand estimated to rise almost 30% by 2030, some people are worried, including the head of American Electric Power Michael Morris, who told the AP, "I'm really not a Chicken Little player, but I worry that no one seems to be focusing in on this," fearing even bigger blackouts in the future.
Scientific American has a great article looking the state of the power grid these days (it's not "smart"). And please share your "Where were you..." 2003 blackout nostalgia! Our favorite fun fact: 30 million gallons of sewage were released into the East River during the blackout because DEP backup generators weren't working. And possibly the best blackout quote is this Brooklyn resident's reasoning while throwing 40 pounds of spoiled food to the Daily News, "I guess if I wanted to kill off my family, I could serve them this, but I kind of like the mopes."
And in recent years, the city's blackouts have more to do with Con Ed than a nationwide issue, forcing more scrutiny on the agency.
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The Department of Energy's final report attributed the blackout to a combination of human error (as in, please trim the darn trees around power lines) and equipment problems and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has since taken a greater role in overseeing reliability standards.
You sure it wasn't because of air conditioned streets?
Q Where were you when the lights went out?
At home. I just happened to take the day off to sleep in.
Suckers.
They should have blackouts like this every year. The evening 2003 blackout was a lot of fun.
I had just gotten to work to do a 4 to 12 shift at the gym, it was so funny to watch our jewish manager go crazy thinking she couldnt sell anymore memberships. She was still telling me to sign people if they came in. She finally gave up around 6.
Where was I? I was at Cedar Point in Sandusky, OH at the time...in the lazy river, to be exact. I was getting ready to push someone underneath one of the waterfalls when the power went out. I was pissed, but then I looked around and noticed that every roller coaster was stuck on the lift hills.
I was actually visiting NYC at the time (moved here 2 1/2 yrs ago) and had a kick ass time. Missed the play we were gonna see, got drunk at a steakhouse in the theater district, some guy went up to the piano and started playing NY,NY and people threw him $20 bills. Got to see the stars in Central Park and had free sushi b/c Sushi a go-go was giving it away.
And as a souvenir....I had seen Dylan at Hammerstein two days before and got a poster saying the dates he played, but of course he never went on that Thursday night. I framed that one and hangs in my apartment to this day.
Here, here blablanyc. I have fond memories of the blackout. The walk from midtown Manhattan to Brooklyn was great exercise, plus my office was closed the next day so I got to go to the beach. Sigh.
Ugh, where have the last five years gone?
Hanging at my friends place in Hells Kitchen. In fact, I drove all around the area while the power was out.
Driving was a dream with no stop lights, the traffic actually moved a whole lot better than it normally did.
Went out to Billyburg to visit a friend and then down to Coney Island to drink.
It was a great 30 hours.
I also ended up getting laid out of doors, first and last time I did that. Very enjoyable. No kid 9 months later though, thank God.
After being in New York City for the 1965, 1977, and the 2003 blackouts, trust me, don't trust anything these bullshit artists throw out.
I believe it was about three days before the 1977 blackout that the President or Chairman of Con Ed came out and said that the reoccurrence of the '65 blackout is nil.
I saw someone wearing an "I survived the NYC Blackout 2003" t-shirt yesterday.
Thank god i didnt take that 3:50 LIRR to Penn.
I missed it by about 20 minutes - I was on an amtrak to DC when it hit. Kind of wish I had been here, sounds a bit surreal.
I was on a conference call with Canada, and we said "Weird, our lights just went out." When the people in Toronto said "Our lights just went out, too." I had abit of a freakout. I thought whatever was hit had to be pretty big. In a replay of 9/11, I walked home across the Manhattan Bridge again. Along the way I listened to the radio on my mp3 player and learned that it was a blackout, not terrorism. Everyone perked up when this news came out.
I also only had 7 bucks to my name, and no way to get cash. I spent it on a Hefeweizen draft at Cafe Steinhof.
just left work when the power went out, after hearing the news on the radio, i decided not 2 go home so i hung out in central park until evening, passed through a dark times square, went to battery park & spent the night having a bar-b-q party at some guy's backyard in murray hill. crashed at a friend's place in hell's kitchen.
I work in IT for a downtown law firm, so I had to stay at work until 6 PM so we could power off the servers (they were on battery backup). After that I walked home to the UES along 1st Avenue and saw all the people having fun at the bars and restaurants. I was too tired to go out when I got home so I just went to bed. The next day we walked around trying to find air-conditioned restaurants and stores as the power came back. If it happened again I'd try to make the most of it and have more fun.
I was at my nephew's bris. As the moel was about to to the dirty deed, the lights flickered and went out. Without missing a beat, he declared "nothing to worry about, I can do this with my eyes closed." My brother-in-law responded, also without missing a beat "please, don't."
yeah, where's the picture of me taking yet another leak into yet another Poland Spring bottle in a 5,000 a month apartment?
it was a fun time!
most. fun. ever.
I was chilling at home, on the phone listening to people yell 'hey, we have no power' as I spoke on the landline. when I realized that this was a blackout, I ran to the bodgega, and bought water and candles. The next morning, I walked over the brooklyn bridge to see my girlfriend, and brought her water and groceries up to her 15th floor apt. stayed the night, and walked over the manhattan bridge back home.
I was at work and knew it was something bigger than just NYC, because I was on the phone with my mom and her lights went out just as ours did.
When it appeared the lights weren't coming back on anytime soon, security came to take everyone outside, since the lights in the stairwells weren't working. We had to drag my boss out, because she wanted to keep working, even though the phones and computers were dead.
I went home to my very dark brownstone and encountered my elderly neighbor in the staircase. I never realized how dark it could get in that hallway without lights - I couldn't see him, but could hear him. I asked him if he was okay, and he said, "I called the landlord but he hasn't turned the lights on yet." I had to explain to him that it was affecting most of the northeast.
I went to a friend's house where we grilled up all the food in the fridge and drank all the beer, lest it spoil. Went out to a few bars on 5th Avenue in Park Slope and had a great time. A woman at Jackie's Fifth Amendment showed me how to stay cool by shoving ice down my bra. Good times.
I was already on the bus home when the lights went out. There was nothing else to do but stay on the bus; it was air-conditioned, I had a seat, and the M60 sometimes runs that slowly without the excuse of a blackout. I think it took 90 minutes to get to LGA.
The Dining Section of the Times had run a recipe for grilled peaches and pork, and I had purchased all of the ingredients from Fairway earlier in the day. So we didn't even have to open the refrigerator to cook. We couldn't get into the garage (electric door opener) but I always keep a grill, charcoal, matches, newspaper, and wood chips in the trunk of my car for impromptu cookouts. I remember using my Treo 650 to play music. We cooked out, had some neighbors over, and enjoyed the stars.
I was home in the midwest from my Cali college at the time. It was my local power utility who saw the blackout spreading and flipped the switch to stop it, so we never lost power. It was briefly terrifying when I turned on the TV and saw people going over the bridges on foot just like 9/11.
Sounds like a fun time here, though - my BF was in Connecticut and they threw a huge party that lasted till the short hours cuz nobody knew if they would be able to go to work in the morning. But I'm not too jealous, they haven't done shit to ensure it won't happen again - it definitely WILL happen again.
I helped carry a woman with cancer down 19 flights of stairs to the street, then stayed at work until midnight and finally got home by being the only car on the Queensboro Bridge (don't ask). It was spooky driving over the upper level of the bridge with the entire city dark and the only lights being from my car. Then I climbed 17 flights of stairs to get to my apartment with only a weak penlight to guide the way. I drank the melting ice cubes in the fridge because I had no water and went to sleep to the sound of bongo drums in the street. When I woke up the next morning the power was back on in my neighborhood, one of the first to get power back.
I was actually in the process of packing to move here on the 16th.
had to walk from brooklyn heights to morningside heights that evening. I estimate about 12 miles, and it took me 3 hours. a real drag then, but even at that point i knew i'd look back on it fondly.
there was an interesting foot traffic pattern on the brookyn bridge- the walk up either side was packed, but towards the middle of the bridge the crowd was much less dense. this was because that wooden walkway was swaying back and forth so violently (and boy, was it), that people were speed walking and even running to get back to other side, where on the sloped parts, it wasn't swinging so much.
I was one of the last cars to go through the Holland Tunnel. It was really wild to be able to drive through there in the dark, with only headlights lighting things up. Some people were so stupid that they didn't turn on their headlights, out of force of habit.
Anyway, didn't you hear? It was terrorism, albeit accidental. The Chinese were probing our infrastructure network and flipped some switches that made a small blackout become a much bigger one.
Hey, I wanna see those pictures, but when you click on them from the main page all you get is this page and they're gone.
I'm very sleep and possibly demented, can someone help me?
All I remember was how hot it was as I was trying to sleep.
Rach(#30), click on the second link in the first paragraph.
Walked down 25+ flights of stairs, drinking wine along the way. Hit a few bars, then walked home.
@Rach, that was an odd bug that eliminated the gallery from the post. It's back to working now.
Awesome, it's working now. I was one of those dancing people in Union Square. That was one of the funnest nights ever. We should seriously cut the electricity once a year and party like crazy.
It was far too hot to get busy that night.
I was in Ohio, cutting down some trees that were blocking the powerlines...
That blackout put gothamist on the map. It was the first time I got linked to it and I have been reading gothamist ever since.
www.forgotten-ny.com
It was NYC with no rules! It was so fun: free draft beer before it all went flat and warm, partying, necrophilia, head stabbing -- one old bum of 14th was eating staples and glue sticks that he had taken from OfficeDepot when their electric doors were stuck open all night, we wrote anti-capitalism messages with our own excrament on the stock exchange.
What a fun night that was! (err, week)
Hit the closest bar in the hopes the ice hadn't yet melted.
I remember where I was on August 14th 2003. I had just got in the car after regustering for summer school at North Lawndale College Prepatory charter High School when I heard about the Blackout Of 2003 on the radio on channel 780AM station. I also heard about the Blackout of 2003 on WGN channel 9 noon news. I had also read about the Blackout of 2003 in the Chicago SunTimes newspaper the next day after the Blackout of 2003 happened.