I was at my PC (where else). Wasn't working at the time, and with my messed up sleep hours I hadn't been up long. I remember that moment so well...at around 4:15 I had my radio on my favourite radio show, Primetime Sports on the Fan with Bob McCowan. He uses the first ten minutes or so to just say whatever's on his mind. As I'm typing on the PC, the station just goes dead. No big deal I thought, that station sometimes glitches out for a few seconds before returning. Seven seconds later, the power goes down. Once I heard that the station was still down, I immediately suspected that this blackout was wide reaching. Only my mom was home at the time, so I went upstairs to talk to her. At the same time I threw it on the news radio station a bit down the dial, thankful to hear that they were still on the air (which was kinda odd since they share the same building as the Fan). They confirmed that the blackout was looking pretty widespread. Then a few minutes later, they said reports were coming out of Detroit that they were down. After hearing that, the gravity of the situation started to become clear.
At that point I was just waiting outside for the rest of the troop to come home. Some of the neighbours had invariably spilled outside. Dad came home about an hour later, followed by my sister about an hour after that. I was worried about my brother though, since he was stuck downtown and it takes close to an hour to travel that distance with the subway running. Without it, it was going to be a bit more problematic. Thankfully he was driven home by his manager. He was working at an ice cream parlour at the time, and I think they got a little busier after the blackout occurred, as people were trying to keep their cool (not to mention their wits). It wasn't fun seeing several fire trucks blasting by us, obviously to help people stranded in elevators.
Night time was never really a concern for us. For starters we had enough food for several days. Moreover we had a bunch of extra flashlights, candles and a portable cooker with some propane tanks left over from the Y2K stockade. So we were able to eat a heated dinner, and even some hot tea or chocolate, all while listening to the radio. We considered ourselves very fortunate.
The radio itself provided some great entertainment even though it was on the news station. Politicians and officials on both side of the border was playing the blame game ("It wasn't me!!), or coming up with reasons for the blackout ranging from an electric storm in the Niagra Falls (I think it was clear and sunny there that day) to some incident that happened in Detroit.
Going outside when it was dark though was what I'll always remember. For starters we met up with some neighbours and just shot the breeze for a couple hours. The scene itself though was just incredible. Seeing cars driving by on the road with their headlights cutting through the utter darkness was really cool to see. Moreover, we could finally look at the night sky uninteruppted by city lights, the way it's seen in the country. My God did it ever look beautiful. Must've been a thousand stars that were visible. Using a pair of binoculars, it simply floored me how beautiful and busy the view was. I think that view alone almost made the aggrivation worth it.
Eventually we turned in. I forget exactly when the power came on for us, but I think it was before noon. All in all it wasn't too bad, but that's easy to say when we were semi-prepared and it only lasted a day. Several days or a week of that mess, and it would've been total anarchy.
The big talk back then was how communities had come closer together and helped each other, and how people would be more concious of saving energy. Of course a year later we all went back to normal, not giving a shit about our fellow man and burning the juice 24/7. Some things never change.
At that point I was just waiting outside for the rest of the troop to come home. Some of the neighbours had invariably spilled outside. Dad came home about an hour later, followed by my sister about an hour after that. I was worried about my brother though, since he was stuck downtown and it takes close to an hour to travel that distance with the subway running. Without it, it was going to be a bit more problematic. Thankfully he was driven home by his manager. He was working at an ice cream parlour at the time, and I think they got a little busier after the blackout occurred, as people were trying to keep their cool (not to mention their wits). It wasn't fun seeing several fire trucks blasting by us, obviously to help people stranded in elevators.
Night time was never really a concern for us. For starters we had enough food for several days. Moreover we had a bunch of extra flashlights, candles and a portable cooker with some propane tanks left over from the Y2K stockade. So we were able to eat a heated dinner, and even some hot tea or chocolate, all while listening to the radio. We considered ourselves very fortunate.
The radio itself provided some great entertainment even though it was on the news station. Politicians and officials on both side of the border was playing the blame game ("It wasn't me!!), or coming up with reasons for the blackout ranging from an electric storm in the Niagra Falls (I think it was clear and sunny there that day) to some incident that happened in Detroit.
Going outside when it was dark though was what I'll always remember. For starters we met up with some neighbours and just shot the breeze for a couple hours. The scene itself though was just incredible. Seeing cars driving by on the road with their headlights cutting through the utter darkness was really cool to see. Moreover, we could finally look at the night sky uninteruppted by city lights, the way it's seen in the country. My God did it ever look beautiful. Must've been a thousand stars that were visible. Using a pair of binoculars, it simply floored me how beautiful and busy the view was. I think that view alone almost made the aggrivation worth it.
Eventually we turned in. I forget exactly when the power came on for us, but I think it was before noon. All in all it wasn't too bad, but that's easy to say when we were semi-prepared and it only lasted a day. Several days or a week of that mess, and it would've been total anarchy.
The big talk back then was how communities had come closer together and helped each other, and how people would be more concious of saving energy. Of course a year later we all went back to normal, not giving a shit about our fellow man and burning the juice 24/7. Some things never change.
