August 15, 2003The blackout of 2003 hits, and I hit the road....Yesterday, at 4:11pm, I was working on my computer. Suddenly, the screen looked warped and wobbly. I heard funny noises coming from my UPS. Then it all goes black. I think to myself "oh, just another fire drill". We had a fire drill in the office last month, and I thought that the building management were giving us a pop quiz. I went out into the hallway, and saw that it was pitch black. It was only then that I realized it was a real power failure. I ran back to my office and shut down my computer (without a screen to help). Despite the fact that so many people were in trouble, stuck in elevators and subway cars, all I could think about was that my UPS was working and that all my data on the computer were safe. Then I ran around guess what I should do. The phones were working, so I called my father, and he said that he still had power in his office, about 5 blocks away. Only later did I find out that his building had a backup power source. This made me think that it was a local outage in only my building, but it turned out to be the whole Northeast! At that point I decided to give up on doing any more work, and I ran down 20 flights of stairs, and got to the street. After talking to some people on the street, I found out that the subways were all stopped, so I went to Pier 11 to see if I could catch a ferry uptown. The roads were already badly clogged, and police cars were trying to get through. There was already a giant crowd at Pier 11, and I quickly gave up on taking a ferry and started walking uptown. As the ferry pulled away from the dock, I was able to see the thousands of people still waiting at the ferry terminal. No one looked happy! After the 7 minute ride across the east river, I started walking to Roosevelt Island. I arrived home at 8:30, four hours after leaving my office in downtown Manhattan. My feet hurt, and my Teva sandles were worn down, but I was happy to be home. It was only then that I remembered that I had to climb up the stairs to the 19th floor! (It was then that I wished I could post a rant on I HATE NYC.) Since the cell phones had stopped working immedieately after the blackout, I had no idea how my wife and son were doing. Luckily they were fine, and so were my sister and parents. Our landline was still working, and it felt great to get some good news. I listened to the radio in the dark for a while, and then lit some candles. Soon Kerstin and Darius came home. After a night of deep sleep in the warm muggy bedroom, I woke at 6:00 am to the cries of my son screaming "The sun is up! Time to wake up!" In my dream, the one that had intruded upon, all the power had been restored throughout New York. I was shocked to see that reality was very different. Most of the city was still without power. My home regained electricity at around 5pm today. It feels great to have a computer to work on, a light to see by, a ice cube from the fridge. I appreciate them much more today than I did yesterday. But I also feel that our dependence of technology and electricity has gone too far. 2 more days without power, and the whole region would have become a living nightmare. I now want to become less dependent on the Grid, if I can. Posted by cyrus at August 15, 2003 10:38 PM | T r a c k B a c kComments
Sounds like it was an adventure! Glad you and your family were safe; give Kerstin and Darius best wishes from me and Debbie. Posted by: Daishi on August 16, 2003 11:06 AMThanks, Daishi! Cyrus, well done! I am glad that you and the family are fine. I think that your comments on dependence on the grid are important. This should provide impetus to the vision of a Fuel Cell powered mini generator in every home. Maybe this is a business that Source of Inspiration could work on with Tomigaia! Cyrus, Kerstin and Darius Glad it all worked out without too much upset. It seems that the powercut was all a cunning ploy to remind us about what we take for granted. Light, Air Conditioning and 19 story apartments! I had a muggy night in bed last night too, but that's because I farted myself to sleep. Hows my godson? XX Thanks for sharing your experience with us. You guys have been enjoying low electricity bills for years. Isn't it only fair to have blackouts from time to time? As far as I can remember, Tokyo has not had blackouts ever since I started living here 20 years ago, although we have been paying the bill twice as much than in NY. Posted by: Takagi@Tokyo on August 16, 2003 05:06 PMGood to hear that all is well. ...and God said... let there be neon signs... glad you are doing well. got your phone message. i'm really happy you weren't one of those blokes sleeping on the side walk like a bum. tell kerstin and darius i love them... -M- Posted by: micah the prophet on August 16, 2003 10:48 PMJames: Darius is great! he had a lot fun running around in the dark. Even though they mayor has asked all of us to use less power, I admit that I am going to sleep with the AC on again tonight.... Posted by: cyrus on August 16, 2003 10:49 PMMicah: Thanks for worrying! Posted by: Cyrus on August 16, 2003 10:51 PMTakagi: You may be right. I remember how expensive electricity in Tokyo was. But I always thought that TEPCO was very innefficient, and that all the nuclear power would make electricity cheaper! It is true that I never had a blackout happen during the 12 years I lived in Japan, but I think it could still happen, particularly if Tokyo has a very hot August this year! Posted by: Cyrus on August 16, 2003 10:54 PMCyrus, Glad to hear you were ok. As far as Tokyo, etc is concerned, it may happen, it may not happen, no use worrying about it. Also saw this thing on the telly a few days ago, where this bloke in Japan is developing sea water based generation system, which uses the difference in heat from deep sea water and land level water. The warmer water evaporates anmonia I think, that runs the turbine, and the colder water cools the vapors back into anmonia and so on.....they were mentioning costs, seems that it is probably economical if done in scale. It's also clean energy. I'd assume you want some clean energy for Darius' sake.... The summer has been cold here, been raining for the past 4 days or so, no need to turn on the AC here! Regards to the family. Minoru James: fsghsjsdpfhvdvafheoifdgvzvblzvbsadlgjaew!!!!! Posted by: Minoru on August 17, 2003 01:17 AMCyrus, Wow - it is great to hear you and your family are okay. I am beginning to think of buying and installing the solar power cell if I were going to buy a house - even though the cost would not compensate in the long run... rather think of this as life insurance, esp. I am in such a business not be able to afford to have a power failure any time of the day. Take good care of you and your family cheers, -tak Posted by: Tak on August 17, 2003 04:14 AMHi Cyrus, I am glad that you and your family are well. In those cirscumtances, we could see how dependent we have become to this source of energy... Gia-Khanh Posted by: Gia-Khanh on August 18, 2003 03:25 AMHi Cyrus, Ok I will not give you all my ideas, but just tell you that we are really happy that you and your family are fine. Take care of your family and of your feets. PS: Why don't you just move to France, they annonced that a failure like this is impossible in France..... cyrus - thanks for sharing your experience. it's surreal to have watched it from so far away (sfo). i'm not so sure if i wished i was there when it happened, but i am glad to know you, kerstin and darius are good. on a totally different note, how's kerstin's training coming along? give her my regards...kitz Posted by: kitz on August 18, 2003 01:45 PMGlad to here that you survived. Despite the chaos, it sounds like the people of New York responded very calmly to the crisis. I have vague memories of watching a 'made-for-TV' movie about the NY blackout in 77(?)which emphasized looting and riots. Regards to Kerstin, Darius and the your family Posted by: Cyrus R D on August 20, 2003 04:18 AMI would recommend getting off the grid, but that probably won't happen on the nineteenth floor of a building in NYC. Oh well. Tokyo is fine so far . . . it's been extra-cool this summer. Pretty hellish the last few days, though. You can peek at this page to see whether Tokyo will go dark anytime soon: http://www.tepco.co.jp/setsuden/corp-com/forecast/index-j.html --Durf Posted by: Peter Durfee on August 24, 2003 10:19 PMPost a comment
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