August 15, 2003

• Shock Value

  
  

  While politicians & pundits cannot pass up casting blame, citizens remain calm, civil. 

  
  

   

  
  

  As day two of the Great Blackout of 2003 passes slowly by, so far, so good. Yesterday, we were happy to discover that the American spirit of goodwill and cooperation in adversity is very much alive and well. As New Yorkers and residents of many other U.S. and Canadian cities in the northeast lost power during the most severe blackout in U.S. history, affecting around 50 million people – that’s nearly a quarter of the U.S. population – residents pulled together in Norman Rockwell fashion. Americans pooled money, transportation; fairly well everything to help each other with the basics, such as getting home, finding water and calling loved ones. After darkness fell, neighborhood families met together as a community in backyards with candles and board games. Children played together until midnight in something far more reminiscent of the Walton’s than the Simpson’s.

  
  

   

  
  

  The National Guard stayed home. No declarations of disaster were made and even in the somewhat infamous Bronx district of New York City, people actually slept in the streets to enjoy the cool night air, singing songs and making the best of things. Crime was almost non-existent, with the total number said to be unusually low, at last report – which for a city that never sleeps...especially without A/C...and a population of over eight million is fairly an amazing thing. It is without doubt a testament in itself to the people who survived 9-11. Indeed, they will unite any time, any place and see to it they pull through any new challenges that events such as these might thrust upon them. Together.

  
  

   

  
  

  So far, the only place which seems to be panicking is Michigan, where Governor Jennifer Granholm declared a state of emergency, citing water shortages in the Great Lakes state.

  
  

   

  
  

  The Power outage took the northeast by storm yesterday and happened so fast, according to MSNBC, that it may have damaged some of the power plants which were shut down too quickly. And this may slow the process of re-energizing parts left in the dark. In response in part to this, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg indicated in a news conference today they may fire up a new local power plant which until now has been prevented from starting due to legal maneuverings and court orders related to a law suit by parties opposed to the plant, citing that this may help restore power to the area more quickly.

  
  

   

  
  

  The blackout happened yesterday shortly after 4:00 P.M. Eastern Time. Many didn’t know what happened or how widespread it was. Sean Hannity’s nationally syndicated radio show was just getting into an interview with former California Governor Pete Wilson when everything went dark. Eight seconds later, Hannity’s studio went live again. At first, the commentator thought it was simply a localized power surge, “I felt something...like a jolt...come through my headset...I don’t know what just happened here.”

  
  

   

  
  

  It took about 10 minutes for the news to trickle in about exactly what just happened or how severe it was. Cell phone signals were lost and many landlines were down, hampering the process of discovery even more. This, as thousands of New York commuters were trapped in darkened subway tunnels with no word of what exactly had gone wrong or if, perhaps the worst had happened again.

  
  

   

  
  

  Today, New York Mayor Bloomberg praised his city for their civility and courage after last night’s rush-hour nightmare. The mayor stated that all non-essential city workers would be off today and encouraged those who did not absolutely need to travel to work, to treat the day as a “snow day” and said he would open up all of the city parks and lakes, at no charge for those who wished to take advantage of a warm “Friday in August”.

  
  

   

  
  

  Meanwhile reports of looting came in last night from cities in Canada, raising concerns that looting would follow in the U.S., however no widespread looting was reported in any of the major U.S. cities hit by the outage.

  
  

   

  
  

  At this time, power has returned to a significant portion of the grid and is expected to continue its slow march to full capacity possibly by some time this weekend. Public transportation will take some extra time however to be fully realized, as customary diagnostics and other work must be done after power is restored. This can take up to eight hours in some cases.

  
  

   

  
  

  --Martin a.k.a. Blogbat

  
  

   

  
  

   

  • 1:07 pm
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