TIGblogs - Benjamin Quinto

At about a 4:15pm yesterday, we are working at the GYAN office and the lights went out. There was something about the way they went out that was different from any other power loss I've seen. Looking out the window, the building across the way had lost power as well. We all got up and walked down the stairs from our 9th floor to see what was going on. When we got to the street, everyone seemed to be out there already and as I looked to the corner, I could tell that the traffic signal was out. Was the entire city block out? No; actually, for the first time in 26 years, the entire city was out. Only about 15 minutes later did I realize the blackout extended all the way from NYC to Toronto, to Detroit, including most of the Northeastern US and Southern Canada.

All in all, this being the largest blackout in the history of the US (according to news sources), 50 million people were without power for the better part of the next 12 hours, at least. 21 power plants failed and the city - together with a dozen others - spent the hot and muggy night cloaked in darkness. In the city of lights, as its usually known, it was quite a sight to behold.

Honza, Beenash and I walked around, intrigued by the historic moment this represented. People poured onto the streets and streamed as if they were traffic, while traffic itself, cramming the streets, moved barely at all. It was awesome to see ordinary citizens stepping in at intersections to help guide the cars... it's reassuring when people step up in times of crises. It's inspiring and motivating to know that when the great machination of the system fails, that ordinary people become heroes and keep the flow going in what one would imagine would be a chaos too intense to control. But just as interesting was the attitude of people, as intrigued as we were, many standing outside drinking a beer. Those seemed to be selling faster than anything else, so we bought one as well. Long lines formed behind each of the public pay-phones, since cell phones didn't work, as these represented our best way to get in touch with family and friends. Some people placed radios outside and we stood around them, eager to hear the full story of what was going on.

We sat and watched people, talked to others, walked around, tried to get back into our building, which didn't allow us to do for security reasons. So we ventured uptown towards the 59th street bridge, obviously where this massive exodus of workers pouring through the streets was heading. It was the only major pedestrian-enabled way out of this side of the city, since buses were stuck and subways were out. Hundreds of thousands of people throughout the afternoon made their way by foot to the bridge and from there into Queens on their way home. As we began to cross the bridge, it was amazing - dark and packed, cat-calls and stray cars, a river of people where traffic usually goes, all walking together, amazed by the darkness falling heavier around us. Sparse lights peppered the skyline, the city was black, for the most part.

The last time such a thing happened was 1977, when the city went dark for 25 hours. It was the year before I was born, so experiencing this was really exciting at the beginning, and then grew more frustrating as the day went on. The heat at night forced us to open all the windows and sleep sweating, really far hotter than it was outside. The lights didn't come back on until the early hours of the morning, and it was only rolled out methodically (as Con Edison said was required) in parts of the city. The poor people of Detroit may not get power until Sunday. Many parts of this city are still off the grid, and one wonders how it even survives for a moment. It takes events beyond the imagination to stop a city such as this, whether by natural or man-made disaster.

Finally at 3:15pm today, we were sitting outside at a retaurant in a part of the city that had power ("WE HAVE POWER!" proclaimed the blackboard outside), waiting until the part of town our office was lit up, and sure enough the lights came on finally. So back we came, internet service restored shortly thereafter and telephone lines soon, hopefully. We wonder who remains without electricity but find ourselves ever-grateful for having it restored for us! Back to work, and a memorable day this will have been for us all. It will take a while for city to recover for sure, and one of the most baffling parts will be the how much food spoilage will have happened in the past 24 hours. We're going to stay away from meat, fish and dairy products for a few days, I think....