NYC 2003 Blackout

Stickfighter2

Stickfighter2

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Mar 29, 2000
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Having been encouraged by Mistwalkers Urbancraft Thread, I was wondering if anyone else here (besides me) lives/lived in NYC during the 2003 blackout, and if so, do you have any stories you might be willing to share?

Where were you, how did you get home, did you stay overnight at work, lessons learned in general, that sort of thing.
 
Well I already gave a few pieces of it in Mistwalkers Urbancraft Thread. I was at work, it was late afternoon when it hit, and most of the people I work with decided to stay overnight.

As for me, after working out of the same building for over 3 decades, I really wasn't up for spending any more time there than I had to, so I decided to hoof it out of Manhattan and head back to Staten Island by way of Brooklyn.

The walk portion took just about 4 hours. At the end of that I managed to get on a city bus that went over the VZ Bridge and dropped me off within a half mile of my house.

Total distance travelled, about 22 miles. Total time enroute, just around 5-1/2 hours.

As for any other particulars, that'll have to wait for tomorrow. It's getting late and I have to go to work tomorrow.

Or like I said, you can take a look at the Urbancraft I Thread, and check a couple of my posts over there.
Suffice to say that despite having lived through the NYC blackouts of 1965 and 1977, this one was quite an eye-opener.

I won't even get into the shit I saw on 9/11. That's a whole other bag of bad memories that I would just as soon keep down in the hole.
 
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Lights and siren all the way, little to no traffic.
Lost all my venison that year and I was pissed off.

Rat Pack 512
 
Here in Toronto we got hit with that blackout too. At the time I was working about 30km West of where I live so luckily used to drive to work. I just drove home which took a bit over an hour with all the traffic.
We spent the next few days (can't remember how many days it was now) grilling steaks, burgers, etc on our little portable/table-top propane grill on our balcony and even invited our neighbor, a single female nurse, over for a meal or two since she was totally unprepared. We figured we didn't know how long we'd be without power so we might as well use up the meat in our stand-up freezer.
Although it was inconvenient, it was actually not too bad here. I live a block from Yonge St in mid-town Toronto and there are a lot of bars, restaurants, multiplex cinemas, etc within a five minute walk of me. At night the bars were giving away or selling beer really cheap rather than have it waste. One night there was what could best be described as a street party in the dark, just candle light, lanterns etc, and it was a lot of fun.
 
1965 I was stationed up in Syracuse, and wandered around town with a few of my Air Force buddies. Nothing happening, no hysteria, not many people out.

1977 I was working nights at Church Street Station, the big post office next to the WTC. When the lights went out, I looked out the window at the North Tower, watching different floors flickering on and off emergency power until everything went dark.

When they finally sent all of us home, I took a bus uptown since the trains obviously weren't running. After that, I took the bus all the time, much more comfortable than the train, and didn't take a lot longer, either.

I was already out here in New Jersey by 2003. I don't remember anything about it. :)
 
Ed,

Wow, working for years in that shadow of those mighty buildings. That must be a hell of an empty feeling looking around there now, even though you don't work and live there, I assume you have went back since September 11, 2001.

It's hard to believe it's closing fast on ten years, I cannot quite wrap my mind around that.
 
I did not go back to see them for a few years. Then only once, disgusted at the souvenir tables set up all around the area.

Too much history. I had just retired a few months before the first attack in 1993. Right after that, the FBI picked up the perpetrators. They knew who they were because they had been watching them build the bomb, courtesy of their plant, who filmed everything.

I found out about the plant before the news broke, from a friend of mine: his wife. We were all neighbors, and good friends for years. He was an Egyptian officer named Emad Salem sent here to infiltrate terrorist groups.
 
I was 5 when I saw the sep 11 attack my dad turned on the tv for some reson and it was minutes before the hit. I saw the building crumple and I still remember it. I am so sick of the coins they sell or the t-shirts. It's very disohnoring.

I live in Arizona in the desert part and I was in Tucson when there was a state of emergency issued. There was tornado watch and warnings issued where I was and there was flash floods. My grandparents have a brick house so there wasn't a fear of it being destroyed. I was onthe roof making sure every thing was solid and almost got blown off. Pretty crazy especialy for az.
 
My wife and I had just moved to Queens from the LES. I was laid off between Millwright jobs and was in LI doing a slate roof when we got the news of the blackout (we weren't using any powertools so we hadn't noticed). I remember driving the work van through LI and Queens with no traffic lights, if I had it my way it would be like that every day :thumbup:;). My wife was at work in the upper east side and was pregnant with my firstborn. I couldn't get in touch with her, but I knew that she would be alright because she's a badass that keeps her head on straight in bad times. She managed to walk across the 59th st bridge and get a taxi from there to home. It was hot as hell so I spent the evening outside drinking Jack and smoking cuban cigars.
 
Hmmm.... maybe I should have called this thread the Northeast Blackout of 2003 instead of NYC Blackout.

Anyway, getting back to Lessons Learned from the Blackout, one of the things I did was to put together an emergengy kit. Not so much a BOB or an E & E pack as a "pre-positioned supply stash" at work.

Nothing spectacular, just a handful of what I considered essentials based on what I felt would give me the most bang for the buck in the event anything similar ever happened again.

As I mentioned previously, I decided to hoof it out of manhattan, while quite a few of my co-workers decided to stay there overnight. Having chosen to walk, I was happy that I was wearing a good pair of walking shoes. With my lower back issues, I'm usually wearing a comfortable pair of shoes. However, I occasionaly have to wear a pair of more dressy footgear, so I decided to leave a pair of Rockports in my desk at work just in case. I didn't even go out and buy a new pair for that duty. I took an existing pair that were already broken in (who the hell wants to break in a new pair of shoes no matter how comfortable the are out of the box on an 11 mile walk over concrete and asphalt) but were a litle worn/scuffed up on the outside.

On the other side of the coin, just in case I should ever opt, or be forced by the situation, to stay-in-place I also decided to leave some spare clothes and essentials at work. Shirt, socks undershirt/shorts, toothbrush, disposable razor. You get the picture. All of it doesn't really take up that much space at all.

As for the rest of my little kit, if anybody's interested in the contents you'll have to wait until a little later. I'm at work right now, and I think they actually expect me to do something productive this morning!
 
Don Rearic said:
You were in boot camp during 9-11-01? Man, how did the D.I.s respond to that? :D
Click to expand...

Well a couple months before our Senior DI told us that we had declared war on china and went into this big speech about how our lives from that day on would be different, he let us think about it for a couple days then told us it wasn't true, but to think about stuff like that.

LOL well first of all, my ineducated butt did not recognize the towers when they wheeled out the tv and turned it on. I was like "HOLY CRAP! Are we gonna watch a movie?" We were actually getting ready for final drill. Those of you that have been to MCRD San Diego know it's right next to the airport, it was eerily quiet for a few days. At first I thought they were playing another joke on us, but then they asked anyone if they had family in NY.

We kept hearing that we might not get our leave and asking for volunteers to go to Infantry School like yesterday, it was pretty crazy. We didn't get "family day" and only got to see them the day of graduation and right after graduation they made us take our families and get off the base.

It was weird because we got to see all these others graduate and get to show their families around and whatnot. We did our moto-run and there were like 10 people in the stands, lol it definitely wasn't that proud moment you wanted it to be.

Our DI's were pretty intense, especially the ones that were infantry or other combat MOS's, you could tell they wanted back in the fleet. Some of them said they would see us out there, and I actually did, three years later saw one drill instructor, but I went East coast so I am sure most of them were West coast.
 
I was 13 and had just finished playing 18 holes with a friend of mine and his father. It took us a couple hours to drive about 10 miles home. Luckily, I live in one of two towns on Long Island that have local power plants and therefore did not lose power.
 
I worked about a block and a half south of the WTC during the blackout. Walked out of NYC with a co-worker, got a ride from a stranger to by co-workers car and drove home.

I was caught in the blackout, the first WTC bombing, 9/11, a few blizzards. I've been stuck on subways, trains, buses, as well has floated around the harbor for an hour and a half on a disabled ferry.

Long ago, I swiched from an attache to a backpack.

For the last 3 years I've been working in mid-town, marginally less of a target than downtown...I hope.

We are living in interesting times....

Chris
 
I've never been in a black out or catastrophe in a major city. But I've read about them. Reading your just confirmed that the advice I gave a friend was valid. She works on the fifth floor of a large bank. I told her she needed to stash a little food and water supply at work, have a small fak available, keep some small bills and change on hand, and keep a change of comfortable clothes and shoes...or at least the shoes because the stairwell and walk home would be a pain in heels, that having a multi-tool or SAK could be a help, that a can of mace being handy was probably a good idea, and a bandanna could come in handy.
 
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