About 50 million people lost power Aug. 14, 2003, when a tree branch in Ohio started an outage that cascaded across a broad swath from Michigan to New England and Canada.
Commuters in New York City and elsewhere had to sleep on steps, hitchhike or walk home as trains were rendered powerless and gas pumps stopped working; food spoiled as refrigerators and freezers thawed; jugs of water sold out as supply plants lost their ability to supply consumers; minds were set to wandering about terrorism fears less than two years after 9/11.
It’s now ten years later, Where were you during the blackout of 2003?
(AP / YWN Desk – NYC)
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5 Responses
I was in camp Toras Chaim Tashbar. It was in Livingston Manor that year. We got our power back on about 8 or 9 o’clock that same evening. If my memory serves me correctly, it was a Thursday.
I was busy posting here, and then in the middle, all of a sudd<>
It was amazing that the Catskills got the power back by the evening while some areas in Brooklyn didn’t get power back until right before Shabbos.
I was at work and walked back to Brooklyn. When I got over the bridge any (frum) car that passed by offered rides to those who were walking.
Where you swinging on a tree brach in Ohio?
I was on the way to the airport to catch a flight. I had no idea what was going on as I had left everything in good order. As soon as I got to the airport, I saw mayhem as people were just standing around waiting. It was so hot and I had nothing to drink.I was relying on a nice cold drink from a nerby soda machine, but no soda machines were working either.
After 5 hours of waiting and being stranded I managed to get some water from a food truck that was supposed to load a plane and managed to get home. I ate supper by candelight and got a replacement flight after Shabbos. August 14 2003 was then on a Thursday night.