5 Years Ago Today…
It was 5 years ago today that the ‘Blackout’ occurred…..were you living in Toronto at the time? I was living and working in Ottawa at the time. I happened to be on the air…..our station had a giant diesel generator set up for such emergencies. On one hand it was good, we had a/c at the station, on the other, we were still working:) What were you doing?
Once we realized it wasn’t terrorism, I thought it would be fun for a day or so…..and it went on and on and on….the food in the freezer had to be consumed and dealt with. I also realized, as maybe you did, that I have NO plan to deal with such emergencies. No serious stock of food, water or necessary things….other than the normal stuff one keeps. My candles smell like vanilla, not emergency…..did the ‘Blackout’ change anything for you? Did you create or maybe you already had an ‘emergency preparedness kit’?
Use the work blackout for some extra bonus points.
Thanks for stopping by!
Have fun if you’re headed to the Bills game tonight!
Sam
August 14th, 2008 at 10:24 am
Don’t forget about the babies that were born 9 months after this date as well.
August 14th, 2008 at 11:06 am
I was working away at the Pontifical Institute of Medieval Studies in downtown Toronto when the blackout occured. Luckily for me, home is only a ten minute walk away, and I’m only on the 7th floor.
Neighbors were really helpful and leant me a phone, as I only had a cordless (which needs electricity) at the time. I had a peanut butter sandwich for dinner.
I remember watching people from my window lined up to go into stores to buy supplies, and how grateful I was after waking up from a horrible nights sleep to see the power was on at the coffee shop across the street from me, and how wonderful that hot cup of coffee tasted. I remember everyone being really pleasent and polite, we all knew we were going through the same thing. It’s kinda too bad that the friendliness that went on during the blackout didn’t say.
The first thing I did after the power came back on in my place was take a long hot shower. One of the little things we take for granted everyday.
It was a long 23 hours without power. Since the blackout I’ve got a cell phone and also one that dosen’t need electricity. I always make sure I have batteries for the radio, candles, matches, bottled water, can goods and a opener.
August 14th, 2008 at 11:24 am
When the blackout hit, my wife and I were in North Bay. At first we thought that it was just a local blackout. When my cell phone rang and i saw that it was my sone calling from Brampton. Before I even answered the phone I said “This is a pretty wide spread blackout.” Sure enought the blackout was the first thisng he wanted to talk about.
Because of our commitment and the blackout situation, my wife and I ended up leaving North Bay at about eight-thirtty that night. It was most definitely the strangest trip from North Bay to Brampton that we’d ever made.
August 14th, 2008 at 11:51 am
Once upon a black-out, I was at work when the lights went out. The running joke at work here is for the power to go out so we can go home. Careful what you wish for
so out it went and the fun began. I drive home across Brampton and hope for the best. It was a Thursday and all I could think of is “I wonder if volleyball will be cancelled”, since we play outdoors at Chinguacousy Park, so I made the decision not to go. No way in heck was I driving back out in that. Good thing, because it was indeed cancelled. I live in an apartment so it was stinking hot on the 4th floor. I had no problem with taking the stairs, I do that every day anyway, unless I’m carrying tons. So, I put the night in, read, and eventually went to bed, no breeze even with all the windows open. Stinky/sticky hot. Yuck. I made a point to leave a few things on so that if/when the power came on overnight, I would wake up. I set the alarm on my cell phone to be on the safe side. Sure enough sometime during the night (cue the choir of angels) the power was restored. I get up Friday, get ready, and off to work I go whistling a happy tune. After all it was Friday…a few hours later…down it (the power) went again. I get home, it’s out there too. BOLLOCKS, says I. I call my friend, by that time my patience has run very thin. It’s STINKING hot in my apartment by this time. She lives in N. Brampton. Her power was back on, but because there was a problem at the water station, they had no water. I HAVE water I say, we have power she says, c’mon over…so I got every container I could and filled it up to take to her place. Her darling child, bless her, chose to use & clog every toilet in the house. Diablo. I put all the water in my trusty bundle buggy and BOLLOCKS I say again, how the eff am I going to get these down 4 flights. Oh well I thought, here goes. I braced myself for the journey down the stairs and just then (cue the angels again), the power came back on! And through my excitement and lack of better judgment (what if it went out again) I took the elevator. And the kingdom was back to “normal” from that point forward. People really did pull through this together. It was a beautiful thing to behold. The end.
August 14th, 2008 at 12:20 pm
We had taken the day off to go to wasaga beach. We did not know about the blackout till we were leaving and my daughter wanted a tshirt printed. Of course the machine did not work. We had no idea at the time that it was so widespread. Took 4 hours to go from Wasaga Beach to Richmond Hill. Horrible horrible drive home. When we got home my husband hooked the tv up to the van and we watched survivor. We came back up pretty quick so we didnt have to throw out any food. Every time i look at my two overloaded freezers these days i think what i would do with all that food if we had one again.
August 14th, 2008 at 12:37 pm
love the story Lee Ann
I was living in east york at the time … it was pretty surreal.
August 14th, 2008 at 12:43 pm
I was getting ready to play some slo-pitch softball and had second thoughts as I heard that people were barrelling through intersections without stopping, and I didn’t want to be a statistic, so I stayed home. Sure enough, the game was cancelled, and we got power by the next morning and it stayed on after that.
As for emergency supplies, my family has a tendency to overbuy on lots of stuff, so therefore, our cold room has lots of extra food and beverages.
August 14th, 2008 at 3:06 pm
I was on a business trip to a customer just outside of Cleveland Ohio. Once we realized the power would not be returning any time soon, we adjourned to our hotel rooms. Obviously they also had no power, along with all the restaurants and bars for miles. It is extremely boring being in a hotel room with no power (ie. no lights, no radio, no television). The only food available was water and potato chips, as I read a book by the light of my notebook computer screen until the batteries died.
August 14th, 2008 at 3:33 pm
I was in Atlanta at the time. Watching the TV coverage was funny… “we know it wasn’t terrorism” and “we don’t know the cause” in the same breath seemed stupid. If you don’t know the cause how do you rule out another cause?
I had some fine Chinese food that evening and flew back home the next morning.
I was disappointed, my wife didn’t plug in the cord phone and since the cordless wouldn’t work thought that the phone system wouldn’t work. I wanted to have her take my daughter to the back yard to see the Milky Way … missed opportunities.
-z
August 14th, 2008 at 5:43 pm
Hi Sam!
The power went out at work around 4pm on the Thursday and didn’t come back on, so we all left. Still wasn’t on by Friday, so I’m thinking this is nice a long weekend. Personally we had no power for 3 1/2 days. We ran out of propane and tried to buy some at the nearest gas station, but there were so many people in line that we had to try another place. We were lucky to find somewhere because by this time we were also running low on gas. I remember some people swearing at others, one guy was directing traffic out on the street, came back to get some gas and it was all gone. He completely lost it, swearing and spitting at people. Quite the scene. Of course my son thought it was all very exciting! We couldn’t return a rental car we had for 2 days because they were also closed and there was no where to leave the key, but the sad part was that they actually charged us for those 2 days eventhough they were closed! I found that some people tried to take advantage of the situatiion, which was pretty bad. The part I truly loved was the evenings, my husband and I lay outside on the grass outback and talked while we watched the beautiful sky, pitch black with a million stars, and the peace and quiet. Made it all worth while!
August 15th, 2008 at 7:42 am
Hi Sam,
I work in downtown Toronto so it was pretty tough getting home to Brampton. Took about 2-3 hours.
We live on the 20th floor of our condo building so power was off but so was the water. No flushing of toilets!
The next morning my wife worked in corrections so was ordered to work despite the continued blackout. We had these little scented candles to trvael down 20 flights of dark stairs to the u/g parking. Fortunately our security chief came along with a big powerful flashlight to help us along.
She went to work and i found a shoppers drug mart that carried flashlights, batteries and bottled water. I dropped them off for my wife along with a Timmy’s coffee and made my way back home. Then the power came back on.
Our son was forced to work 12 hours non-stop at the local supermarket without a break so i have never shopped there since.
Yes we do take a number of things for granted. Reminds me though that i have to get new batteries for the flashlight.
Have a great weekend Sam.