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Message |
    
Shaun McCormack
Citizen
Username: News_record
Post Number: 20
Registered: 11-2002
| | Posted on Saturday, August 16, 2003 - 5:05 pm: |     |
What were you doing when it happened? How did you cope? Were you in the city? Did you sleep on the street? In your office? Brave the mob at the ferry? Were you convinced it was a terrorist attack? Was a family member trapped in New York? What were you thinking and what did you do? Could you get through on the cell phone? Did you panic? Did you expect this? Were you here for the last blackout?
Some people actually enjoyed it: out early on Thursday and a three-day weekend.
As an example, I live in Hoboken and David Huemer called me for a ride. I got the message but couldn't call back because all my contacts are in a file on my computer.... lesson learned.
If I can get enough responses, I'm going to write something other than the generic official response story.
It could make for a very interesting read, and you could get your name in the paper we all love to hate.
Call me with your stories at 973-763-0700 or email them to me at shaunmccormack@hotmail.com
If you want to post here, I need to know your name and the town you live in.
Deadline is Tuesday afternoon.
Please and thank you,
Shaun |
NCJanow
Citizen
Username: Librarylady
Post Number: 897
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Saturday, August 16, 2003 - 8:23 pm: | |
Shaun, see my post of Friday,August 15, 2003 - 9:36 am:. I LIKED my story.
NCJ aka LibraryLady |
ajc
Citizen
Username: Ajc
Post Number: 1749
Registered: 9-2001
| | Posted on Saturday, August 16, 2003 - 8:57 pm: | |
Shaun,
I'm sorry I don't have an interesting story to share with you, but would you happen to know why David Huemer called you and not me for a ride?
Hey, David should know I would have called him back. I always keep all my contacts with me.... a lesson I learned along time ago.  |
buzzsaw
Citizen
Username: Buzzsaw
Post Number: 1032
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Sunday, August 17, 2003 - 10:12 pm: | |
Shaun
I can boil it down to this:
waited 4 hours for ferry to hob. north
sat stranded in new orleans esque hoboken north
shared car service to essex county with people I met during the black out of 2003. Blackout of 2003 was also the hangover of 2003.
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OK, it's Tom Reingold
Citizen
Username: Noglider
Post Number: 384
Registered: 1-2003
| | Posted on Monday, August 18, 2003 - 5:41 pm: | |
I work in Morristown. The power outage lasted about FIVE SECONDS. Our computers are backed up by a UPS, so they didn't go down.
I heard about the blackout and called home to learn power was out.
I usually commute on route 510 (south orange avenue), and I suddenly realized that traffic lights would be out, so I turned around and took route 24, since it has no lights.
I saw traffic lights in Millburn from route 24, so I saw that Millburn hadn't lost power.
I saw that the dividing line between haves and have-nots went through Maplewood, around Valley St.
We got power back at 8:20 but lost it again at 8:40.
We drove to Whole Foods in Millburn and bought some convenience foods for dinner. We ate it on our porch by candlelight. My wife broke out the guitar, and we sang songs LOUDLY on the porch. I thought we should have more power outages.
Power came back on at 11:30.
I came to work Friday, and our T1 internet (leased line) connection was down. A recorded message on our ISP's tech support line said they had widespread problems. I realized it would be fruitless to stay on hold. I remembered our feed comes from NYC. I wonder why it was working Thursday afternoon after the power went out. Friday was a slow day, since we rely a fair amount on our internet connection. Late Friday night, I saw that the connection to work was back up, with no help from me. (I'm the IT guy at work.)
Overall, the outage hardly affected me. I didn't even lose any food in the freezer. Our electric-fired water heater didn't run out of hot water.
Tom Reingold
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imacgrandma
Citizen
Username: Imacgrandma
Post Number: 174
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Monday, August 18, 2003 - 8:25 pm: | |
I know a young Japanese woman who told me her experience in the blackout. She is taking ESL so she can attend college here. Can you imagine what she went through? It's bad enough when one speaks good English, but she doesn't. She arrived at Penn Station at about 4:30. After getting over her initial fright, she asked around to many people and the police (and this happened to her at each change of place). She walked to the bus station. Then she walked to a ferry and waited 6 (six) hours. Then she walked from Wehauken (sp?) to Hoboken. I think it took an hour. Then she got a bus to Newark after midnight. Then she got a bus that said Maplewood, but she didn't know where she was when she got to the Loop, I think. Then she called an all-night taxi that she has used at Maplewood station when she is very late coming home. She got home at 2:30 a.m. |
Lizziecat
Citizen
Username: Lizziecat
Post Number: 17
Registered: 5-2003
| | Posted on Monday, August 18, 2003 - 8:31 pm: | |
We(spouse and I)had been in Queens, NYC overnight, awaiting the arrival of a Salvation Army pickup of the last of my mother's furniture (she died in February). They had told us they'd be there "between 8 A.M. amd 2:30 P.M." They came at 11:30 and cleared the place out, and we were in the car and home by 3:30. At 4 P.M. I was using the computer and the power faded, but didn't go off entirely--only the computer shut down. This happened about four or five times during the next hour, and after that we never lost power again. So I guess we were lucky--we got out of NY before it happened, and we never lost power at home. Our son was stuck in the city, though, and ended up staying at a friend's apartment--on the 22nd floor. |
davel
Citizen
Username: Davel
Post Number: 84
Registered: 6-2001
| | Posted on Friday, August 22, 2003 - 5:07 pm: | |
Tom - who is your ISP? We used PaeTec and our T1 service, but not electricity stayed, up in the Wall St. area. But our PaeTec rep. said that one of their Central Offices in NY lost power and so some of their customers did. |
OK, it's Tom Reingold
Citizen
Username: Noglider
Post Number: 387
Registered: 1-2003
| | Posted on Friday, August 22, 2003 - 5:11 pm: | |
We use uunet, aka Worldcom, aka MCI. They had widespread problems from the blackout. I don't know anything beyond that. Given all the problems, I'm really not going to complain. The service came back on without any intervention from me, so I'm happy. Our company survived the outage. If it happened later in our product cycle, it would have been a problem, so we were lucky.
Tom Reingold
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davel
Citizen
Username: Davel
Post Number: 85
Registered: 6-2001
| | Posted on Friday, August 22, 2003 - 5:12 pm: | |
I was on the shore in Avalon during the blackout and didn't even learn hear about it until late that evening when I turned on the news.
Spared, the following Wednesday I'm on the 8:25 Midtown Direct and the train lost power for over an hour in the Meadowlands until a "rescue" engine dragged us to Hoboken. So much for escaping the blackout.
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