MSCL.com

Just checking whether our server still has power

Looks like a big mess in NYC right now. Just imagine being stuck in one of these trains, subways or elevators... Hope they all get out well - and out of the city before nightfall.

The live footage on CNN and CNBC with all those people on the streets surely look impressive.

I was reading some reports of people trying to walk home in that heat - it looks absolutely insane. Hope everyone is able to keep their tempers and get home safely!

Looks like partial power has been restored, and reports of injuries seem to be few. In terms of the population affected, this outage is one of the largest in North American history, although it may be repaired more quickly than the infamous blackouts of the 60's and 70's.

What a mess.

I live not too far from Manhattan, and the power has been going on and off all day today. I'm not even in my house right - I'm at a friend's who has dial-up.

As you pass through from one town to the next, there are large patches of blackout area. Street lamps are out, houses are dark.

Just an hour ago, I was on Route 3, and there's a point where you would normally see Manhattan lit up. Only two bulidings had lights. No Empire State, no Citibank. Just dark.

I'm also concerned because my brother, who commutes into the City, still isn't home, and because most if not all cell phone service is out, no one knows where he is. I stopped by his house, but both his and his wife's car were not there. I hope he's okay, though I'm sure he will be.

I've got to give major kudos to the people in this area. This could have been complete chaos, but it has been a civil, orderly event. Inconvenient? Damn yeah. But New Yorkers have taken it stride and hit the streets with a smile. some even directed traffic because cops hadn't arrived yet.

Here in the suburbs, it's just quiet and a bit hot. Tomorrow will be messy as we sort everything out, but "Blackout 2003" as one local affiliate calls it now, will be a memory come next week.

Okay, I've got to get off this dial-up. Stay safe folks!



Gary

Thanks for the live update, Gary. Hopefully your brother is safe, though stuck, in the NYC traffic-and-train jam. The emergency workers and volunteers seem to be doing a good job of checking up on everyone, distributing water, etc.

BTW, sascha mentioned the MSCL server; I just heard that most of Pennsylvania was not seriously affected, so I guess Mike lucked out. Either that, or he has a kick-ass backup power supply.

WOOOOHOOOOO I HAVE POWER AGAIN!!!!

Power just came back on about 15 mins ago (roughly 2AM) This has completely blew. So hot, so boring. If i had electricity I could have watched Little House on the Prairie to find out what the hell they did to pass the time..

Anyway, I live right on the Hudson River (well a few blocks away...soon to be a half a block but thats another thread), and I was driving down Blvd. East and looking over at the city. Very very surreal. Only a few lights on in the whole city. If I had an hour I would have taken a long exposure with my camera but still probably wouldnt have pulled much detail. It is very weird seeing Nothing going on in midtown Manhattan.

Hopefully my power will stay on now, but I dont know. I just heard Michigan may not regain it till after the weekend, so I feel lucky.

fnordboy wrote:If i had electricity I could have watched Little House on the Prairie to find out what the hell they did to pass the time..

A week after I moved into my new house, we had a huge storm and we lost our power. Luckily we had just finished making dinner so we were able to eat, but afterwards we sat at the table surrounded by boxes. I had every candle in the house lit (including the better part of an Ikea 50 pack of tea lights) but it wasn't bright enough to read. My boyfriend found the old Watchman (mini-tv that runs on batteries) but we only had reception on two channels so he let me watch Angel. Then we had a long discussion about Little House on the Prairie and how we understood why the pioneers used to go to bed at 5pm and have long division competitions - because they had no television, radio, or internet!

I totally remember one episode where everyone in Walnut Grove went down to the schoolhouse one night and they had a long division competition - but it was similar to a spelling bee in that it was all aloud without any writing. I hated long division when I had a pencil and paper - I can't imagine how much more I would have hated it if I was forced to do it without writing anything down. My boyfriend offered to break out his fiddle and play for me like Pa Ingalls, except he doesn't have a fiddle. And he doesn't know how to play one. We considered an acapella karaoke session, but that was mostly me singing ridiculous songs and my boyfriend laughing at me. On the positive side, it was late September so it wasn't hot and sweltering or freezing cold. Glad you managed to entertain yourself even without Little House ideas!

I think I know what many people did to pass the time. A look at the birth statistics in nine months could be very interesting...

fnordboy wrote:Power just came back on about 15 mins ago (roughly 2AM) ...

Anyone else a bit worried that the first thing fnordboy did when the power came back was post to mscl.com... jealous of candygirl or what?

mglenn wrote: Anyone else a bit worried that the first thing fnordboy did when the power came back was post to mscl.com... jealous of candygirl or what?

First thing I did was check my mail and check my sites... then I came here...smarty pants

Wow.

Glad to hear that Gary & Fnordboy are doing okay. Gary I hope your bro is okay. At the moment definately feeling bad for the folks in Cleveland. Apparently water service is not back up and running yet.

Gary good luck with the dial up. Way to come back to the board during a crisis.

Lance Man

Ah, my blessed cable modem greets me like a... oh, sorry.

Parts of the ara have regained power. I know that New Jersey is fine now, but New York still has no power in some areas. Long Island, I think, is part of that category.

Thoughts for the wishes on my brother, folks. He did make it home around midnight (roughly an eight hour commute). He tried to get to Port Authority Bus Terminal, but all hell broke loose there. Too many people, not enough buses or communication. So he migrated south with everyone else and eventually got a ride on a ferry.

Useless Observations:

I can't help think of how long it took me to get home when the Twin Towers were bombed in the early 90's. I was in a class in midtown Manhattan, when the head of film department walked in and said "There's a emergency in lower Manhattan. Anyone who needs to commute should do so now." I got home nine hours later.

As soon as this happened, I thought of two things; The first was not terrorism but that damn computer virus had caused this, and second, what will the media call this? On the drive home from work, there was no name to it as we were still figuring out what the hell was going on. On the way to where my girlfriend was, it was called "BLACKOUT 2003" or "'03" if the reporter was so inclined.

Gary

lance wrote:Gary good luck with the dial up. Way to come back to the board during a crisis.

My pleasure lance man. I'm just a slave to this board, and quite frankly, I wanted to beat fnordboy to the punch.

Gary

GaryEA wrote:

lance wrote:Gary good luck with the dial up. Way to come back to the board during a crisis.

My pleasure lance man. I'm just a slave to this board, and quite frankly, I wanted to beat fnordboy to the punch.

Gary

LOL!

Ahh, the GaryEA/Fnordboy show never fails to entertain.

The only remotely similar experience I would have to share would be during the riots of 2001.

During the three days of rioting that occured down here the streets of downtown Cincinnati where errily quiet. The police had downtown cornered off. The poor section of town, know as Over the Rhine, was blocked off by a wall of police officers. Many people decided not to work or called in. Many of the restaurants were closed. Several store front windows had been smashed in and then boarded up. A curfew was imposed during the riots from 8pm to 5 am. Interestingly enough in wealthier neighborhoods the curfew was not as strictly enforced.

The library where I work was two blocks from Over the Rhine. I can remember twice that week the library closed down early. Many people were suddenly "sick". Each night everybody barreled home quickly to grab whatever groceries they needed before curfew was imposed. Wild stuff.

Lance Man

i was out of power for about 22 hours but it worked out all right for me. Work was cancelled for two days. I'm scheduled to go in tomorrow but it's a short day and they might send me home. I used the time to read in the dark (well candlelight) and because I've become so accustomed to getting a mscl fix I decided to do a bit of work on a fanfic story I've been toying with for years. I actually accomplished more than I'd ever managed to before. I might even finish it! hopefully i won't need another 'disaster' to get it accomplished. I haven't heard of any tragedy coming of the blackout so far but after listening to the radio for a day and a half i'd had news overkill so I haven't checked the tv news yet. but i didn't see anything online either. hopefully everyone made it through okay. The radio had a lot of stories about neighbours helping each other out. BIg factories sucking up power as soon as it came back on and shutting it down again, some price gougeing going on, but most of the stories were positive.