WHERE WERE YOU WHEN THE LIGHTS WENT OUT?

At 4:15 yesterday afternoon I was driving home from downtown Toronto and had just reached the last stoplight on my commute before I pass that great divide from city to country (about half my commute is urban expressway, and the other half idyllic country roads). Suddenly the stoplights went out and chaos ensued at the intersection. I tried to phone the local police and radio station on my cell to tell them about the outage, but both numbers rang busy. And the all-news radio station wasn’t even on the air. So I drove blithely home through the country, found the lights off at home as well (not an uncommon occurrence that far out in the boonies), and decided to take Chelsea the dog out for a walk on the lovely and renowned Bruce Trail (about 5 minutes from where I live) and pick up some groceries at the same time.

Well the village lights were out, too, so I was starting to catch on something was amiss. But we went for a leisurely walk on the trail. When we returned to the car and headed up to the supermarket was shut up tight. So I went back to the convenience store, and saw the large lineup of people buying ice and bottled water in the darkened store, and, standing in the lineup, got the story that 80 million people were afffected and the blackout was expected to last for hours or even days.

Returning home I called my wife and found that, due to gridlock at every intersection, she would be an hour late getting home from her work, and then a neighbour knocked on the door and invited us (including Chelsea) for a barbecue and bonfire at their house until the lights came back on (she walked a half mile to deliver the invitation — our neighbourhood is like that).

So we spent the evening with a small group of neighbours, looking at the stars, helping each other plan what would be needed if the blackout lasted for days, and betting on what time the lights would return (we all bet they would be on by this morning, so nobody won the bet). Because of the danger of candles (six families lost their homes in three Toronto area fires caused by falling candles last night), I brought in the six portable solar lights from out by the pool and set them around the house so we would have a trail to the bathroom during the night.

This morning we set aside our work schedules (all offices in Toronto are closed today) and we went outside and enjoyed the pool, the morning quiet, and a bit of reading and gardening. Now the power is back (though we’re threated with two-hour rotating shutdowns), but we’re just going to take the day off and do things unelectric.

In the meantime, please use the Comments to share your story of the Great Blackout of 2003. And take care of yourself, and each other.