What happened on this date 3 years ago? August 14 2003...

[DemInDistress]

It affected about 53,000,000 people. It was felt in about 5 or more states. It lasted in my area (Bronx,NY)
for about 24 hours and up to a week in some areas.
It began around 2PM here. It caused near riots for some essentials (batteries,milk,candles,etc) not to forget gas stations that needed electricity to pump gas.
It caused food to go bad in the fridge.
The worst thing about that "blackout" was I never fully understood what caused it. Could they do it again?


"The Great Blackout of 2003" .. Do you remember?

[pitohui]

1. i remember

2003 was a very fraught year for me, everywhere i went there were disasters natural or unnatural

[Karenca]

2. It sucked

I had to walk up 20 flights of stairs in 100-plus degree heat in pitch blackness
with my Golden Retriever.

I have no idea what caused it.

[Breeze54]

3. I do but I wasn't effected by it.

But I do remember it!

http://www.ceet.niu.edu/faculty/vanmeer/outage.htm

I also remember "The Great Northeast Blackout of 1965"!
"Where were you when the lights went out?"

Do you remember that? :shrug:

http://archives.cbc.ca/IDC-1-70-874-5042/disasters_tragedies/1965_blackout/clip4
Radio Broadcast Nov. 14, 1965
Where were you when the lights went out?

They even made a movie about it!

[Stargazer99]

4. How about capitalism and payments to the stockholders

instead of repairs and expansion. The great god capitalism doesn't always work for the common man.

[SheilaT]

5. We were flying from

Kansas City to Detroit the next morning.

On our final approach to the Detroit airport, it felt as if we were in a science fiction movie, one of the ones in which practically everyone else on earth has died. We flew over a city with almost no traffic moving, and no businesses open.

The power did come back in Michigan much faster that expected, all within 48 hours, maybe sooner. We were able to get a rental car and arrived at our hotel literally as they got their power back.

There's a good article on Wikipedia about it. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2003_North_America_blackout
Nothing really all that mysterious about it.

[ThsMchneKilsFascists]

7. The Langoliers!

Good Stephen King Made for TV movie, even better short story in Four Past Midnight

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0112040/

[mogster]

6. There was a blackout up north in Europe too

I Sweden, said to be caused by some 'high' from the Barsebäck Nuclear facility. It happened in mid-August, I think.
I was heavily hit by that; had a server going down in Malmö, had to work for several weeks to restore data and move sites back to Norway. Yikes! My weeks of hell, I remember well ...

[DemInDistress]

10. I didn't know about that mogster..wow. even Sweden

had a blackout. It that where your from? Were there any riots? How long was the blackout and how widespread?
Here in the USA I believe 8 states and 53 million people were affected.
That's my biggest terror fear. Cutting or destroying the power grid so severely that it would take weeks to repair. Back in 1965 we had a blackout in the Northeast and NYC was in full riot mode. Looting prevailed,property was destroyed and millions of people were "Mad as Hell" when the power goes out for long periods of time opportunists come out.

Thanks for the feedback..

[zbdent]

8. Honestly, they blamed it on a tree branch knocking out a power line

near Cleveland Ohio ... and the "cascading" effect ...

Strangely, Mrs. ZBDent and I were concerned about her mother, and we called to see how she was doing (about 3 miles away, still in the same town). She had the TV on and invited us over. Her house was one of the few areas which was getting power in the northeast ...

We still joke that the Space Station noted that there was ONE porchlight on in North America ... and they saw it from space ...

[bigwillq]

9. I remember it well.

It affected us here in CT. We were without power for quite a few hours.
I know not as bad as NYC, but I remember it.