Blackout 2003 - 28 Hours in New York City

i had just kicked off a big data-crunching program when the lights went out. I wandered over to the window and looked across at the News Corp building and saw the big time/temperature display was off. someone looked over my shoulder and asked “are the traffic lights out?” someone a few cubes away was on the phone with someone in connecticut and said they had lost power too.

a colleague has a radio function on his cell phone. he set up a microphone connected to his laptop and used scotch tape to hold it next to the earpiece for his phone to allow the sole radio broadcast we could get to come through his laptop speakers.

down fourteen flights of stairs by flashlight (only a third of the building’s emergency stairwell lights worked), out on the street. sidewalks overflowing with people walking uptown, people walking downtown. everyone annoyed but mellow. one lane on either side of second avenue is overflow from the sidewalk. Realizing I can’t call anyone because the cell phone lines are all jammed, I start sending friends non-sequitor text messages like “So, what’s new?” and “Darkness falls, core competencies go unleveraged.”

I walk home and throw a backpack together. A couple bottles of water, my digital camera and my mag-lite (two hours of daylight left). I dig out my grandfather’s old radio. He’d had it on his nightstand for as long as I can remember, until he died in january. vintage radio shack: solid metal casing, AM/FM & three short wave bands. not a digital thing in the whole box. I pop some new C batteries in it and i’m back in the information loop. I put in a 1/4 in.-1/8 in. adapter so i can use my headphones, although sound only comes through on one ear bud because the radio isn’t stereo.

I start walking south towards the east village. dusk starts settling in. Some bodegas are open selling snack food. huge lines form at the pizzerias, which use gas ovens and are usually small enough that ambient light from outside is enough for them to cook. some stores have burly bouncer-type men stationed out front in folding chairs to prevent looting [that never happened]. Others sell bottles of water and other miscellaneous items out of crates in front of their darkened stores.

Somehow, a signal gets through and my phone vibrates - a new message. A friend needs D batteries. I have some (with the C batteries for my radio) and head over to her place. The buzzer on her building doesn’t work so I have to wait for someone to open the door. A girl lets me in and I use my mag-lite to find our way up the stairs. My friend is happy to have the D batteries for her flashlight and her roommate gives me some nachos and a bottle of red stripe.

We walk out into the east village. I stop and make shadow puppets against the side of a church just off bowery using my mag-lite. sporadic bars are open by candlelight. someone in alphabet city is setting off fireworks(!). suddenly, the idea hits us. where is the place in the city most associated with bright lights? Off to Times Square …

St. Marks Place is so dark we need the flashlight to make our way down the street. Astor place is silent. From cooper square i shine my flashlight on the giant white building over the K-mart. I’ve got the latest news still playing out of the radio in my backpack. politicians urging calm, casting blame. blame canada! i suggest maybe somebody blew up niagra falls, offering the brain-teaser of how someone goes about blowing up a waterfall.

We walk up broadway from astor place through union square. A drum circle has formed and people are milling about (just like after 9/11). the big clock above the virgin megastore is blank. we walk another mile up past herald square. I shine my mag-lite on the darkened Macy’s and turn to marvel at the absolutely lightless empire state building. Especially eerie are the side streets between herald sq and times sq. they, the heart of midtown, are pitch black. nobody walking around, no traffic, nothing but moonlight.

Times square did have light, but it was all from news crews and one police spotlight. I shined my mag-lite on the giant TV screen on the building atop which they drop a ball every new years. And no, the flashlight thing was still not getting old. That TV is never off. Ever. I approached this as a once in a lifetime opportunity to see familiar things in unfamiliar ways. Sitting in the revolving door of the virgin megastore, listening to the latest radio bulletins, I glanced up and saw the reflection of the moon in the dark monolithic marriott marquis. And way up above that, I saw stars. several of them. from the middle of times square.

I woke up with no power. I went downstairs and ate a bag of popcorn for breakfast. I was in no mood to wait on the hour-long pizza lines. I went to a park by the river and read. Tired of news, I listened to music instead on the radio. I met up with a friend and we hung out in my apartment for a while. As the evening drew in, news came that most of the city had power back, but not the east side. My sister was supposed to fly to europe that day and her flight had been cancelled, so I spent some time on the phone with british airways trying to get her confirmed on a better flight.

I have heard many beeps in my life, but I don’t think many will be as memorable as the beep of my microwave coming back on-line. I looked up and my cable box began resetting itself. It was about 8pm. Total downtime: 28 hours. I went to the bathroom and turned on the light, only to realize I had cut myself shaving by candlelight that morning.

We went to get food, and the city started waking up. I can’t say i’ve ever appreciated traffic lights as much as I did on that walk. We walked by an Old Navy store which had it’s A/C on full blast and the doors open. Oh, sweet modern conveniences.

All in all, I’m proud of new york. I’m proud how mellow and friendly everyone was. I don’t know how long we could have kept it up before we started freaking out, but I bet we could have done it for at least a few days. We just rock like that.