what I learned from the blackout

Kye and JeffL yesterday afternoon. JeffL and Alison had invited
Parki, Jeff and me over for dinner.


Happy birthday to Mark Osier!

We have our hot water back, and our elevators are working again, woohoo! NOAA has some interesting satellite pictures of eastern North America 20 hours before and 7 hours after the blackout. Sadly, some in Toronto are *still* out of power, and we've been warned that tomorrow (Monday) will be the big test, whether the city can handle normal working day power demands. Whether the subway opens on Monday (and other services/events) is still a big question mark.

Went to JeffL's and Alison's with Parki for dinner last night. Because of the dubious quality of post-blackout meat in grocery stores right now, Alison opted for a vegetarian dinner: corn on the cob, tomato & basil & bocconcini salad, orange couscous, an amazing broccoli and red onion and pine nut salad. It was a perfect evening meal for a hot summer day.

Not surprisingly, some of the discussion focused on the blackout. I'm sure the "Where were you when the blackout hit?" question will be a topic at many gatherings for quite some time in Toronto and other affected areas.

We also talked about what some of us learned as a result of this event:

- To keep car gas tanks filled. (many gas station pumps quit working during the blackout, long lineups after)

- Have extra batteries on hand. (these were among the first items to sell out on store shelves within the first hour or so of the blackout) Know where flashlights are.

- Have candles, matches.

- Keep extra water, extra gas stored for emergencies.

- Keep some extra cash on hand. (the ATMs stopped working, and most stores that were able to remain open would only accept cash)

- Have important contact information on paper or other storage that has an independent power source.

- Keep a mini-flashlight with me. I bought one for my keychain that can also click onto the brim of a hat.

- Have a transistor radio (the only source of info during those first hours of the blackout). JeffL & Alison have a wind-up radio (needs no batteries); we're going to get one as well. We figure it'll be useful at the cottage as well, where blackouts are much more frequent.

- Don't count on cellphone service. (I was unable to reliably make or receive calls during the blackout and for some time after because my cellphone service was overloaded)

- Don't rely exclusively on cordless phones. When the blackout hit, all our cordless phones were rendered useless because the bases had no power. We had to plug in our one regular phone, which is usually kept in storage.

- Events like blackouts don't necessarily have to be all bad. It's important to keep a sense of perspective and sense of humour.

Anyone out there have other practical suggestions to add to this list as a result of their own experience?



We ate on the deck by candelight (by choice, not because
of lack of power :-)).

August/2003 comments: Read | Post | LJ