the Blackout Memorial

Where were you August 14 2003?

If you lived in southwest Ontario (like me) or some 8 easterly states than you will know exactly where you were and what happened..
that massive BLACKOUT..

It was a little after 4pm and I was on the phone with a guy i was seeing at the time.

I remember as I was talking to him the lights went out. At this time I didn't really think anything of it because our house had some electrical problems. I went down to the fuse box and flipped the switch but nothing happened.

I told him I'd call him back and went out to ask my neighbours. Other people were coming out of their houses and looking up and down the streets. I looked down and saw the traffic lights were also out. It was a hot day so I got back inside. But it didn't really matter because whatever cool air the A/C had produced, was slowly turning to into hot mugginess.

I called the guy back, who lived in Brampton (about an hour away from me) and he told me all his power was out as well. I started to think " what a coincidence" but knew something more was going on. I let him go and called my best friend in Toronto, again about an hour away from me. Her power was out as well.

Now I knew something weird was going on.

It was still light out so the full scope of the blackout never hit me. We looked for some batteries and got an old radio going. I don't remember before that when I listened to the radio for the news. The news was confirming major Canadian and U.S cities were without power.

The first thing that crossed my mind was this was a terrorist attack. After all, it was only a few years after the World Trade Centre disaster. I figured by mucking up our power grids, they were leaving us without defences, i.e alarm systems (lol)

Then we started to worry about the little things, like the food in our fridge turning to rot and the searing heat.

I am pretty sure I took three Cold baths that day to try and cool off.

As night approached it was evident that the power wasn't coming back on. We (as in my family and I) gathered up any candles, matches, flashlights that we had and put them on the kicthen table. We also started to throw out the food we knew wouldn't be saved, like milk and meat.

As darkness engulfed...and I mean engulfed our little street, there were a variety of moods in the air. from us and our neihgbours. on the one hand there was FEAR and alot of questions.

when will the power come back on?
why did the power go out?
what if people start looting?
what if this is the end of the world?

But there was also a great sense of fun & excitement. I remember my mother and I were walking over to the coffee shop, many people were gathered there surrounded by candlelight.

The street was covered in a thick inky blackness. We went to meet up with my dad and had our little flashlights out. We hadn't even noticed that we had passed him on the other side of the street until a car drove passed and illuminated his figure. The car's headlights, the only light..except for the odd little balls of orange flashlight light.

But there were hordes of people out there having fun and laughing and running in the streets.

People were oddly happy. Maybe because we got off the couches, off the computers and out into the night air and saw the stars..millions of them..something you never see in the city..and something I hadn't seen since I was 12 and camping in the Rocky mountains(Alberta)!!

It was surreal.

The next day was a little disheartening when we realized the power was still off..

It came on pretty quickly but I believe this was a changing point.

We, as a society at large, were starting to take environmental concerns as serious business. After all, part of the cause of the balckout was the abuse of wasting electricty.

I personally leraned my lessons from that day and I believe most people have..