I got caught in it yesterday around 4:30pm. I was walking to a mall and I noticed the traffic lights out, one more block down the road, the mall was shut down. Two mothers with there kids were stuck in an elevator 30 minutes after the power went out ... the mechanics had just got there to start getting them out of there when I passed by. The elevator had glass all around it, but I'm claustrophobic and would have been freaking out.

The traffic was crazy so we ended up hitting a bar (while the beers were still cold) to kill an hour before trying to drive in the streets. By night time (still no power) the streets in my neighbourhood were eiery(sp?) quite and so calm and with the moon out looked pretty cool. The only disturbance here was an hour after the initial blackout, there was a robbery at a diamond store and the robber shot his gun into the air. He was caught by some pedestrians as he tried to run by.

And for this morning, everythings back running in my neck of the woods.

well, it's 8:15 am here. Power is back at my office. No power is 75% of my city though (Mississauga, just outside of Toronto). I'm gonna go back home to sleep.

They are saying that they have no idea what caused the blackout, and that power may not be fully restored for days. Also, brownouts and rolling blackouts are already happening.

Last night was really cool, clear sky, tons of stars and myself and 4 of my neighbours sitting on our front lawn with torches and candles drinking our beer as fast as we could before it spoiled. (the wives tried to tell us that beer doesnt spoil, but we don't believe them!)

My head hurts.

Got caught in it yesterday. Had to walk up the stairs to my 18th floor apartment. The emergency lights were out so the stairwell was pitch black. Lucky I still had some juice left in my thinkpad. I booted it up, went to IE (blank white screen) and was able to see my way up to my floor. Good thing I came when I did cause there were two young girls scared to death to go up there by themselves.

Seeing all those people on TV in N/Y out in the streets in their thousands was awesome.
I thought it might have been everyone rushing to a TFP get-together or something.

Seriously,it seems like everyone kept a cool head and just got about the business of trying to get home.
It must have been a bit scary for some at first though and I hope all TFPers are OK.

Finally got my power back half an hour ago.

It sucked, but all my neighbors were pretty cool.

I was home sick yesterday , If I went to work I would have been stuck, I am so glad I was sick :)

My Uncle was stuck in his NYC Office at Sony and he lives in Conn.
Haven't talked with him yet, just hope he made it home alright.

oh and that photochop of the blaster worm sure did come out fast hehe

I feel for all of you in the Northeast. We had a major storm blow through Memphis a couple of weeks ago that took out most of the power company's infastructure. Electricity was down for 2 weeks in some areas. Ours was out for a week.

Biggest lesson I learned...no matter how well you think you've cleaned out your refrigerator, when the power comes back on, make sure you're wearing a hazmat suit w/ respirator when you open it again for the first time in a week.

Does anyone remember the episode of the old PBS series Connections where they discussed what would happen if technology failed us and used the 1977 New York blackout as an example?

I'm here in downtown Toronto and my power is back on!
Not sure about the rest of the city but here in East York everything seems to be up and running.

In Downtown Toronto (Riverdale) and the power was on from 5 am to 7:30 am and then off again... It came back on around 10ish again and has been on since.

It was weird here last night.

The drive home was not as bad as I expected... although I drive a Vespa so I was able to skirt around much of the more mundane traffic. What was cool was that there still appeared to be a good amount of politeness when drivers approached intersections. Traffic was bad but it was flowing.

I live near a park and as planned went to see Shakespeare in the Rough last night. They are a theatre group that stages plays in the park. Saw them do Much Ado About Nothing. Excellent production. As it got dark it was very cool because the "stage area" (deliniated by the boles of a couple of large trees) was the only lit area (battery powered lights).

I live in an older urban neighbourhood (i.e. narrow tree lined streets with victorian homes) and everyone seemed to be out walking and chatting with the neighbours. Many were out with candles in their stoops taking in the cool night air and many were at the park looking across the Don Valley at the relatively darkened city skyline (generates seemed to be keeping a lot of the towers lit) and taking in the star which are ordinarily blocked out by light pollution.

It was very cool how dark everything became.

Slept out on the back deck with my son as it was too hot in the house. Drempt of fighting of bear sized racoons but no actual encounter occured.

Hope everyone else is OK and enjoying a day off (hey our Prime Minsister requested we take the day and who am I to say no?).

Thanks for sharing your stories everyone -- much more interesting then the "news." Glad everyone is ok and still praying for those without.

It was so weird here yesterday. I work at a hospital, so when the lights went out, they went out for about a minute and then went back on again (due to the emergency generator). Parts of the hospital were without power but I guess I'm on the same generator as the patient beds/OR.

So I logged on to my usual haunts and it was so weird to see nobody else from NYC posting. For a while I felt like the only person from NY on the Internet.

The power remained on at the hospital and I stayed here until about 11 PM, until I went to sleep on a pull-out couch at the hotel across the street.

It was a little scary, but honestly, also kinda cool. How often do you look out across New York City and see darkness? I mean, you could see flickers of candles in random windows, but other than that, it was completely dark.

As far as I know, power is pretty much on its way to being restored in the NYC area. Power at my apartment in Queens was apparently out for approximately 13 hours. I wonder how much of my food is completely ruined....

Good luck everybody who's still waiting for power...of course, I guess if they're without power, they're not reading this, are they?

Quadro

My aunt in NYC ended up having to walk 4 hours to get home. She said it was pretty weird seeing so many people out and about on the streets. Though, I guess folks were being really nice and offering rides to people stuck walking. nice. :)

Tell you one thing ac is a must there in nyc and here in louisiana where i live.. for two days our ac went out.. no air but for two box fans.. the 4 bedroom house rose to 95 degrees real fast.. now can you imagine what somewent through.. ive been to and seen some nyc building.. oh not the fancy one.. the ones that are sorta old and run down.. most old peps cant take heat over 78 degrees.. ..

that would totally suck.

I just my power back like two hours ago. It was a very boring night, to say the least. Fortunately, I had my camping gear to help me through it all. That, and my GBA SP. God Bless the backlight! :D