Blackout 2003

[whyamisobig]

Mentioned in another thread, reminded me of a more lighthearted story from the 2003 Blackout.


It happened mid-day while I was still at work, at first alot of people freaked thinking it was terrorists and that we're a huge target now that millions of people gathered in the street at the same time. A news cast over a battery radio said that power would be back on in an hour or two (looking back, I think they said this just to keep people calm), so we all decided a bar is the best way to kill time until the power comes back on.

Many hours and many warm beers later, after falling victim to price gouging at a hotdog cart, we realized that the power is not coming back on and that we had to get a place to crash that night. About five of my co-workers all tried to get a cab for an hour but none were picking people up, so we crashed unanouced at our boss's apartment in midtown. Woke up him and his wife(total bitch).

A few beers in, the wife losses it and starts throwing people out. I was completely unaware about people getting tossed as I was on the balcony with the sliding glass door shut, singing Poison's greatest hits to some girls on another balcony. By the time she gets to me everyone else is gone. "Unless you were in my wedding you have to get the fuck out, and I don't know who you are so go quietly!" She says to me. I pleaded that I lived 12 miles away, no cabs, I'd sleep on the floor, and that I hooked up with her younger sister so she should know me (true story), she still tossed me. Had to feel my way around in that building for about another hour to get out took the stairs to the basement by mistake and ended up climbing out one of those shitty little basement windows.

Went back to my office and told security that I'd just sleep at my desk until work started in the morning, so dice. I ended up sleeping at Bryant Park with 400 of my new friends. My biggest fear was that someone would steal my shoes as I slept so I took them off and used them as a pillow.

In the morning, a reporter interviewed me because I looked like shit with my suit still on from the night before and obviously hadn't been home yet. Took a bus home, stopped at a deli and got a sandwich, which made me violently sick because the meat was unrefrigerated all day.

[The Dull House]

No traffic lights on Route 5 here in Buffalo means I got back to Hamburg in out 7 minutes. Usually takes 20.

[oleanron]

Heh....if the blackout happened about a week or two later, my wedding would've been completely fucked up.

I was at work. I had just started at Playboy two months earlier and was trying to get as much done before I left for two weeks on my honeymoon. Anyway, my department was on the 23rd floor with a beautiful terrace overlooking Central Park (PB since moved us and gave up the 23rd floor). On that day, we were coming to the end of a particularly grueling edit cycle, so our managing editor decided we'd have a pizza-and-beer party on the 23rd floor. I'm sitting at my desk, working at my desk, the beer arrives. Great. I'm finishing my stuff up when I noticed that the light on my desk starts to get dimmer...and dimmer...and dimmer...until it just faded out. And then my computer goes off.

So, we go out to the terrace (the only departments up there were research, copy and fashion--everybody else were on the third floor) and start drinking. My boss looks over the side. "Hmph," he says, "the traffic lights are all off."

"Guess it's a city-wide blackout," I replied. And we continued drinking.

We were having a merry ol' time until two security guards show up out on the terrace.

"WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU GUYS DOING???" one screamed.

"Uh....we're drinking."

"There's a nationwide blackout! Don't you know that??? We're evacuating the building!"

So, we made our way downstairs. Thankfully, I was living in Astoria, Queens at the time. Had I lived out on Long Island, I would've been fucked. My wife, however, was out on Long Island, doing the final preparations on her wedding dress with her cousin's husband, Sally. Jill calls me on the cell phone as I'm walking. Turns out her sister--who is horrible in a crisis--calls screaming "IT'S A TERRORIST ATTACK!!!! THE ENTIRE COUNTRY IS BLACKED OUT!!!"

I had found out at that point what was going on. I was really annoyed at my sister-in-law....in my business, you never EVER go with a story without 100% confirmation. So I told Jill, who was equally annoyed at her sister.

Anyway, I go over the bridge, walk down Queens Boulevard, I think it was, and was doing great until those last ten blocks. Then it just hit me--I'm really fucking tired. By the time I got home, I just collasped. Thankfully, my stove was a gas stove, so I was able to cook dinner. The best part was, after dinner, I went outside and all of my neighbors were hanging out, drinking beer, playing music on battery-operated radios...we had an impromptu block party.

And then the lights went on at 4:30 am. I had off from work, obviously, and spent the rest of the day watching my newly-purchased "Best of Ric Flair" tape. That's an awesome tape! It had a rare Flair-Steamboat match from Japan that was unbelieveable.

[rimrocka44]

when i left work around 5 they still had power. i didn't know about the power outage until i got home. i was still living with my parents and since no one was home i grabbed all the beer out of the fridge and headed to my girlfriend, now wife's, apartment. the bars around the corner from her place had power, nothing else. my buddies lived across the street from her so we threw a save the beer porch party. the only thing we were nervous about was skunked beer.

[oleanron]

It was great because my wife spent the next day out on Long Island while I watched my wrestling tapes all day. Seriously, left to my own devices, I could watch 18 hours of wrestling straight at least. Gee, I don't know why my wife doesn't want us to get WWE 24/7.

[CosmonautLaunchPad]

rimrocka44 said:

when i left work around 5 they still had power. i didn't know about the power outage until i got home. i was still living with my parents and since no one was home i grabbed all the beer out of the fridge and headed to my girlfriend, now wife's, apartment. the bars around the corner from her place had power, nothing else. my buddies lived across the street from her so we threw a save the beer porch party. the only thing we were nervous about was skunked beer.

Hey Rim, remember the great Greenbelt black out of 2005?

[rimrocka44]

admin said:

Hey Rim, remember the great Greenbelt black out of 2005?

How could I forget? It was a night the Mad Dog 20/20 flowed like pristine spring water not to mention the rest of the booze we had to rescue.

I'm just glad we had SAS class the next day and Burger Delite to cure the hangover.