The 2003 Northeast Blackout | A Short Documentary | Fascinating Horror
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- Опубликовано: 5 июн 2024
- "On the 14th of August, 2003, the power went out in New York City. Small blackouts affecting individual blocks or neighbourhoods were not unheard of… but this was something much bigger..."
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CHAPTERS:
00:00 - Intro
00:44 - Background
01:52 - The 2003 Northeast Blackout
08:21 - The Aftermath
MUSIC:
► "Glass Pond" by Public Memory
► "In The Void" by Amulets
SOURCES:
► "Final Report on the August 14, 2003 Blackout in the United States and Canada" by the US Canada Power System Outage Task Force, April 2004. Available via: www.energy.gov/oe/articles/bl...
► "The 2003 Northeast Blackout - Five Years Later" by JR Minkel, published by Scientific American, August 2008. Link: www.scientificamerican.com/ar...
► "Remembering North America's largest ever blackout 20 years later" by the North American Electric Reliability Council, July 2004. Available via: web.archive.org/web/201203180...
► "The Blackout of 2003: The Overview; Power Surge Blacks Out Northeast, Hitting Cities in Eight States and Canada; Midday Shutdown Disrupts Millions" by James Barron, published by The New York Times, August 2003. Link: www.nytimes.com/2003/08/15/ny...
► "Health Impact in New York City During the Northeastern Blackout of 2003" by Shao Lin, Barbara Fletcher, Ming Luo, Robert Chinery, Syni-An Hwang, published by Public Health Reports, June 2011. Available via: www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/arti...
#Documentary #History #TrueStories
Just like 9/11 I'll never forget where I was. I was working at a mechanic shop when the power went out. The owner came out of the office and and immediately yelled and cussed at me accusing me of doing something that shorted out the power. Shortly after I said that I didn't do it, I noticed it was our whole street. Then noticed it was everywhere. At night I didn't recognize the city I spent my whole life in.
Wow, the owner sounded like a real gem.
The owner is a conkwocket.
Not comparable at all 911 changed my life living in Florida I had no idea this happened until now
@@B727X Pretty sure when you just had an attack of that scale on the place you live a city wide blackout would conjure up some memories to make it stick. Of course down in Florida it'll be just as uneventful to you as was 9/11, unless you had some personal ties to someone who perished that day, the only thing that would have changed for you is potential interactions with airport security. Other changes are imposed by ourselves even if we attribute them to other events.
Did your boss apologise to you?
The idea of being trapped in a pitch-black elevator that slowly gets hotter and hotter sounds like my own worst nightmare.
Been there, wouldn't recommend it.
We overloaded an old elevator in a dorm once, too many people going up. We stood there like sardines for over an hour before a mechanic opened the doors. Now let's imagine the power is out everywhere and no one can reach us for hours and hours. No... let's not.
@@TTFerdinand Or you're trapped in a lift for almost an hour while the top half of the building is on fire and then the whole building collapses around you, which happened to a good hundred or so people on 9/11. At least those stuck in lifts in the first building would likely have been oblivious to their pending end.
Now imagine that elevator is a 1 star motel room the size of a prison cell and put a loud schizophrenic family next door that constantly stomps the floor and punches the walls from 8am to 3am and you have my life.
*DL-6 flashbacks intensify*
I was a teenager living just outside of Toronto when this happened. I remember at first it seemed fun, I talked on the phone with my friends, read by candlelight, and spent the first evening floating around in my little above ground pool enjoying a better view of the stars than I was used to having. It stopped being fun pretty quickly though due to the heat. It was already unusually hot that week but without air conditioning and electric fans it soon became unbearable. By the end of it I was just laying in my basement, the coolest part of my house hoping it would end. I knew it was over when my dad's ancient beer fridge started whirring again, it was the best sound I'd heard in my life.
It's incredible how dependant on electricity society has become. Here in Mexico that's the reality of a lot of us...every single day. We have really hot weather in some areas, and no air conditioners. We have to be creative on how to cope with it. Over time, you get used to it.
I had the exact same experience. Also grew up just outside Toronto. Looking up and seeing the Milky Way for the first time is a core memory for me.
Haha. I was out of electricity for eight hours related to snow knocking some power lines down winter 2022 and it was eerily quiet. When the electricity came on in the middle of the night I jumped….there were pops and bangs and whirring sounds 😂.
I can’t believe you made it. I mean you had to suffer in your furnished basement next to your dads beer fridge without your fan, pool, and air conditioner. I am shocked to learn you survived such an ordeal
I was 6 when it happened. It wasn’t unfamiliar since my building would go out of power at times but what did make me realize it wasn’t like those times was when someone said, it’s also happening in New York too. That to me was weird since having no power from here to New York sounds super serious. I still didn’t really care too much since as a kid then, you had fun in other ways mainly with toys or just experiencing this whole thing. I still remember the tenants were all outside socializing though. The news reported people slept outside. Think it lasted a day and a half an hour aquarium ran and the fishes were moving around like they were glad the power was back lol.
If that happened now, I really think it would be worse since we all really depend on electricity.
1.1 million subscribers, and still no adverts at the start of the video, or during. I couldn’t blame Fascinating Horror if it did, but it’s refreshing that it hasn’t. Best channel of its type on RUclips, against a lot of strong competition.
It’s frustrating to pay for RUclips premium only for the creators themselves to shove sponsored products down our throats. I love when RUclipsrs don’t use sponsors.
@@QveenRexyou still get ads even on premium?
..
I remember the days of hardly any adds and RUclipsrs made a decent buck on videos ...
Think it went downhill around 2014/16.
@@stuartd9741 no I don’t get ads from RUclips itself, but I do get stuff advertised to me by RUclipsrs I watch who are paid by companies to try and sell their products or services.
STOP MENTIONING IT, he’ll jump on the bandwagon soon too.
@@Liusila I would suggest the lack of ads maybe down to the subject matter.
I watch another (death/burial) related channel that also doesn't have any adverts.
Seems like the algorithm doesn't like unsuitable taboo subjects..
The scary thing i found out about New York during the blackout is that no one has food on hand. I worked in a large hospital at the time. They received all their food by truck every day. There was nothing on hand for patients and staff. Nothing in the cafeteria. Nothing. Please keep a pantry in your house or apartment for a few weeks just in case!
I'm sorry?@@DaveSCameron
@@WibblyWobblyTime You understand what I mean I'm sure, no power, nighttime and so on. 👍
@@DaveSCameronBut why trans people?
What does that have to do with anything?
Do you think they commit more SA on average or something? Because that is statistically false.
@@IronPsydethe transphobes don't want statistics they want random misguided anger and confusion
@@IronPsyde dont bother responding to bait, just block and report
The passing of that law in 2005, making the companies accountable has likely saved us from even more of these incidents. It is NEVER profitable to shut down, but being financially accountable is a nice protection for the citizens and industries they serve.
Proving your point, the grid in Texas is separate from that of the contiguous US and the companies there are not beholden to these rules! They've had several disasters and near misses just on their local grid in the years since.
Oh it's not a problem for them, they'll just add another5t charge, surcharge, fee, tax, involuntary option, etc, in the typical fashion of nickel and diming you for a "public utility" with zero competition.
Maybe they should pass a law that holds government accountable.. oh wait
Citizen protection should be priority number one in any government
@@Him_He_Me I agree, but with the caveat that safety not come at the sacrifice of liberty.
We've become rather poor at that.
Because of this, my mother always keeps her fuel tank above 75%. Before the blackout, my mom would ride around on "E" because she would rely on either my dad or the fuel warning light to tell her to fill up. During the blackout, she wasn't able to get fuel, she had to park in a parking lot, which turned out to be a mechanic. Less than two days later after the craziness died down. My parents went to get her car and found it there on milk crates. Wheels gone, rear and front bumper gone. Window busted out... just hastily stripped down. There were signs that someone even tried to siphon the non-existent fuel.
To this day she still sarcastically brings up how kind they were and put it on crates rather than letting it rest on the rotors 😂.
I can't imagine leaving my car in a random parking lot in a city and expecting it to still be there 2 days later
@hannahblurp9360 Well, It was still there. And it wasn't a "Random parking lot in a city". It was a mechanic less than 1000ft from a Police substation.
What's the point of you even replying?
Black Privilege 🤦♂️
@@hannahblurp9360it’s quite sad reality it seems 😢
Its good for the fuel pumps anyway. You shouldn’t leave your car with a quarter tank of gas or less.
“We were 24hrs away from little old ladies dying of heat exhaustion in their apartment buildings.” That was the reaction of a power generating station worker I interviewed a day after the power came back on. What many people don’t know is that the worldwide scare around the Y2K bug in the late 1990s helped prevent further chaos when the August 2003 blackout hit, with hospitals having already updated their generators fearing a tech glitch that ultimately never materialized.
I remember being trapped at my parents’ house January of 2000. They were weird and ugly parents. I was in college and winter break was hellish because I wasn’t allowed to leave. It was a prison. New Year’s Eve of 1999 was spent watching them sit in their pajamas drinking heavily. After they warned me to stay off the computer and staggered to bed I snuck out at 11:53 and turned their pc on, hoping for something awful to happen and save me from my life.
Nothing happened. 😂
It was awesome. The skies at night, not filled with city lights from NYC suddenly showed millions of stars. It was eerily quiet. No planes were flying. It was kind of great, even though it was hot as hell
I grew up on a cattle ranch in Arizona. Some friends of my parents were visiting from eastern US. I remember their son crying out in terror when he saw the stars. He thought, "There's too many planes! They're going to crash!" Until then, I didn't know how few stars can be seen in a large city.
@@okeydokey3120can you imagine never having seen the stars in the night sky? Wow!! I've lived in rural areas or on the edge of the city most of my life - only a fraction of it has been spent in the interior of a large city. I guess I take the beauty of the sky for granted!
Yeah it was HOT!. I couldn't sleep. I spent most of the night listening to the news on this tiny little AM radio walkman.
It's interesting how an event can be a deadly emergency for some and a fun little vacation for others. I too was one of the lucky ones who enjoyed a night of peaceful stargazing.
I remember hearing people could for once see the milky way and would call 911 all scared and confused about what it was.
This case really goes to show just how dependent we are on electricity. It's to the point that without power in a large area, death is sure to ensue.
This is why I am so scared of the increasing summer temperatures in humid climates - wet bulb temperature is when it is so hot and so humid that the body can no longer cool itself and people will die without artificial cooling. It's going to start happening more and more.
@@SockDrawerDemonI can already know how that feels. I couldn't cool off in my own home anymore that has no airco. I started to shiver because I simply lost the ability to cool my body off. It won't be pretty.
Yeah, a prime example of why many of us don't want to move to all electric cars.
@@SockDrawerDemonno it isnt.
@@F40PH-2CAT it isn't scary??
I was 11 at the time. I remember being absolutely amazed at how the night sky looked without light pollution. I've never seen anything like that in person before, and since.
Travel.
@@idekav. READ. It's cheaper and less hassle.
@@idekav.this
Take a trip to the Florida Keys. The sky looks like that every night and you can even see satellites flying by. At first they look like planes. but they move way too fast, and are way too high. The Grand Sonoran Desert is also a great place for a full on look at the Milky Way. Just a big smear of stars and dust across the sky.
If you ever wanted to the USA has several camp grounds referred to as "dark sites" that have little to no light pollution depending on which one you go to.
It'll be the best way to see an unfiltered and beautiful night sky
I'm hoping you take suggestions for future video ideas because this one is very personal to me. The 2021 Deep Freeze Blackout in Texas was a very serious and terrifying time for my family as we were all separated the whole time.
The official death toll is almost 250 people (though many consider that to be severely underestimated) between medical care delays, carbon monoxide poisoning from generators, hypothermia, and vehicle colissons. As Texans who are used to barely chilly winters, we were wholly unprepared for a winter storm.
Very few people even knew how to drive in icy conditions and even fewer had tools such as snowchains prepared which lead to a 100 vehicle pile-up that took several lives. I'm actually surprised that pileup didn't make it in your video about "A Brief History of Multi-Vehicle Collisions" considering the storm happened just a couple months before.
The worst part is that a lot of it could have been prevented if the electricity grid had been properly maintained and prepared for something like this but of course, profit was more important than the lives that could be lost.
And if Texas was on the national grid and didn’t have one of its own.
I knew things were serious when Whataburger closed.
Snowchains were not needed
simply slowing down *which is not something we Texans do* would have done wonders
Not bringing generators into your house would have cut down on the monoxide deaths, and insulating your house would help a lot too
There was literally NO reason to prepare for a freeze like that. It had nothing to do with money, and everything to do with not having that kind of cold in almost 100 years.
It would be like Texans preparing for an earthquake. It makes no sense!!!
@@Bdhstl95true, that could have helped. But it will never happen. We don't want to be connected in case we ever finally secede.
I remember this! Mostly because the ice cream shop near us was giving away ice cream half price. We then had BBQ for dinner and my grandparents came over to help my parents with their generator. My grandma brought her popcorn pot. For them it was probably very stessful, for me it meant no school, ice cream and staying up late.
I can imagine ice cream stores being one of those places that go "oh shit please just eat it all." 😂
Stressful for adults in some ways but sounds like a good time for family to get together and enjoy each other fully instead of being distracted by everything around them......❤
Eh, sounds like your family was reasonably prepared. Probably not overly stressful, more inconvenient. They may even have enjoyed the break from the monotony.
@@Person01234 yah we have had power problems before and my mom decided to get a generator (gas). But of course the one time we really needed it, it wasn't working. So we had to call my grandpa for help. We lost power for about two days. I made a couch fort and pretend I was "camping"
@@YuBeace yah they were giving out massive scoops. I think after a while they were telling people to have it for free.
I'm from Ottawa, Canada and was working as an on-site computer tech when this happened. I had just stopped at our office to pick up some gear and the power went out as I arrived. I heard that it had spread to the whole city and immediately jumped in the car and managed to get home before the traffic got too insane. I was lucky. I spent the next day barbequing all the meat in the house. After that, I sat around, bored and rapidly losing money (I worked on commission), while the blame game was playing out. Even after the crooks at FirstEnergy were caught red handed, many US government officials still tried to blame the Canadian grid, rather than speak ill of the corporations lining their pockets.
I got caught in the traffic. Never experienced actual gridlock before. Basically you're all stuck until someone(s) get the courage/sense to start driving over curbs/medians/lawns/etc..🙂
I was in Vancouver airport when this happened. All flights east suddenly got cancelled. It was chaos. And I also remember when they tried to blame Canada on this. I was so stoked when I heard it was the USA power grids fault.
@@Hoovie9596 It was a squirrel!! (probably from Canada 😂)
I was on my way home from visiting my father north of Toronto. I came across one intersection after another with no lights. It was so strange. I went in to work at the hospital. We did have a generator but it only supplied half of our needs. Respiratory Techs kept patients on ventilators alive MANUALLY. They got a second generator up and running which helped immensely. I cooked food on the BBQ. As usual, some people pitch in and help out and some people are idiots.
Despite the fatalities abroad, I do remember this event fondly. I lived in the suburbs of Toronto at that time and only suffered lack of power for a few days. The days were hot, but the evenings where a magical time with much merriment in my little neighbourhood.
Same, also from Toronto (technically Pickering). My family had a pool so all I remember was endless swimming and hot dogs from the barbecue. It was great!
We lived on the Etobicoke/Mississauga border at the time. By the next afternoon we had power back.
I was visiting family in Thunder Bay when it happened. For those who don't know, it's one of the more rural cities in Ontario. The temperature was mild and the stars that night were breathtaking. Meanwhile, my friends back in Toronto were at the movies during a matinee, they were the only two people in the theatre when everything went dark. No one came to check on them, and as they walked out of the theatre, the entire building was empty. They said it felt like the start of 28 Days Later...
At least they both were together though and maybe people did try to check on them but were unable to
They thought they were in the rapture😂
The power went out in Ottawa in the late afternoon. I was working at an emergency veterinary hospital at the time as a Vet Tech. I was sent to Canadian Tire to get a generator because it happened during a surgery...and people were scrambling to find flashlights to help the Vet see. It was madness at Canadian Tire. Everyone apparently had the same idea. Thankfully, people spotted me in my scrubs and let me skip to the front once I explained we were currently doing surgery by flashlight. I took a paper bill with me, as the computer billing system was down. It was craziness. My friends and I made bank at Dairy Queen though. We got half a dozen ice cream cakes and had an ice cream cake party. My parents lived in Quebec at the time and they were completely unaffected, so I hung out with them for the night.
I was working on Industrial Ave, it was the afternoon, by night time, riots had broken out all along Bank, Elgin, Rideau and Carling to Bayshore.
I was there, watched it all happen, I'm a big guy, I made it out alive, hundreds were injured and the cops, media and Hospitals were all gone
Loving the stories people are posting. Thanks.
Dont keep us in suspense!! Did the pet make it?!
@@mehrimazedeh you are on here commenting on youtube videos and watching youtube videos instead of going out there and saving lives!! GAWD humanity sux so bad!!
omg thats crazy, was the animal alright?
This black out had to be one of the best times in my life! It also affected Detroit as well! We had our generators, we were outside bbq’ing with family, listening to music, etc. It was actually fun for us. Rest in peace to those who lost their lives in this incident.
Around 8.000 people die every day in the US, so not all the deaths were as a result of the blackout. With most people not able to leave home, the death rate may have been lower than normal.
It is a bit like covid, where statistics now show that the death rate was no higher in 2020 than normal. It was 1.7% up on 2019 and lower than 2017.
Same. And just like the pandemic, there are some things I liked that the restrictions forced a simpler life that almost seems happier.
At the time of this blackout I worked in Mississauga and commuted home to Toronto by train and subway. I encountered many acts of kindness by complete strangers that night on my journey to get home.
I was there. I had taken a train into NYC, and they evacuated us out of Penn Station. Once outside, I saw all these tall buildings become pitch black at sunset. It was so unsettling at first. But there was like this chill vibe around. 9/11 was just a couple years ago, and there was some nervousness going around but never any all out panic. People were just chill and lying around or helping each other(which is weird when you consider NYC had a really infamous blackout in 1977). A fancy hotel opened its doors up to anyone who needed shelter and I slept overnight there.
But yeah, it was something.
For me, the blackout was a fairly calm experience, except for my mom and her husband jumping on my (unrelated) trauma buttons. Then getting mad at me for being upset.
Yes, it's something of s miracle that it didn't descend into an orgy of looting, criminality and violent rioting. Eh, it was twenty years ago, maybe people were more chill back then. I wonder what would happen in a similar event today. I suspect it wouldn't be pretty.
I'm enjoying everyone's personal stories. Thank you for sharing.
@@rich_edwards79it's odd - and sad - isn't it? I think society is devolving in that regard. People are becoming more self-centred and entitled. I'm afraid looting and vandalism would be more common today, if recent history is anything to go by.
@@theladyinblack3055well back in 1977 new york had a terrible blackout where there was much looting a crime, this one seems really tame
I was 4 years old, and my family was visiting NYC. Before the blackout, my mom and I were trying to catch the subway, but I needed to use the bathroom and made us miss the train. My mom was so annoyed. Then the power went out. The subways stopped on their tracks. We were among the pedestrians taking the long walk to our destinations. I felt so smug for inadvertently saving us from being trapped in the subway.
I lived in the northeastern end of Toronto when this happened, and I gotta say, I kinda enjoyed it.
For a bustling noisy city like The Greater Toronto area, it was amazing to hear … nothing. Occasional car went by, but mostly it was VERY quiet.
I could see people having BBQs in their backyards because their stoves weren’t working, and for an often jaded bunch of Torontonians, the atmosphere turned jovial pretty quick. People ACTUALLY got to speak to their neighbours because they had nothing better to do, and parties spontaneously broke out in places.
I wouldn’t want to go through that again though. Especially not during a Canadian winter.
My husband was in TO during the massive ice storm. The next block from him lost power for at least a week and people were dying trying to stay warm.
I remember this all to well because my parents were upset at me because they thought I downloaded viruses on the family computer again from Limewire while we were living in Northwestern Ontario. (We didn't lose power but we also just moved 2 months before from the Toronto area.) They grounded me until they found out the internet was not working because of the Blackout.
I’m glad you got ungrounded
Lmao Limewire! Oh the memories. & Napster.
You should maybe do a video on the major Ice Storm of 1998 in Ontario and Quebec and places nearby. That was the only time we had a state of emergency and was sent home. All over places were covered by huge layers of ice, powerlines snapped in two and a lot of places had no power at all. It was scary.
Huh, I don't remember that. I was definitely old enough to remember it, and yet nothing. Mind, I was still in school at the time, so maybe it was just a snow day so far as I was concerned? I definitely remember the 2013 ice storm though.
The ice storm shut some places down for weeks. My husband grew up in Montreal, and he still talks about it (He was in high school at the time.) My grandmother had a gas oven, and could still cook, but some people were very badly off during that time.
The upgrades to the power grid that happened as a result of this meant that the Quebec side did not lose power during the 2003 outage.
That was scary because the conditions for it to happen are very specific. Warm enough for the precipitation to fall as rain, but cold enough for it to freeze instantly when it hits something like a tree branch or powerline. Those conditions arrived and just got locked in for a long time.
I lived in Montreal at the time and didn’t have heat for 6 days. We had to boil the water too. It was so weird seeing my breath inside my apartment and walking around in blankets.
My wife was born during that storm :)
I remember it well. I worked at a video store and had to guard the store until corporate told us to go home. Driving home was scary. Later, I took a walk outside because of the heat and my boyfriend actually found me in the darkness with a single flashlight. We spent the night listening to the radio in his car. It was the most romantic moment of my life.
Sorry for being nosy but did that relationship last?
I was working at a Video Store in Massillon Ohio when this happened.
@@lollybowser It’s okay. Sadly, he passed away in 2005 from a heart issue. We were still together at the time.
@@zuitsuit80Oh no I'm so sorry ❤
@@zuitsuit80that’s very sweet and rest in power to your late lover. God speed
I live in Ontario between Toronto and London. We had a blast that day/night. My husband and 3 young kids cooked everything perishable in the house on the bar-b-q. Neighbours shared food and drinks. We had a fire and sang songs. Later we walked the streets with flashlights and chatted with neighbours. Very fun event for us.
I lived through this blackout in the Bronx, NY. It was scary and fun at the same time. I was living with my mother and brother at the time. My mother was at work and got stuck there once that blackout started. She worked for a home for the elderly at the time and they had generators. My brother and I were stuck in a fifth floor apartment with no power. My brother went and picked up his girlfriend at the time who was pregnant with his child. My brother felt she was safer in an apartment with he and I than with her mom and sister. With the remaining daylight we stocked up on non-perishable food and got what would be our last hot meal for about 18 hours. After that we hunkered down. The neighborhood was buzzing as some actually had BBQ grills outside and started cooking and partying till 3-4 AM. The one thing I do remember it was a hot night, very muggy and humid. We opened all the windows in the house. We got through the night, I believe it was some time just after noon on August 15th when the power came back where I live. I will never forget it.
The one in Cleveland was caused by a relay technician taking out a relay (used to detect a fault) for maintenance.
All transmission circuits carry two of them. A main and a backup.
The main was already out and he took the backup out to do maintenance.
While he had it off the line sagged into a tree on the right of way causing a rise in current due to a fault.
The other relays on other circuits saw the fault current increase as that line was tied with another and they started tripping off to protect the system.
Three states later dispatchers were able to stop it.
I always wondered if the relay guy received a bonus that year………
AT least Cleveland was up and running in a few hours.
OOF, for once a Fascinating Horror episode that I was alive when it happened and I was actually there. I seriously cannot imagine this happening today when we are more than ever connected to technology, things like telephone landlines are nonexistent in homes, and honestly, this video is just a good reminder of the importance of being prepared for short and long term emergencies since this thankfully was resolved within a day.
But it wasn't! Some people were without power for much longer.
None of the phones worked anyway, at least in NYC. A few people had cell phone access, but even that was mostly jammed.
I actually had power where I lived where I got home but I had to take buses all the way. Where I live has its own backup power station.
Just don't think about the fact that we're overdue for another Carrington event, which will surely cause widespread disruption...
In this event it was only fun for us kids who got free ice cream and barbecue all night! Only bad thing that happened in our neighborhood was the Chinese restaurant's salt water fish tank stopped circulating and all our beloved exotic fish died, that was the only sad part for me as a kid that day.
I was living near the east end of Long Island when this happened. The predominant rumor that night was that there'd been another terrorist attack, and that the entire east side of the United States was without power. Although I'd been a Type 1 diabetic for 29 years at that point, I was more concerned about my parents down in Florida than any food or my insulin staying cold.
I remember this happening, but I guess I had a much different experience: We had a 'blackout party' or rather, friends who didn't have power came over and brought food that they couldn't cook (electric stoves) and it was an impromptu gathering. We pulled the generator out (normal occurrence for us), and were mostly alright due to having a gas stove & water heater, gravity-fed water from a natural spring meant running water, and because our house was 200+ years old it was built for not having air conditioning and everything was bearable.
We didn't have cell service to begin with, and I guess we were far enough away from the city to still have powered landlines. The no traffic lights and internet was annoying but living in a rural area prepared us bizarrely well for the whole thing. I didn't even know how bad the outages were until MUCH later because it felt like a regular outage to me.
This event happened before hurricane Sandy and these were both incidents that showed us how vulnerable these densely packed areas can be when disaster strikes.
We experienced this in Syracuse, NY as well. We were very lucky to have not been terribly affected by it. Our stove was gas as well, so we were still able to cook and boil water easily when needed. I remember stores were selling t-shirts that said something like "I survived the 2003 Blackout."
I had one of those shirts!
I remember when this happened. I just turned 17 that summer & we were so scared it was a terrorist thing because we were still fresh off of 9/11. We had to listen to the news by car radio or battery operated devices.
Once we realized it wasn’t we talked on the phone to pass the time & not be scared because a lot of us were home alone. We were also points of contact for our friends that were out & couldn’t get to their families (not every call went through, so if were able to reach their house, we called for them).
I was working in the newsroom of a small town in mid-Michigan and we just had a generator installed the week prior. Our power momentarily went out for a few brief moments right at the beginning but came back on and the town was right on the cutoff -- everything a mile east was blackout all the way to NY. When word got out this town had power, you wouldn't believe the stream of people pouring in to fight over hotels and gas pumps. I remember driving into the city to check things out and it was unbelievable. It was a fun memory from simpler days. Seems like just yesterday.
I remember this. We went to my friend's house for a cookout and the whole city was dark and there was no one around. It reminded me of 28 days later.
I was lucky that I got a ride from work in Queens to Staten Island where I lived then. Some of my coworkers could walk home if it was in Queens or even Manhattan. My cell phone worked and was able to call landlines. It really could've been so devastating but the mood in the city at the time was quite chill. People were quite cooperative, letting strangers use their bathrooms, businesses giving away food, no riots nor much disorderly conduct in general.
Yes. I remember feeling very proud of New Yorkers. They behaved well.
I live VERY close to where it started!! 3 days without power!! Made me feel like it was the 70s again!! Board games out the wazoo!! I can't believe it's been 20 years!! Everything feels like it happened yesterday!!! Soak in every moment people!!! It's gone too quick!! ❤
I'm from Windsor and this happened just weeks before my 16th birthday. I was at the grocery store with my mom and two of my siblings. We didn't even know the power had gone out. The afternoon sun was coming in the windows of the store so the lights being out wasn't noticed at first. My younger brother came in after we waited in the check line for something like 45 minutes to tell us all the power in the city was out. I think the power was out for a day or two, maybe even three. I just remember my parents letting us play outside after dark because all the neighbours were out on their porches so it was safe as long as we were in front of the house. Being able to have my astronomy books out with a flashlight to be able to look at the stars in the sky. As well as my family playing card cards by candle lit. We ate a lot of sandwiches those few days.
I’m from Philly and remember this well. The elevator and subway situations were harrowing. I knew the cities would descend into all kinds of chaos and loss of life for a myriad of reasons. It was inevitable. The way we were and certainly still are so unprepared for a widespread disaster is frightening and sad… The US never have laws (or enforce) that hold corporations accountable.
Can you imagine how the mAh FrEdOm crowd would react to being told what to do, even for their own good? 😂main character syndrome is rife in the states, good luck convincing them
If you think what corporations have does is bad, then you should take a look at Congress.
@@westcoastaerialimagery4690What's wrong with realizing the government isn't capable of rescuing me when things finally hit the proverbial fan?
The corporations own the regulatory agencies, nobody is looking out for us.
I somehow now live next door to the house that i was in when the blackout started. My grandparents were babysitting me, in Kitchener Ontario, and i was watching tv when everything just shut down. I don’t remember much from the rest of the blackout, but i’m sure it was insanely stressful for my parents and the rest of the adults at the time. For us kids it was like urban camping!
Edit to add; i can’t believe the Canadian government didn’t sue and win against the company that caused it. That’s ridiculous.
How much swag did your grandparents manage to grab from the unprotected shops?
@@DaveSCameronthis comment is just rude and uncalled for.
@@DaveSCameron A Lot! I Helped carry a lot of loot for them that night, and I was glad to help.
Maybe they didn't have a law in place? Just like U.S. didn't have one in the video? Just guessing since I honestly don't know.
@@matthewhanf3033 That would be my guess ya.
This is one of the rare events this channel's covered that I actually remember a little. Pretty much all my extended family is on the east coast, mostly in NYC. So, I seem to remember most of that time being spent calling relatives to make sure they were alright.
I was working in a small shop doing spray-transfer welding. It's really bright, I had a #12-filter in my shield. I was laying a heavy weld in 1.5" cold-rolled steel when everything went dark. I thought something had gone wrong with my welding machine, and lifted my mask to see what was wrong. I still couldn't see, and briefly panicked, thinking I'd gone blind. Then somebody opened a door, giving the shop a bit of light.
I was glad I lived on the second floor of a three-storey walk-up. Moved everything from my freezer into a pair of coolers, ate what I could, and joined the building cook-outs. It was a surreal period.
Good episode! I was there for this. It was scary, for a while. Being so close to 9/11, it had us thinking it was a terrorist attack, but it ended up being human error. Btw, Toledo OH is not pronounced like Toledo, Spain. It's Toll-Lee-Doe.
Right! We'd all been recently traumatized by 9/11. I was worried too.
How do you think Toledo in Spain is pronounced? :D
@@LiusilaToe-le-doe
Isn't it Toe -Lay-Dough?
I remember this. I lived in Ontario at the time, but was visiting my grandmother in Quebec. We had power, but my parents/brother, back home, did not. My brother was working as QM at a sleepaway camp, and had to get creative to keep everyone fed.
The power grid on the Quebec side had been updated following the ice storm in the late 90s, which left some people without power for weeks in midwinter. My husband still talks about that ice storm, and before she died, my grandmother also often spoke of it. She had a gas oven, so she was still able to cook without power.
I love gas ovens. I relied on mine when the power went out for a few days in my neighborhood. I was able to have warm water to bathe in. Not to mention the ability to cook.
@@spiritmatter1553 They can be a lifesaver.
I'm trying to imagine EVERYBODY needing help. I cannot fathom how many elevators are in New York City alone.
I was effected by the 2012 derecho in WV and we went without power for 2 weeks. My job was closed and gas and food were hard to get. I was lucky that my mother is a child of the 40s and she always had camping gear and extra food for emergencies. We weren't happy but we were able to survive. When you think about it storing a little extra and buying a cheap camping stove is worth it when you really need it.
I never expected this event to make it to this channel, because my memories of it are very fond! I was 13 at the time, in Windsor, Ontario, which is just across the river from Detroit. I have no memory of the explosion mentioned!
We lost our power for two nights, if I recall correctly. What I remember the strongest was all the kids of the block coming together through the day, and kids and parents alike gathering as the night settled in. We were a lower income area, and no one I knew had a generator. We we depended on my dad's old battery-operated radios to hear any news.
Playing "hide and seek in the dark" was never so challenging. I've never known true darkness before or since those nights. The moon wasn't out, or maybe the sky was overcast, so if we didn't have a flashlight we truly could not see our friends who were just feet away.
My friends and I would refer to the event as "Blackout Meltdown 2003," which our parents assured us was a little bit dramatic. It's wild to look back and consider all the ways it went terribly wrong for so many people, when we were having the time of our lives, connecting as a community in the way that only happens in the face of chaos.
I was 8 at the time and I will never forget how amazing the stars were in our backyard.
I remember this day very vividly. I was in the hospital under care for an infection. I was mobile so I went to the window and looked outside seeing the traffic lights out and people having to make each light a 4 way stop. We had limited lights in the hospital corridors with a backup generator. I sat for awhile trying to read with the bit of light from the hallway. Since we didn’t have tv, I just finally went to sleep.
I was living in Hamilton when the blackout happened. One thing I remember the most is how hot it was. We were in an apartment and the heat was stifling. We went for a walk down to Gore Park (right in the center of Downtown Hamilton) and we were amazed at being able to see the constellations! Several bars were open and one of the bouncers joked that they would barter a beer or two for some twine. Overall, it was a bit inconvenient but we tried to think of it as if we were camping for about 24-36 hours.
I was in the Detroit area when this happened. And part of the initial panic was that this was less than two years after 9/11. The owner of the store my sister and I worked at yelled when he walked into the store 'the terrorists blew up the eastern seaboard.' That's all we knew until we were able to get home and the news stations were able to get up and going on generators.
Heh I was just commenting that I had a crazy neighbour saying something similar (I lived in Toronto at the time). I mean I knew he was crazy, and it was unlikely, but also you're right, it was close enough to 9/11 that it didn't seem *entirely* impossible...
I remember being in our one vehicle listening to the radio for news on the blackout I remember them saying it could be from terrorism. I was in Port Huron Mi at the time of the blackout.
I was in Detroit as well. It wasn't that bad for us. We were outside barbecuing and listening to music.
From Toronto. I remember when this happened everyone was talking about how they spent most of their time doing outdoor barbeques. A lot of people still bring up memories of that time but I completely missed out on it since I was in Australia during the outage. People still get annoyed when I bring it up lol.
Because you were in Australia?
I was in Quebec visiting my grandmother, so unlike the rest of my family, I also missed it.
I worked in downtown Toronto and sat on the GO train for 3 hours. But once I got home my husband and I made burgers on the BBQ and enjoyed the stars. It was kinda nice TBH.
Thanks for reminding me how lucky I am not to live in Toronto anymore! I left in 1994, moved to London and in 2000 we moved out to the country. I don't miss it at all!!
The Texas "Big Freeze" of 2021 may not have been widespread, but it did a lot of damage. $4.5 million homes and businesses lost power, and at least 250 deaths were attributed to the blackout, which lasted three days in many areas. Since Texas isn't part of the National grid, the Federal regulations enacted after the 2003 NE Blackout did not apply to our grid. Unlike the NE blackout, the Texas blackouts were caused by record cold temperatures, not heat.
Some of those videos of water pouring out of attics was just awful. I run power plants here in CO. That incident caused us some lingering headaches for winterization of facilities here.
I had to put my bearded dragon by our fireplace lol to keep him alive. The Texas freeze affected rowlett decently my friend and I just ran around acting stupid with no school for a couple days
It goes to show that it can happen everywhere. I remember reading across all social media platforms how "horrible" Texas was for the power loss and how irresponsible ERCOT was etc. It was a bad situation. There was plenty of warning for ERCOT to plan accordingly but bad leadership and infrastructure that can't keep up with the ever growing population made the situation even more dire. We lost power a whopping 3 times (for about 3 minutes at a time). Not sure how we got so lucky. We are very rural so it made no sense how we had power but those in the city did not.
Being in wisconsin i obviously didnt take it as serious, but i didnt realize how differently homes are built in the south. Not having heat as an option and no basements is foreign to me
I remember watching that entire disaster unfold in complete awe. I knew it was going to be bad because my sister went to the University of Alabama and knew through her that the entire city of Tuscaloosa shut down over the slightest bit of snow accumulation, and Texas got dumped on AND put into a deep freeze. Their infrastructure just isn't built for that sort of weather event, and the and the way ERCOT fumbled at seemingly every turn made it all drastically worse.
I’m from Long Island and I remember this day like yesterday. It certainly didn’t help that it was like one of the hottest days of the year.
Ah yes, I remember this. I'm from Toledo and was going on 10 years old at the time. My family and I were lucky to only have the power out for one day, but I remember being really scared thinking it would take a very long time to fix, and I still feel awful for those that had to go weeks without power and/or lost someone.
I remember that day very well. Luckily, we were only without power for around 5-6 hours, but we knew people without for over a week. It was a hot day, and I woke up because of the heat, my a/c had turned off. I called the power company and they said a huge area was affected. I live not far from a hospital, so we always assumed our grid would be given priority to get the hospital back to normal. We were glad we didn't have to suffer for long, but it was quite the afternoon and evening.
Where I was it took 2 days for us to get the power back.
Hey fascinating horror, it would mean a lot if you could make a story about the granite mountain hotshot tragedy. As of this year its been 10 years since they passed. Their story is truly one of the saddest firefighter tragedies. It brings me to tears every time.
Excellent video, as usual. We were on our farm in rural Michigan when the power went out, a event that happened fairly often, usually after every major windstorm. Thankfully, we had a generator, a necessity with a dairy herd that needed to be milked twice a day.
I was a new EMT in NYC when this happened. We had to be dispatched via cell phone. It was a Hell of a night but it wasn't as chaotic as you would think
Surprisingly my spouse was at out home in The Bx and our section wasn't effected by the blackout
Sadly I was working in South Brooklyn and couldn't get home, so I stayed at work for 24 hours. The next day I managed to get a ride home because my employer had someone doing shuttle service for those of us stuck
I was in the US at the time and the immediate reaction, only a couple of years after 9-11, was that it was a terrorist attack. That fear, together with all the extra security people have to contend with now, demonstrates that the terrorists in 2001 won, as they changed the American way of life.
Power grids are fascinating and terrifying at the same time
New Yorker here, and well do I remember this one. My little son was at a day camp at a YMCA about a mile south of our apartment. I woke up from a brief nap to no air conditioning and no lights. Did we blow a circuit? No. Looked outside: no traffic lights. Ran downstairs, and a woman with a battery operated radio said, "It's all the way to Cleveland." So I filled every cooking pot with water, then rushed downtown in the heat, through a lot of scary traffic, to find my screaming child in a throng of kids in the dark lobby of the Y. We went outside; he was not consoled. So I walked to Central Park West, where traffic was crawling north, and stuck out my thumb. A nice doctor in a Lexus picked us up and we rode home in his nice cool car. I still think about him. ... NB one thing I've noticed in NYC emergencies like this is that even before the police ask, there are heroic guys who jump out into intersections and start directing traffic. It's amazing.
I am quickly becoming addicted to this channel. The author is gifted with near-perfect diction and tone, and calmly goes in the right order about the main root causes for the mishaps. As an OCD engineer I am hooked ;)
Man. I remember this! It was so random! I had just left work, which was relying on generator power, but we didn't know anything was wrong yet because this had actually been a common thing for the building at the time because of local construction knocking out some lines. I was considering stopping at a restaurant for dinner, but the lights were out. As I rode the bus home, I noticed how widespread this was. Absolutely nuts! I'm in Niagara Region of Ontario; literally 10 minutes from Niagara Falls and all the power plants there. It was a crazy few days.
I was living in Brooklyn when this happened and always wondered how it happened. Ill never forget that day. Thank you for this video 🙏🙌
i remember that day so clearly. i was 11 and we lived out in the country side. i had a friend over and we were outside playing all day while my mom was keeping an eye on us. we had no idea what was going on until my friend's dad pulled up and told us. my dad drove a fuel truck at the time (the kind for houses, not cars) and came home with a story of people stranded on the side of the road who'd asked if they could buy some fuel off of him so they could get home.
I was living in the East Village during this. I LOVED it! Bodegas and ice cream places giving out free ice cream, restaurants serving everything they could for almost nothing, bars selling $1 drinks as the ice melted and beer warmed up, and all lit by candlelight! The Lower East Side felt like the 1800's, I met a bunch of new people because everyone was grilling all the meat they had outside, and no one's phones worked. Seeing Manhattan totally black like that was awesome! My area was out for three days, and I did feel bad for the elderly people in the outer boroughs since it was insanely hot and they didn't have power for a very long time. Still, one of my favorite times I had while living there
You can add Canada's capital, Ottawa, as one of those cities that lost it's power. It was messed up because Ottawa was completely in the dark, but Gatineau Quebec, which is across the Ottawa River from Ottawa, was completely lit up.
In NYC, I remember they played Billy Idol’s “Hot In The City” on the radio several times. (If you had a battery powered or car radio).
I was at work when the world went completely dark. I had to walk from midtown NYC to downtown Brooklyn and was lucky to catch a bus the rest of the way. I had the fortunate luck of it being more of an adventure than a hardship. Such a wild two days.
i have always appreciated and admired your writing and respectfull reporting of these tragic events. thank you
Yikes, imagine what it will be like the next time something like the Carrington Event of 1859 happens. It's not a matter of if, but *when*. F.H. actually covered this event in a video already!
I was at college when this happened. (I both lived and attended college in New York City.) A friend tried to give me a ride home in his car, but we got stuck in traffic. I thanked him for the ride, got out, and walked 2 hours to get home.
I lived in Toronto. I left to pick up my dad 5 minutes before the outage. I would have been trapped in the elevator if I stalled a few minutes. Started to drive and saw that a traffic light was out. Then another. Turned on the radio and heard a power outage affecting all of Toronto. Then all of Ontario, and part of the US. Climbed up 11 floors to get home. Had to go downstairs to fill up water buckets as the water pump in the building didn't work. At night, the sky was full of stars. Everyone was out on their balconies looking up. People hitched rides from downtown and stores gave away ice cream. Your video brought back all those cherished memories that were both scary and joyous at the time. Thank you.
Will never forget this for so many reasons but mostly because it was my first day at my very first job in Toronto. It felt absolutely apocalyptic!
Sounds like an absolute cointoss between "A strange but somewhat fun experience" and "Agonising Death". Damn. If this happened to me in warm weather, I don't know how long I would last, considering I have circulation and nervous system problems that get shockingly bad during heatwaves... Although that would strongly depend on what location I'd be stuck at, I suppose. And I'd better have a big enough medication supply to last it out too!
I'm in the same boat. Except I live down south in Georgia, and try to stay prepared for these situations. However, I can't do anything about the heat except go to my local hospital.
I want to note how normal power outages are, today, in countries like the Dominican Republic. A place that is "wealthy" compared to their neighbors. Yet, power outages are a daily occurrence for the average person in both countries. It is simply astonishing to live in a place with consistent electricity without having to think about it. So astonishing that most do not even comprehend the life of someone in the DR
Speaking as someone who experienced that blackout-it was surreal to say the least. No lights, no access to things like bank machines, interact, traffic lights out-it was a surreal, and admittedly a little scary at the uncertainty of it all. No one had explanations at the time, news stuff was off, trying to get any info was difficult because, well essentially no internet. A memoral time-thank you for covering this, excellent work!
I remember going to bed in the wee hours but left my reading light switched on. Woke up on my day off and light was on. Crisis over.
I've lived in the south my whole life but I remember as a child hearing about this on the news. This event showed just how much the modern world relies on electricity.
I remember this well from news coverage at the time. How on earth a massive blackout, in the oppressive heat of summer, in NYC, didn't descend into rioting and violence still amazes me.
I remember logging into AOL, entering a chat room and asking if anyone knew what happened on that day.
I remember this vividly. I was living in Toronto at the time. We made the best out of a bad situation. We got together with the neighbors and BBQ'ed, sat out on the patio and enjoyed the evening...and what I remember more than anything is the fact there ARE stars over Toronto. In almost 30 years in that city, I'd NEVER seen the stars at night due to light pollution. Several of us had severe necks cramps from sitting on the patio for hours looking up at the night sky.
My husband lived in St. Catherine's, ON and was working when it happened. After being sent home due to the outage, he and friends walked to local bars and restaurants and were given drinks & food since it would otherwise spoil.
I was riding my bike that day. Meeting up with a girl I had a crush on in middle school. When I got home that day, I fell off my bike on some gravel, and got a scar on my hand that is still there.
How did the meeting go?
I hope she ended up on prison where she belongs.
So how'd it go?
@@SofaKingShit
Ahahahaha.....
WTF dude?@@SofaKingShit
I vaguely recall this, would like to add that Mississauga and Streetsville were also affected by this (we’re a town with a village inside it but for some reason we oft are lumped in with Toronto… like when news stations are reporting on the weather)
Im from NY and remember friends and family staying outside eating, drinking, and enjoying each other's company. I couldnt stop staring at the sky it was incredibly beautiful.
A coworker who lived in the West Village at the time said this night was one of the most fun he'd had in NYC. His street turned into a block party with everyone bringing food that would have gone bad in warm fridges, lots of liquor and all kinds of music. I live in Manhattan now and it's bad enough when a few subways don't work, like last week, but the whole system going down would be a nightmare
There is nothing more eerie than seeing an entire city without power.
I would say, a ship adrift at sea with no crew is at least a close second.
A plane/jumbo without lights/power?
Which can and has happened when both engines fail....
So you think ancient Athens would have been eerie? I doubt it
@@PointNemo9ancient Athens wasn't built to run on electricity though. They were used to that shit.
@@PointNemo9 No electricity was used in ancient Athens. And there would have been plenty of fires lighting the area up.
FH, you should cover load shedding in South Africa then. Nothing like regular, scheduled blackouts! 😂 but in all seriousness, great video and coverage as always.
Same for Dominican Republic. Except you don’t know if the lights would go out every day.
@@sierrafirerider yeah, ive heard of this as well for Latin and South America a bit. Had an exchange student from Argentina share this revelation to me. At least in South Africa , we actually have a "load shedding schedule" for every region and municipality more or less xD we get shut off in phases of 2 hours every session. and then depending on the severity or "stage" of blackouts we are in, that will say how many sessions we have a day. Usually the most is like 8 hours of no power per day, but poorer and larger communities like townships can go up to 12
This was an excellent video. I mean I have never been disappointed in any of your videos, but I lived through this one. I can’t believe it’s been over 20 years but I did live through this. I was at work in a grocery store deli in Michigan and we were doing construction on the store that I worked at. The lights went out often and at first when it went out, it came back up within 3 seconds. I continued for about 10 seconds, and the power went out again. This time it didn’t come back up. I remember one customer telling me that as soon as it comes back up, she’s going to need a pound of baloney sliced. After it was apparent that the lights were not gonna come back up, I told her to grab some of the prepackaged stuff off to the side (which she did) and then our manager started coming around the store and telling the customers that we were closed. We didn’t know how widespread it was until somebody put on a radio and then we could figure out how widespread it was. We were lucky. We were without power until around two the next day. We also needed to go grocery shopping so we didn’t have a lot of perishable stuff on hand. After the power came back up, our grocery store was hit. We sold out of milk, cheese and eggs within the first 8 hours after the power came back. It was a precursor to the craziness of the pandemic in 2020 but that’s a whole different post. Also loved the shout out to Cedar point. I go to Cedar point a lot and I love that place. I can’t imagine being on a roller coaster and it gets stopped because of a power outage…
One thing I love about these videos is reading the stories of the people who experienced these events. It’s always so interesting!
I remember this. I was living in Tecumseh, Michigan at the time. I was gonna take some bottles and deposit them for cash when out of nowhere, the lights in my garage and the tv suddenly flicker before going out. I then called my folks and got a surprise when they said that they also lost power!
An event I remember well. I was in Kent in Connecticut at the Kenmont Camp as a part of the ropes/climbing team and it was announced by the leaders this had occurred. We had a radio powered by battery and a caller to a local radio station claimed he heard an aircraft had crashed into a power station. This was obviously dismissed by the presenter but did cause a little panic for obvious reasons. Later on a load of us went to New Milford for a night out but the bar opposite the railway was closed. The store on the east side of the river near the bridge was getting rid of its beer and ice cream and so a load of us and locals were throwing dollars at the owner who gave open access to his cold storage. We then sat above Youngs Field drinking. A lone police officer pulled up and it was clear a load of the group were under 21 but he said he had more important things to do but didn't want to come back later and deal with us. We drank and the power came back about 11pm I think. We had to hide the beer when we got back to the camp. I had photos of that night but can't find them now.
I love how every Tuesday I learn something new. Thank you so much for all the work you do!
One of your best episodes yet! Perfectly done!
Michigan resident here. I’ve lived in metro Detroit my whole life and when this happened it was scary at first but after a while it was kinda cool because the whole neighborhood all had fires going in their front yards and it felt like a huge block party until the power came back on.
I lived in Wyandotte and yeah it was like a party. Lots of people out just socializing. We played musical instruments and just talked to everyone passing by our steps.
I lived 5 miles away from where I worked. Luckily I live in Michigan, metro Detroit and our roads are on a grid system. I was able to take side streets all the way home in the same amount of time as every other day. Most people were stuck in traffic for hours.
My dad at that time worked in Warren Mi. It took him alot longer to get home. We lived in Port Huron Mi.
@@Sj430 definitely. I remember 696 was a parking lot. I'm guessing that 94 lightened up after M-59/20 mile or especially 26 mile Rd. But I bet the normal 75 minute drive took 4hours
This is a good video covering that blackout. Practical Engineering did a similar that does a deep dive into the particulars of the failures that caused the blackout. Both of these videos are great coverage of the incident.
I remember this distinctly, it was truly amazing how dark the area could get without all of the light pollution.