14 years ago today, the Northeastern U.S. and Ontario lost power. What do you remember?

[patscorpio]

the gotdamn gas going from like 1.50s-1.60s or so to damn near almost 3

 

[Collateral]

I was 9. I was outside and I played manhunt for the first time. My sister met her future fiancé that day, they're getting married in November

I remember hearing the news on the radio talking about how it's the first the the Empire State Building had no light on it so I kinda knew it was a big deal.

fukk blackouts though nobody got time for that shyt.

 

[Tim2520]

listening on a battery powered radio to Fat Joe and Jay Z going back and forth about the rucker game on Funk Flexs show during the Blackout. And then Jay put Shaq on the phone.


Hot 97 will never have golden moments like that again.

Classic moment ,Fat Joe and OG Juan we're both talking Reckless. This was during the rock the mic tour, Jay had the tour bus out there with the generator. He said the game could have still been played but that the cops shut the park down because it was too packed.

 

[Sankofa Alwayz]

It was fun as hell TBH. I was still 10 years old when that shyt happened during the summer of '03, I was living in the Walker Mill/Capitol Heights area of PG County outside of DC (lived off of Central Ave, just down the street from the Addison Rd Metro station). Me and the neighborhood kids were having a ball and most of the adults didn't seemed too bothered by the blackout IIRC. This was back in the day when my generation were still going outside, playing whatever from freeze tag to red light-green light to hopscotch to double dutch to hide-n-go seek to flag football, bike riding, exploring the woods, walking to the nearest corner store or 7/11, etc. And this was when the PS2 was arguably the King of Games I miss those days so damn much yung it hurts

 

[OJ Simpsom]

When I got to the shop I see people coming downstairs with halfway done haircuts

breh.

 

[verbalkint]

Chinese spots were the only food places open. I guess they wanted to cook off the food before it spoiled. I salute that hustler's ambition...

If you happened to be below a quarter tank when it happen and you had a long drive home that was a rough weekend for you,

 

[generic-username]

I remember the street being crowded cuz the trains weren't working. The whole thing seemed normal to me because we had just immigrated from Nigeria 3 yrs earlier and power outages are pretty common in Nigeria so it was not anything new for me. What i did find interesting was how a large city like NYC and by extension all large cities in developed countries are a power outage away from total collapse and chaos.

 

[eastsideTT]

Not just the US that's shyt touched eastern Canada too. Don't asked me how. Apparently our power sources are intertwined.

Northeast blackout of 2003 - Wikipedia

The Northeast blackout of 2003 was a widespread power outage that occurred throughout parts of the Northeastern and Midwestern United States and the Canadian province of Ontario on Thursday, August 14, 2003, just after 4:10 p.m.

I was in Toronto chilling not doing much

I happened to be off that day which saves me from the mass Exodus from the downtown core.

The power sources are intertwined via the Niagara river / Niagara falls. That's a huge power source for the entire state of NY and I guess for southern ontario as well. I was up in that area upstate NY like an hour or so away from Niagara Falls at the time enjoying my summer. I don't remember much other than I was 19 at the time, it was the middle of the summer, and I had barely any responsibilities outside of a shytty part time job. So chances are it was an awesome day. I remember we were all worried about the terrorism possibility though. 9/11 was still kinda fresh on the mind . Was worried that something crazy was happening in NYC. I remember the next day talking to my friend and he had to walk home from downtown manhattan all the way to ozone park queens near the airport . I couldn't make a call on my cell phone and the gas stations were OD.

 

[Brosef]

Classic moment ,Fat Joe and OG Juan we're both talking Reckless. This was during the rock the mic tour, Jay had the tour bus out there with the generator. He said the game could have still been played but that the cops shut the park down because it was too packed.

This doc breaks it down, unbelievable