There is a saying or curse usually ascribed to the Chinese: "May you live in interesting times". However, being Chinese, I don't know this saying or cursing, or anything similar to it in Chinese. If you happen to know the original Chinese for this saying, please do edify me, I will be very grateful.
It seems I am living in such an interesting time right now, also an interesting place, as a matter of fact. Just about two years ago, I experienced the traumatic experience of September 11 in New York City, then yesterday, I bumped into the spectacular 2003 New York Blackout, or to be more accurate, the Blackout bumped into me.
Either way, it begins about 4:10 PM yesterday, August 14, 2003. I was ensconced in my couch, engaged in my favorite history reading. Then I noticed my fan was out. When the temperature was 90 degrees Fahrenheit, it is very noticeable to have a dead fan. At first, I suspected that's my house, and I hoped other tenants would notify the landlord before I did. However, after several minutes, there was increased level of sirens on the street. That sounds ominous.
After September 11, everyone has a taut nerve when hearing so concentrated sirens. I scrambled to my battery-operated Sangean ATS 404, a digital 10-band short-wave/AM/FM radio, would be handy in case of another September 11. To my dejection, I cannot find 1010WINS, I am pretty sure something has happened. Because my radio is digitally tuned, I cannot miss or mistune it. Apparently the station is off-air. What could happen? Osama strikes back? I fumbled the keypad: WNYC AM 820 was off air, FM 93.6 was off too, so were several other stations. Around 4:30, only WABC 770 was on air. It was broadcasting an interview with a guy in Detroit, who reported the electricity was out there. I got quite nervous. The first thing came to my mind: somewhere a nuclear plant was knocked out, so the blackout cascades down here in New York City. (I am an irremediable pessimist, as always.) The worst (a.k.a. radiation clouds) may yet to come. I rushed to the telephone, managed to inform my wife and my friends, withholding the radiation clouds part.
After an hour or two, 1010WINS recovered so did WNYC. They all declared there was no indication of terrorism attacks. I took it with suspicion. Nevertheless, all I can do was wait and see.
The sun set at 8 PM. To my relief, my NiMH batteries were newly charged, my flashlight was in perfect working order. I didn't stock pile candles, but I remembered I still have some leftover birthday-cake candles. I knew it wouldn't take me far, but it's better than nothing. It helped me with my hasty supper, sans the romantic aroma. I had military training, I can have dinner really quick.
All night, my faithful Sangean radio kept me in touch of the world. I heard New York City mayor Mike Bloomberg's reassuring message that there was no terrorism attacks; the authorities had working on bringing the electricity back. Con Edison (the New York City power company) said they had no time table when the power will be restored. To be cautious, I forwent opening the fridge lest my food would be ruined in case the blackout would last longer than expected. Around 8 PM, I heard Radio Netherlands reported the Blackout, so did China Radio International.
Fortunately, during the Blackout, the telephone line was working, and the water was running. At around 5 PM, I called my parents in China to let them known I was OK. It was early morning in China, they haven't heard a word yet, the same response last time I called shortly after September 11.
New York City's reservoir is in Catskill Mountains, upstate New York, so the water flows to the city by gravity. In Cleveland, they need to bump up the lake water, so if the electricity is out, the water is out. Fortunately, that is not the case here. I also heard somewhere in the Midwest, the blackout will last for the whole weekend, I hope that would not be the case here.
Another good thing: I usually write on my Palm IIIx, which uses AAA batteries, and it consumes juice meagerly. I have some newly charged AAA NiMH batteries, and I also stored some alkaline ones. In this kind of situation, I can still type on the GoType keyboard connected to the Palm. GoType is a Palm keyboard with which you can touch-type. Similar to a notebook computer keyboard, it has shrunken dimensions, but still large enough to touch-type. So I was well prepared for such an adversity, even unwittingly. Maybe that's because I read too much survival manuals. Another tip: keeping a whistle handy, in case you are trapped under debris, it can alert the rescuers without consume much of your vital energy.
Before going to bed in the night of August 14, I hoped that in the morning, everything would be over. The juice will be running, everything will go back to normal.
I woke up at 7 AM. To my dismay, power was still out. Con Edison still didn't have a timetable, the subway was as dead as yesterday. Not much I can do. A friend of mine scheduled to leave New York City that day, however, considering the Blackout, I doubt his flight will take off on schedule. I tried to call him, but the cell phone service proved unreliable, even the landline phones were working sporadically.
Around 11 AM, I received a phone call from my wife. Last night, she slept at a friend's apartment in Manhattan. She told me the electricity was restored there. Not here, I told her. Since the subway was out, bus service was the only way home.
However, somehow, I feel a kind of uncanny deja vu. I groped my old magazines. Here it is, Wired Magazine, 2001 July issue, "The Energy Web" by Steve Silberman. The first paragraph:
"When Times Square flickered out below him, the pilot feared he was witnessing a terrorist attack. Beneath the suddenly dark canyons of Manhattan, subway trains lurched to a stop, stranding hundreds of thousands of rush-hour commuters. To a satellite in orbit, it must have looked like a major constellation was being snuffed out. First Toronto went black, then Rochester, Boston, and finally New York City. In just 13 minutes, one of the crowning achievements of industrial engineering -- the computer-controlled power grid of the 80,000-square-mile Canada-United Sates Eastern Interconnection area -- was toast. For the first time in decades, night held dominion over the cities of the Northeast, which were now without traffic signals, television, airport landing lights, elevators, and refrigeration."
Noticed the article was published three months before the September 11, I cannot help realizing how fragile the civilizations are. In the future, facing the ruins of Northeast America, future archaeologists will be amazed to conclude that this ruin is the later, advanced stage of the Roman Empire across the pond, on the banks of the Tiber River. Empires come, empires go. All we can hope is we live in the climax of it, not in the effete stages.
Reported in Silberman's article, the Electric Power Research Institute, or EPRI, the utilities' private think tank already warned the current grid system's fragility. It seems that not many people noticed this portentous warning.
Maybe only the Amish won't be affected by this great blackout. They voluntarily gave up technological advances, machines, instead, they live with manual labor, horses, and cattle. Electricity is nothing for them. They are quite fascinating.
While I was still immersed in Silberman's article and the amusement of the Amish, I noticed some blinking light in the room. Finally, the electricity is here! At the clock, the time blinked 6:15 PM, August 15. So after almost 26 hours, the power was finally restored. It is not until 9 PM that the power was restored all over the city. Finally, the blackout of New York City is over. However, there are still other cities not out of this plight yet.
It turns out this is the worst blackout in the history of United States. 50 million people in eight states in the United States and one in Canada are affected. Billions of dollars was lost. It shows how fragile we are, how much we depend on electricity. I am happy it is not terrorism, otherwise more damage would be done. For me, the whole blackout is merely inconvenience, nothing disastrous. New Yorkers did well during the ordeal: people helped each other out, few looting. The scene is quite different from the 1977 Blackout. At that time, a lot of looting took place, people were terrified, and the whole city was in disarray. Maybe that can be imputed to social milieu then. During an age of anti-war protesters, hippies, and drugs, maybe you cannot expect better. I am happy this time it is different.
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August 16, 2003