City
Blackout Flashback: 4 Years Later
Today (at roughly 4 p.m.) marks the fourth anniversary of the 2003 North American Blackout which brought down power across Southern Ontario and much of the surrounding region.
The causes were numerous and complex, but the underlying issue was how heavily strained the supply of available electricity had become across the region under a heatwave, resulting in a situation where several minor problems coincided during the highest-use time of the day and caused a cascading system collapse.
Although the event is commonly known to most locals simply as "the blackout," the period of Aug 14 to Sept 28, 2003 actually saw six major blackouts occur around the world, with ours coming in second most significant by cutting off power to 50 million people.
The fact that people do refer to the date in this way shows just how significant a memory it left with everyone of those affected. Whether people recall it as a frightening and unpleasant experience, a beautiful and freeing one, or (most likely) some mixture of the two depends on who they are and what position they randomly happened to be in at the time.
Click through for an exploration of the spectrum of experiences, along with news clips from the following day...
"Everything in society we cherish ended when the blackout came," Matthew Simmons, chair of the largest energy investment bank in the world, states in the energy-crisis documentary The End Of Suburbia.
Simmons' interpretation of the Blackout is that it should've been seen as "a fire drill for how important energy actually is ... but people didn't get it." When he says, "I don't think we actually learned a thing from it," it's a warning that still seems to carry the same weight now, years later, with Ontario's record energy-usage highs overshooting our production capacity and inciting pleas for use reduction through the recent heatwave.
The perspective presented by Simmons' statements is one that would feel most at home with those who are closest to and most love the mainstream North American consumer lifestyle and the services and conveniences that come along with it - hardly a small demographic.
The area hit is one of the parts of North America that most widely practices high-tech lifestyles and most heavily depends on immediately-accessible energy and services. As well, though we may not be Las Vegas, we definitely do still have a thriving, electrically-driven nightlife.
There's no doubt that a huge number of people are able to relate to seeing the Blackout as the most inconvenient of inconveniences imaginable, without actually getting into social collapse, especially if they were stuck in a top-floor apartment during a heatwave without power, elevators or even water.
On the other hand, to some people these allegedly essential "essentials" only really serve to keep the city buzzing along at top speed, and the temporary shutdown allowed for a special type of long weekend experience.
"I had a great time during the blackout. I got to leave work early, walked home, had a BBQ at the neighbours, hung out in our local (candlelit) bar, and saw real moonlight (& Mars!) in the middle of downtown," wrote blogger Margo on Saturday, Aug 15, 2003 - a day after the blackout, and two days after blogging about problems with the power grid and the value of investing in alternative energy. (Good call!)
Something magical and beautiful can be seen in many people's recollections of their experiences during the blackout. It helped many people transcend usual social barriers by breaking down or simply pausing the normal framework of society. It encouraged people to take a step away from rushing from the grocery store to their home to catch a television show and instead engage with their surroundings.
My personal experience was definitely a mixture of the two sides. I was with friends in the waterpark at Wonderland, and it was annoying how we'd been in the wave pool for nearly 45 minutes and no waves had materialized at any point... but the adventure we were thrust into when we realized we were stranded with no means of transportation or communication was far more exciting and memorable than the day at the amusement park had been.
We witnessed people spontaneously directing traffic through intersections around there, something that I've come to realize was pretty widespread.
This helpful pitching-in was such a simple act, yet it made me feel so much renewed faith in people not to be either malicious and selfish, nor panicky and helpless. Really, I shouldn't seek reassurance of that, but watching how people behave when the intersection's red lights are working can be pretty disillusioning.
Soon enough, sunset came, seriously and fully committing us to this darkness for the night.
I must admit that trying to heat my dinner (cold but precooked perogies) over a candle was pretty futile and unpleasant, and letting the food in the fridge sit and go bad instead wasn't a reasonable alternative. But the candles me and my friend Dani were using for light and cooking were ones that we hand-rolled in the dark using beeswax and wicks that I'd had forever in the bottom of a drawer and never done anything with.
When we went out for a walk around my neighbourhood we discovered that the residential North York streets that we always complained were so empty and dull had filled up with all the neighbours I'd never spoken to in the 7 years I'd been living there.
We said "hi," smiled, just basically acknowledged each other's existence as we passed, having a sense of shared experience now and quite a strong one at that. Again, sad that this was an unprecedented thing for my street, but that doesn't change the fact that it was.
The Milky Way and all the stars I'd only ever seen hours outside the city were totally visible. We couldn't get in touch with many people we knew at the time, but ran into a few, and when we did hear from others we heard of some great beach and street parties and other spontaneous celebrations of the night.
I'm sure the idyllic time I had couldn't have been shared by everyone, and considering crime happens on the most well-lit of days, it's naive to think this would be an exception.
As Phil from pumpkinpatch.ca says, "Some say there was no crime in Toronto during the blackout. Right. Welcome to my neighbourhood. Adelaide and Sherbourne." (Check out pumpkinpatch.ca's blackout photo gallery for shots of downtown under darkness.)
All the same, many people (the lucky ones) do indeed remember the night as one of mass celebration and little crime or conflict. These folks may only remember people taking advantage of the situation in the strictly entrepreneurial sense, such as these glowstick vendors who appeared on Spadina for the night, prepping partiers for street parties, like this one at Spadina and Queen.
I'll finish by throwing this to you readers: How do you remember the 2003 blackout? What did you experience and witness, and what meaning did that hold for you? And, lastly, what lessons should we still be considering in 2007?
Photos: Chris Ruvolo's streetcar and sunset shots (via Joe Clark) and Photosapience's hydro plyon.
Videos: From the CBC 6 o'clock news on August 15, 2003, uploaded by leper99.
Discussion
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The highlight of blackout night for me was taking my bike for a spin around the downtown core... never seen a full starfield over the towers before, and loved every minute of it.
What an excellent post! I was living in Japan when this happened, and I could only rely on international news coverage and occasional phone calls from friends and family for updates. I missed a lot of events during my two years abroad, but this is hte one I most wish I were here to experience, first hand.
I'd love to hear more reader stories about their experiences during the blackouts :)
I was one of the lucky ones, living in a decent neighbourhood. I loved it. We ate a lot of ice cream, caught up on reading, saw a lot of people outside, and saw stars. Up until then, I seriously (seriously!) believed that star-filled skies were some kind of romantic movie invention.
I guess some people don't get far enough outside of urban centers to EVER see the starlit sky. How crazy is that?! Testament to our modern lifestyle.
I was living at Queen/Sherbourne at the time.
Not cool.
Living in Jane and Finch I had the joys of listening to the firetrucks and police cars drive around the streets with their sirens and lights on trying to keep people inside for the majority of the first night. It felt wierd to have the sirens constantly ringing in my ears as if we were expecting a bomb or something. Thankfully we got our power back the first night while others down the street did not get theirs back for another 2 days.
brokenengine: was Moss Park total anarchy or something? Care to elaborate?
I was back home in Maine for the summer after my first year at U of T. We lost power too, but it's such a usual occurance in a place with a) lots of ice storms b) lots of above-ground power lines and c) lots of trees, ripe for falling. Anyway, we just figured "yeah what else is new," when our power went out, but then I heard about Toronto and I felt like I missed out on the fun a bit!
I had just gotten back from a few months in NYC and just remember being thankful I wasn't on the 34th floor of a Times Square skysscraper like my colleagues (who walked the stairs and then the bridges out of new york!). My home has a gas oven and old phones, so we just ended up having people over with their perishables for some food and fun. It was all great until my street (and a few others in the Lansdowne/St Clair/Davenport) wound up being without power for an extra week and a half after the rest of the city was back. I'd sit in my dark backyard while ignorant air conditions blasted, bank towers blinked and billboards of Arnold were lit up on St Clair a few metres away... that's when the rage at all the waste really hit home.
I live in Woodbridge, and though I can usually see the stars from up where I live, I remember we had just bought my dad a telescope for his birthday a few weeks earlier, and it was the perfect opportunity to set it up and test it out! We saw Mars, and many stars.. and I remember painting on my back porch by candlelight.
The next day, I picked up my boyfriend at the time, who was living in a downtown apartment, and brought him up to my place for the day, along with a few relatives. We have a gas stove, and a gas barbeque, and we had lots of meat in the freezer... so we did the natural thing that any Italian family would do - invited everyone over for food!
I definitely have fond memories of that weekend :)
I was at work, and we heard from someone's car radio just how much was effected. I hopped on the bike and went home. Some buddies and I took the BBQ to Trinity Bellwoods park and played frisbee and drank cans of warm beer. Then we all went to Habitat, which is a trendy bar on Queen that I normally avoid, but it was all lit up with candles and it because the 'meeting point' for the neighbourhood. I decided that if the blackout was going to last, I'd want to be around people with cash (as I had none) so I invited a ton of people back to my patio for a night long party. We actually saw the streetlights turn back on at 3:00am, so I called it a night and went to bed. Then I go into work the next morning, and it has power, but I hear that most of the city is still without. Only two people showed up at the office, and I had a huge hangover.
All in all, I'd say it was one of the best nights I ever had in the city. It was just amazing that everyone came together to help each other out, and because of where I was, we didn't just sit around playing cards. We had a blast!
I just wish the cars stopped moving too, so it would have been just like nature intended.
We were up at the cottage. It's not entirely uncommon for the power to go out up there so when it did we just headed to the beach for "happy hour".
When we came back and the power was still out my wife called the local marina to see if they'd heard anything about when the power would come back. (Hydro's line was busy) She hung up, looking a bit confused and asked "What qualifies as 'Eastern Seaboard'"?
We cooked dinner on the BBQ (thank god for the side-burner) and sat on the dock and spent an "apocolyptic sounding" evening listening to a just-barely received AM640 on the boat radio.
We did manage to get a hold of the people living in the same house as us back in T.). and told them to feel free to go into our apt. use the BBQ, eat our perishables and enjoy as much of my homebrew beer as they could drink and we here they had a great time too...
The day of the blackout was possibly the best day of my life; what was scheduled to be a first date with a girl i'd met on lavalife became something far greater @ 4:14pm when the power went out! We ended up not going for coffee as planned, but over to a friend's house for an impromptu bbq and rapidly melting ice cream, and then a wonderful evening in the dark listening to the silences of a city.
An incredible, wonderful, memorable first date.
It's 4 years later, and that girl is my wife - we married last year! Happy blackout anniversary!
I was in the car, I had been at a meeting downtown and was headed back out to another meeting in the east end via the Timmies ice cap drive through lane when the CBC went off the air and then I noticed that the traffic signals weren't working. CBC came back on after a minute and they started reporting the extent of the blackout, I called and cancelled my meeting and went home and called Chesterina at work. She left her office and walked home passing through Cabbagetown, Daniel et Daniel was selling off whatever they had that was perishable in the shop so she bought some beef tenderloin and some salads, no scales working so they just guesstimated prices and it was strictly cash only. We had a lovely candlelight dinner, went for a walk in the neighbourhood and I took some long-exposure pictures out on Broadview. Next morning we put the radio on and they were reporting pockets of power were back on in the city so we decided to walk out in search of coffee which we found. We got out power back at about 2 that afternoon, lost it again about 1 hour later but only for about 2 more hours.
Snailspace: That is an adorable story.
Of the comments so far, I'd have to say Snailspace is my favourite... I'm sure there was p-l-e-n-t-y of romancin' going on by candlelight, but that's such a sweet attachment to the date! Happy anniversary :)
I was going home on the subway, the train stopped just north of Davisville station. We sat on the tracks for a while. My discman had a radio so I was able to relay some information to the other passengers.
They eventually managed to somehow pull us back into the station and I was free to walk the rest of the way home. After checking in with my family members I hit the Annex and Kensington Market with my friends. Definitely a crazy night. My favourite experience was a bunch of people getting out their instruments (we're talking flutes, upright bass and more) and playing an impromtu concert on their front lawn while others distributed wine and sparklers. Definitely a magical evening, we even suggested we have a blackout every Thursday.
When the power came back on just after midnight, we were in the park in Kensington Market, where some enterprising ravesters had a generator, speakers and a laptop set up to dance the night away. There were actually a number of boos when the streetlights came back on!
HAHA snails, nice one.
Jerrold, it was a little dodgier than usual. Someone got thrown through the plate glass window of the coffee time, and this was before the sun went down. My roommate worked at the tattoo parlour there, and all day, the 'heads were checking out the stores, seeing if people had gone home. Lots of break ins. My roommate spent the evening in the shop, with a (I shit you not) sword from a suit of armour in his lap, ready for chaos.
I spent the evening in a lukewarm rooftop hot tub with a future ex, but thats just the way I roll. ;)
Our apartment building was without power for 22 hours and we saw a lot of other buildings get their power back before midnight. By early morning by 7-year-old cheddar cheese was decomposing and sweating badly. Out it went. And so also the orange juice, and everything in the freezer and refrigerator. I was out more than $100 and I live on a pension. Wasn't it fun trying to find any bread or fresh produce for the next few days? Then Eves did his "presidential style" press conferences and we got rid of him in quick order, n'est-ce pas?
What angered me most was that my building is an older persons' apartment yet the College Park apartments across the street got their power back well ahead of us. A lot of seniors in our building were having an awful time. There was no water above the 8th floor; that took two days to restore to the rest of the building.
The power went out while I was at my office in Mimico. None of us had a clue of the extent of the blackout, but it was gradually revealed as we started calling people farther and farther away. Eventually I plugged a portable stereo into one of our UPSs, someone cracked-open a hidden bottle of rum, and we sat around listening to radio coverage over Rum and Coke.
Since sticking around was pointless, despite our normally late hours, we eventually all left. I normally took my bike on the GO Train, home to Oakville, but this time I just rode all the way home. (I'd done it a few times before, and with consideration of how mad the train was going to be, it was the sensible option.)
Nice ride home along Lakeshore. Everyone was out in the parks having BBQs and such. I stopped at the local pub near my home, and saw an old neighbour there. They were serving drinks by candle light (it was dusk by then), and he bought me one.
Power came back around 4am, IIRC, but everyone had a good time out on the deck at home until we all got sleepy and went to bed.
It's one of the most memorable days of our city. Everyone has a story about it. I secretly hope for another one...
http://www.effectofglobalwarming.com
The power on our block near High Park was only off for a couple hours though across the street and everywhere else around us was down for awhile. There was an MPP living on our block and I always thought he'd made a few phone calls and got it back for us.
I was living in Belleville at the time and had been home from my spirit-crushing you'll-be-replaced-by-a-Japanese-robot-in-4-years factory temp job for about an hour when the power went out. My family sat with the neighbours in their back yard listening to the truck's radio cover the news of the blackout. It came back on about 7 hours later and we went back to our normal lives.
What I remember most about that night was realizing just how much space we devote to things that rely on electricity. Think of all the space you set aside just for watching TV. With the power out, the largest room in my parent's house no longer had a purpose.
I just got home from work. Living in the country and having a blackout is a common experience (the power here goes out quite often). My parents and I basically had a bonfire and cooked our food over the fire and sat outside and enjoyed the peace and quiet.
The outage forced me to "unplug" myself from the computer and the internet and I rather enjoyed the time away from technology.
It also was a wake up call of how wasteful and how outdated our power infrastructure is!
I'm from Ohio- where the blackout allegedly originated. Luckily my electric at home was on, when I got there after work. I work in a neighboring town and that town's electric was off. The thing about it was that it was scattered so much. People on the other side of my home town did not have power, while I did. Even though I wanted to get on my computer & check things out, I didn't. My cable was out, so I listened to the tv sound on a little radio I used to have. As far as I could see, people were just being cool about the whole situation. Next day my friend Dave said they had a big barbeque in the parking lot of a pizza joint! Now how fun is that!!!!