What did you do during the summer blackout of '04?

[StuU]

Re: What did you do during the summer blackout of

No problem with that blackout. However, we experienced a week long blackout in Denver in 1996. Had a wet snow which brough down power lines and trees all over town. And the weather was just starting to get frigid in late September. Our section of town looked like a medieval village. We sat in a dark house and tried to warm ourselves by a camping stove. And, of course, I only had Maglites at the time....

 

[rwolff]

Re: What did you do during the summer blackout of

This was before I discovered CPF. I thought it was localized, so I brought my "good" flashlight (Mag 5D) with me as I headed down the stairwell to the underground garage (building's emergency lamps were still lit). The door had been opened manually, so I drove to work - took over 2 hours for what's normally a 20 minute trip. Tried to call in to say that I'd be late, but cell system was either down or overloaded. I got there just before everyone got sent home.

When I got home, the building's emergency lights had run down, but no problem - I've got a "good" flashlight. Unfortunately, the batteries were old - it gave good light for about the first 20 feet, then went completely dead. I felt my way back to my car, and got my emergency lantern out of the trunk. It's my first modified light (commercial head assembly on homebrew battery pack - 6V10AH SLA that charges whenever my car's engine is running). Once I got that one out, no problems.

Of course, once power was restored, the oil companies were saying not to buy gas until the weekend unless you absolutely needed it because the refineries had been affected and unnecessary purchases would cause shortages. Guess what? The weekend came, and the price skyrocketed. Nice move, guys - teaching people that following "official" directions to avoid a crisis will bite you in the butt. Meanwhile the power companies were saying that the system was still unstable, and that we needed to conserve as much as possible to avoid a repeat. Based on my experience with the other "official" announcement, I knew exactly what to do - turn on all my lights and crank up the A/C.

 

[Mags]

Re: What did you do during the summer blackout of

LOL. But the ordeal you suffered it definitely not funny...

 

[PhotonWrangler]

Re: What did you do during the summer blackout of

I was at work, carrying around a 3-D M@glight with an LED replacement in it. Spent a lot of time escorting staffers through pitch black hallways. Not entirely happy with the beam pattern from the light (gotta change that reflector someday) but it DID hold it's brightness all night long during intermittent use.