Blackout in Northern Queens, New York City last night

Living in the City you never really get a chance to test your lights because simply there is always a light on somewhere. I've tested some at my sisters house in a suburban neighborhood in New Jersey but a backyard is not a true field test.

This blackout was also a little different for me because I walked a few blocks to my neighborhood and I was out of it back to my home and my electricity. It was truly interesting to pass through a blacked out area into total electricity.

I took with me a surefire L2 and and gave my brother a surefire A2. After walking a few blocks the words that many CPF'ers have heard were uttered from my brother "Wow, this is cool!!! Look at how much light this little thing makes!!! Look over there, look over here at the way I can shine this up!" He was showing me as if I never saw a flashlight before!!!

The L2 on high definitely gives out a search light effect. I found many people confused, wondering where the light could be coming from. They became even more befuddled when they got up close and saw that I was not carrying a big 3D flashlight but rather one that fit my hand!!!

I was burning to take the MAG 85 but I didn't have it charged!!!!! People probably would have thought it was a car driving on the sidewalk if i turned that thing on!!! And they probably would have wondered how the heck it is possible!!!

Anyway those were some random thoughts, any comments, stories, questions, I'll be here.

And you know what it was a cool feeling to know that you had this flashlight light knowledge and practically everyone else doesn't. And I think my brother is starting to show signs of flashlight fever, his last words were "Where do I buy one of these? How much are they?"

NYCblue said:

And I think my brother is starting to show signs of flashlight fever, his last words were "Where do I buy one of these? How much are they?"

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Tell him about the HDS Basic 42's on offer at the moment. One of these with a couple of rechargeable li-ions makes a nice starter set for someone who's just getting hooked ...

Hans

NYCblue said:

He was showing me as if I never saw a flashlight before!!!

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NYCblue said:

And I think my brother is starting to show signs of flashlight fever, his last words were "Where do I buy one of these? How much are they?"

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Ouch...tell him to run while he has the chance (and still has the money).

I don't live there but visit once in the while. It would have been a good opportunity to test my lights. Unfortunately the weather was really HOT the last couple of days in NY. Really HOT weather and no electricity and good playground for lights.. or decent weather and electricity? hmmm..

you shouldn't have done that....oh, to see another person getting the sickness is... :lolsign:

You should've give him a Streamlight Twin-Task 2L before you give him a shot of the A2...


At least the SL he can afford on a tight budget...

We were blacked out on the Island also. When I took out my Superlight Lux V my wife finally realized why I like flashlights so much. I think I may have heard the last of "is that another flashlight". Losing power is so cool.

The people with incoming/outgoing flights in the Southern California, Nevada, Utah, and Arizona airports serviced by the LA ARTCC in Palmdale CA, and the people all over the world who were indirectly impacted by delayed or cancelled connection flights would have disagreed with you about the loss of power that they experienced when their backup generators failed. I think something similarly disconcerting (maybe even of a greater magnitude) would occur if the ARTCC in Ronkonkoma were to go down in your region.

rugbymatt said:

Losing power is so cool.

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We had a few intermittant blackouts in NJ last night too. Unfortunately, the only one that took place while I was still awake was less then 2 minutes. :candle:

I'm in NYC but unfortunately I must have been just out of the range of the blackout. With any luck there will be a blackout here. :/

About what time was the blackout?

Parts of Astoria, Sunnyside, Woodside and Long Island city lost power at 3pm on Tuesday. I just got back from a long walk around the area and most of the area has power back. However walking around there a certain blocks without power, its kinda like a fragmented hard drive, you walk down 2 blocks there is power then there isn't etc. So some people its been 34 hours and still no power. That should not be the case for a city with such a large infrastructure and Con Edison, a company that prides itself on service. Just talking to people in the blacked out areas they are tired of paying more for less service. This seems to be a common theme these days.

Anyway on a lighter note I still didn't get a chance to field test the Mag 85!! But kudos to what I took with me, a streamlight tl-3, surefire L4, L2 and A2, and its becoming love at first sight with the A2 and my brother! LOL!!!!!

i was driving around in westchester, about an hour outside of NYC, and went over to a friends house. When i got there, she there was NO light anywhere. Brought out the 3152, and lit everything up long enough to set up a small generator, and 4 500w worklights so we could see...used an L4 to illuminate every thing else. all this around 8pm. Tried to go home around midnight, still no power, and the only way outa this road is closed down so i ended up spending the night. 6am rolls around, still no power, still no way out. finally opened up around 10am

Blackout = fun? Queens + 6 day blackout = fun?

Part of Queens NY has been without power for 6 days, up to 80,000 people effected they say now. I have seen many people here wish for blackouts (usually wanting something short in duration obviously), but 6 days with no electricity in the middle of summer, doesn't sound like fun to me. Be careful what you wish for, since there is not always a quick easy fix.

Any CPFers effected that we know of or have heard from? If so, I wish them well, and hope they get power back soon.

Re: Blackout = fun? Queens + 6 day blackout = fun?

I agree. Many CPFers live in posh areas with no worry of sudden lack of essentials and thus very immature about the realities lacking utilities and even go far as to WISH for them.

For many people blackout=death(think people on life support and breathing assists), I do not wish that upton anybody.

For those who wish to have a black out just to show off your lights, turn off your circuit breaker and have fun in the dark....

Re: Blackout = fun? Queens + 6 day blackout = fun?

I was just thinking about those folks up East without power for 6 days when I saw this thread. Something like that can be very disturbing and very uncomfortable even for those who are half way prepared for that type of situation. Of course, most are not. My heart goes out to them.

This is another isolated incident that should remind us of how very fragile our surroundings are. As already mentioned, some will probably die from this power outage. Others will have their lives shortened by the physical and emotional stress in ways that are impossible to quantify.

I think that when the authorities do find the cause of this outage, we'll find that it occurred for fairly benign reasons. We are also exposed to those who would set these scenarios in motion on purpose. With so many of us living in urban environs with fragile, and often degrading infrastructures we need to not only prepare for these brief interuptions -- but we must also take a slow, close look at those we love and prepare for their special needs ahead of time. Those with special needs must be taken care of by those who love them -- because no one else will.

Excuse me for jabbering on, but none of us can really count on our City, State or Federal governments to even help the fit among us -- I'm afraid that the weak are just the canarys in the coal mine. To not have your own emergency plan is like living in a fool's paradise.

OK, I'm done.

Re: Blackout = fun? Queens + 6 day blackout = fun?

Don't forget three of those days were in the midst of a heatwave.
Temps of 95 and above, no electricity is no fun.
It's no fun for the elderly or sick who needs 24hr medical equipment.
I didn't see anyone partying it up while waiting for dry ice or that 3 bottles of warm bottled water.
It's going to be 6 plus days for some residents.

Re: Blackout = fun? Queens + 6 day blackout = fun?

besides the heat, the humidity has been crazy - major thunderstorms almost every day

Reading around, and keeping ears open, it basically seems like the grid if fragile enough that as the patch parts, new parts go down, because now the current draw is on some other part - they keep losing more lines, and sometimes even the new ones the put in - almost like there is a massive short

One of my co-workers is one of those without power. A firehouse miles outside the "effected area" that I know of has been without power the whole time

What I want to know - Con Ed has the highest rates in the country - what are they doing with it

Re: Blackout = fun? Queens + 6 day blackout = fun?

as long as theres a draft and theres water to flush the toilets Im fine...back in taiwan air conditioning was a luxury...and Taiwan was about 2 hours flight to singapore which nearly borders the equator

6 days and people still do not have power. This is UNBELIEVABLE!!!!

darkhanger18 said:

i was driving around in westchester, about an hour outside of NYC, and went over to a friends house. When i got there, she there was NO light anywhere. Brought out the 3152, and lit everything up long enough to set up a small generator, and 4 500w worklights so we could see...used an L4 to illuminate every thing else. all this around 8pm. Tried to go home around midnight, still no power, and the only way outa this road is closed down so i ended up spending the night. 6am rolls around, still no power, still no way out. finally opened up around 10am

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One thing I like to remind people in a blackout like that is to keep your lighting to a minimum. For a short period of outage it's not a big issue, but the longer the outage, the less attention you want to call to yourself.

It maybe cool to show off to your neighbors of your lights, but it would be an awkward situation when all of them knock on your door one day and expect to be supplied with lots of lights. Not a good time... you cannot win, if you do do expect to lose most of them, and if you don't give them lights...well the least you have to worry about is losing the friendships....

Re: Blackout = fun? Queens + 6 day blackout = fun?

I know how that feels; no blackouts here although we did have a stage 1 alert. I had a bad connection in my air conditioner disconnect which probably caused a fuse to blow. Both Home Depot and Lowes didn't have any more fuses that were my size (There were three other people besides me that were also holding blown fuses)

No air conditioing and having the temperature INSIDE the house hit 92F was definately not comfortable.

My uncle finally located some spares and I finished fixing my A/C just 30 mins ago and got it running but it still takes a while until it cools the house off. Even though it's night, it's still pretty warm outside.