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Monday, September 08, 2008 • 06:08 am |
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Please note: The page is kept for archival purposes only. Links & text may be out of date.
Lights Out! Ottawa went black at on Thursday, August 14 at 4:11pm. It was part of a large power outage that hit most of Toronto, and parts of the eastern United States, including New York City. On this page:
We want to hear about your experiences during the power failure.
We've posted some of your responses below.
Send your photos to: feedback@ottawastart.com.
Photographer Shane Finnigan writes: Below: Lees Avenue Bridge, overlooking the Queensway
Letters
I was on the phone talking to a manager from Hydro
when the electricity went off at their location before mine. Cool eh?
It took one hour to go home and normally in rush hour traffic it would
take about 10 minutes. Everyone on the roads was VERY courteous and
kind. The evening passed with an enjoyable view of the stars and quiet
on my street. No exterior noise generated by the sounds of electrical
appliances, just plain human voices, chit chat and the sound of children's
laughter! Nice to remember what it used to be like in a neighbourhood
before air conditioning and electrical appliances took us into our caves
and away from each other. The view that I could see of the stars reminded
me of camping and brought back fond memories so a non stressful evening
was had in our home. The next day I heard a great story about the start of the blackout.
A friend's brother was on the Tucson's patio, sharing a cold drink with
ex-Rolling Stones guitarist Mick Taylor. The place lost power but they
simply enjoyed the evening. As word of the massive power failure spread
Mick wanted to call his wife in England to say he was okay. Although
told that the pay phones were not working, my friend's brother realized
that one could dial 0, get the operator, and make a collect call. So
that is what they did! Not a bother at all! We're in Orleans, and were without power for 30 hours. Our
neighbour has power so we have an extension cord running from their
house to ours just to keep the freezer going. Other than that it's been
ok. Cooking on the bbq and flashlights and candles by night. My son
thinks it's cool! My husband and I enjoyed spending our Thursday evening
on our balcony with candles, listening to the radio. Yes a blackout
is a bad thing, but for many of us, it caused us all to stop and talk
to one another in a moment of quiet.
I was in my apartment when the power went out. I heard
my air conditioner and two fans go off. That was not a good thing, as
I have severe asthma. I live on the 6th floor and my I was starting
to have breathing problems after 10 minutes as my apartment starting
heating up.
I was at work at the time of the outage. It was actually
pretty fun initially. I, for one, have definitely sat and fantasized
about the power going out and being sent home early. It has been a real ball here in Arnprior. The lights
went out here Thursday at 4.30pm came back on friday morning at 4.00am.
Have been going off on ever since alot people were out buying generators
thinking it was ice storm all over again. I would think Hydro and the
gov't better look at the way things are being done meaning getting there
act together and finding what is causing this and backup plan. A lot
of people are fedup with this and are not going to go threw this again
like we had in the ice storm .They are very lucky this did not happen
in the winter if was very cold what to hell would people do then. My brother had no flashlight or batteries for radio, so
went out to corner store. No batteries at store but someone stated that
Canadian Tire was using their back up generators and providing necessities.
So back out to CTC, to find many others looking for essentials. They
must have quite the generator. Looked like a normal shopping day with
their tremendous lights on. We obtained batteries, and they were unloading
skids of flashlights regularly $8.99 for $4.99 each. So grabbed 4 of
them. Poor guy unloading couldn't get the boxes unpacked fast enough
for the demand. We noted the people were quite calm, jovial at times.
Thank God for the good people at CTC. So we sat around, played pool
by flashlight, ate pizza from a vendor down the road, had some homemade
strawberry/rhubarb pie which I brought down and enjoyed good quality
family time. When the lights went out, I was at the National Press
Club on Wellington Street. Walking home to Laurier and Bay was a challenge
because the street lights were not operating. Most of the private vehicles
and taxis, and all the buses were stopping at every corner to allow
pedestrians to cross but once in a while, with no prior notice, someone
would speed right through the intersection, so it was a dicey do. Now
that the power outage is over, the people who know what started the
problem should come clean and tell the rest of us. It was tremendously
expensive and calamitous in some areas. The egomaniacs who maintain
that the public is too stupid to be trusted with the facts are short-sighted
and insulting. Quickly I found four candles and my old campstove
and prepared for the night. The heat was stifling as my air conditioner
was not working and being used to a cool house even added to the heat's
effect. We sat around in the slowly heating house until we finally went
outside in the dark to get some relief from the heat. I did not realize
how much light is normally around us until we went to the street and
found out one could not even see neighbors across from us. I've never seen Conroy Road bumper to bumper when leaving from
work at 5pm. It normally takes me 3-5 minutes to get home from
work. That day after work it took me 25 minutes. I've never seen anything
like it. My husband works for OC Transpo and he too experience the same
delay only longer. Instead of having supper at 6:30pm like we normally
did, we ended up eating at 9:30pm that night. Send your stories to: feedback@ottawastart.com. |
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