Just saw Dick Asman of Fox News on TV, bicyling home, extolling the virtues of his headlamp that his wife bought him after 9/11. It looked like a Petzl Zipka which has a retractable string band. It runs on 3 AAA's and is about the size of a jumbo egg. Everyone should have one in their car.

After watching the scenes of traffic jams and people walking in the streets, it makes the bicycle discussion that much more applicable I think.

I hope everyone in the affected area comes out of this without too many problems. I look forward to hearing your experiences once you are able to get back online.

Greg

Hi - longtime lurker, first-time poster.
First, I want to thank everyone here at ETS - some really great ideas have come through here, and I'm glad for every preparation I took that was suggested here - Doug, Chris and all the usual suspects, this site and your input amounts to a real service to a lot of people.
I was in a subway train when power went out - luckily, aboveground. As the delay went on, people began muttering and trying to make cell phone calls. Almost no one could get through (those with Sprint seemed to get through) and that's when my EDC stuff started to pay off. On my radio I heard WNYC begin reporting (about 10 minutes into it) that power outages were hitting Manhattan. 1010 WINS - a huge East Coast AM news station - was off the air for more than an hour. People started piecing together the news - there were concerns of terrorism, etc., especially when news came that the outages were widespread.
The conductor had info that it was a power outage within about 10 minutes, and reminded folks to not attempt to get off the train yet. The people on the train remained calm, joking a bit, although most people were a bit uneasy. Those who got through on their phones would tell any news they heard, I told what bits I heard off the radio. It took about 45 minutes for them to begin leading us off the train - luckily, we were still aboveground and in daylight, and the last car was still touching the platform, so we didn't have to walk on the tracks.
The problem was, there was no power inside the station (we were about 5 or 6 stories above street level - F train at Smith and 9th) and it was pitch black on the stairs - no emergency lights were on. That's when EDC helped again - an Arc LS. I could illuminate all the way down one of the LONG stairway/escalator flights. Several people were using keychain lights, a few had Minimags or the like with them, and a couple of us stationed ourselves to guide folks down. I went back up, and about a dozen people were still milling about on the platform, trying to call on the pay phone or waiting for the next train. I finally convinced the last few stragglers there wouldn't be another train and that we should go together because there wasn't any light. My backup Arc AAA went to one member of the last group going down the stairs and we all got down OK.
People were generally helpful...it was a long walk home through Brooklyn, and cellphones weren't working for calls within the city, but I did get ahold of my folks in Ohio and told them I was fine (before they knew there was a problem). Couldn't reach my wife on the phone, or the daycare, so I walked into downtown Brooklyn, to confirm folks had left where my wife worked, then back the way I came to get home. In Carroll Gardens area (and other places closer to Prospect Park) people were occasionally doing impromptu traffic direction duty. Right in downtown, there were a lot of police around and things were generally civil. As I got further away from downtown, there were fewer police, the larger streets were more choked with traffic, which had been without traffic signals for something approaching two hours at that point, and tempers were more in evidence. The sidewalks were packed down Flatbush Ave. headed toward Prospect Park...stores were mostly closed, hardware stores had lines out the front, and they would let one person in at a time as one left, while other stores sold cold water out of coolers from their unlocked basement steps.
Near my house, people were barbecuing, and I actually met neighbors I'd only been on nodding acquaintance with. I lent a flashlight to our new downstairs neighbors who were still unpacking, and checked on our other neighbors, who were doing fine.
So, lessons learned: I will now EDC spare batteries - my radio was running down, cellphone was almost dead by the time I got home (got ahold of my wife about 40 minutes before I made it home - she'd walked straight home the moment it happened, and picked up our son only 15 minutes late). If I'd spent longer in the dark - if the train had been underground instead of aboveground, I might have run out of light. Our water was uninterrupted, but I'm going to look into a lot more water storage than I have, just in case (I have several gallons stashed here and there in old 2-liter bottles). I'm looking at Reliance Jumbotainers - manageable to carry short distances, good handles, don't take up too much room per volume. Also, someone had suggested water bottles 2/3 filled in the freezer - another very good idea - keep it cool, leave you with water as they melt.
I will add a barbecue grill, if nothing else than at least an el cheapo, and keep a bag or two of briquets in the basement. I have ecofuel around, but we just ate sandwiches - it was getting dark when I got home and just couldn't be bothered to set it up.
EDC that worked well - having a radio, with AM/FM...I always have a 1-liter lexan bottle of water in my backpack, in a nesting metal cup. The flashlights were great - ARCs are really sturdy, the light output is killer, but I may start carrying the AA tailcap for the ARC LS, because CR123 batteries will be almost impossible to replace in another outage - but I'll also start carrying several spares for both flashlights.
I'll also look into battery-powered, LED lanterns - flashlights aren't great for sitting around the living room reading in the dark, and the semi-decorative oil wick lamp/candles we have aren't my favorite light solution, especially with a 1-year-old tottering about the place.
Once I got home, things eased back into normal - power went back on about 4:30 a.m., and as folks at worked saw morning news with someone talking about having a flashlight in their survival kit, most of my co-workers chuckled about people having survival kits. So, we're pretty much back to normal here.
Thanks for all the suggestions that helped me get home safe and (fairly) comfortably. Sorry for the incredibly long post.
Dave

Interesting post - thanks for the front line report. I have had similar concerns about battery life and the CR123's, but I recently got a couple of Streamlight Twin Tasks for that very reason. They have a regular bulb when you need bright light or distance vision, but also have 3 LED's that you can toggle on or off alternatively with the bright bulb. The single CR123 version will run the LED's for up to 9 hours or so, and provides enough light to get down dark stairs, etc. The dual-battery version will last up to 28 hours on 2 batteries. They're also small enough to fit in a Jak-Strap headband, so you can use them hands free w/o carrying another light. The downside is they aren't completely water proof, just "resistant." I've had mine for a couple months and they have worked well so far. The smallest one will fit in a back pocket next to a pocket FAK. Take care.

Streamlight link: http://www.streamlight.com/tasklight_info.htm

Thanks for the short report Dave. Long posts are when Doug solicites a formal article <img src="images/graemlins/tongue.gif" alt="" /> It must be a grave disappointment to screenwriters and doomsday prophets when people pull together. I am bemused at public figures scrambling to place blame. Our power system is marvelous technology, but one that is finite. I can invision dozens of past civilizations with various headmen, chiefs,kings and emperors screaming at some poor irrigation engineer, stone mason or rain god intermediary <img src="images/graemlins/blush.gif" alt="" />

Many thanks for the after-action reports, folks. We were unaffected here in South Carolina, but it was a good learning experience still.

How does the saying go? "The smart man learns from his experiences. The wise man learns from the experiences of others".

I will now be adding backup batteries to the EDC items in my briefcase. I've had a SureFire E2e and a small AM/FM radio on hand every day since 9/11, but have never packed spare batteries. Seeing all those hardy New Yorkers hiking home, I thought about adding a one-liter Platypus water carrier to my briefcase. It folds flat, weighs about an ounce, but would add good extra water capacity for a situation.

Seeing and hearing about purchases made during the blackout at hardware & convenience stores, I suspect that having cash on hand proved worthwhile to quite a few people.

Good to hear people are safe.

And it's good to hear the tales. I haven't had a blackout where I live for a long time, lets hope it stays that way.

-james

I don't carry a briefcase so I'm looking for a way to carry batteries on me. I'm thinking along the lines of a monwy belt or one of the hidden under your clothes money wallets for both some cash and spare AAA's. I did decide to standardize on AAA's and not AA's due to cmall size.

Just got power back after 14 hours... Wow what an experience...

I was sleeping when power went out. I was so tired from the day and night before that when AC powered off I just tought it was a fuse and rolled over. 15 min later my Nextel phone and radio went off saying that I have to report to base for emergency shift. Dressed up, calmed half my neighbours who tought that we got hit by terrorist again (got my infor from radio, and emergency chanells). Raced to the base in my car (20 min), people were very accomodating on the road seeing EMT going to work. I had full gear on, my car had emergency water, bail out pack and 2 MREs and half a tank of gas. I worked from 18:00 to 02:00 since we had great number of personel responded there was no need for WTC 20 hours type of shifts. A lot of unconcious patients, sprained ankles, fires (people and candles don't mix!), women within 2 weeks of due date started poping out babies. At one point I found my self alone in the middle of the street full of traffic and people working on unconcious lady since my ambulance left with sprained ankle injury and I just hoped out knowing that I will get the backup. I didn't get it but my boss in his sup up H2 helped me to get the lady into rear sit and race to the hospital with me working on her all the way there. People were very accomodating; at one point we had picked up a person with fractured leg and another person went down from heat exhaution right in front of us. I jump out, clear the airway and get O2 going but I see patient is critical, backup unit is 5-10 min out, I can't start CPR or anything becasue airway and everything is within normal range. I hooked her up to defib and rythm was normal. Patient with fracture leg hops of the bus and asks us to leave her here and take the unconcious patient to the hospital. Wow. Isn't that something? I got home 0300 and went few blocks up to check up on my parents and grandmother who has a heart condition. I dropped of some ice packs and calmed my dog who was very scared. Tried to sleep but heat was too much, woke up 5am and didn't want to abuse my power to drive (lights and sirens on my jeep) to my daily job (programmer) so I took my bike and biked over to Brooklyn Bridge (30 min). I switched over to police frequency and upon learning there is no power in the part of the city I work I went back. Went to the park with my dog to tire him out before real heat sinks in. Than biked around neighborhood to check on my friends parents, his sister and her newborn baby, chated with my neighbours. And than power came back on, right now I'm recharging my equipment just in case.

Couple of points:
All my gear worked out to 100%. The most important things such as flashlight were at full power. Inova V did nice flood job and that new Pelican M6 provided really powerfull beam. I had backup batteries for them in my pack plus few other lights. I had my Nextel phone which worked in two way radio mode, I had Yaesu Vr5x for monitoring frequencies as well as AM/FM (fully charged would give me 2 days of operating) and I had regular ems radio. We had communication blackouts due to repeaters going down very frequently.
Water was there althou not cold it was bareble... It was very important to keep hydrated. Few people on the street begged me for water I gave them what I had knowing I can refill in the hospital. But since all the stores closed people comming over Manhatan and Brooklyn Bridges had no ways of purchasing water supplies. That was very bad. A lot of heat exhaution could have been prevented by drinking pleanty of fluids.
I was lucky to be able to recharge my phone in the ambulance. A lot of people had no means to power up their phones without access to regular current. A lot of home phones didn't work because they were powerd by ac adapters. Also nobody owns a battery operated radio anymore. Some lady in the park asked me what time it is since all her clocks at home went out.
I had pleanty of fuel, but many didn't. Lines at the gas stations were few blocks deep. I didn't even hit the backup cans I have in my basment.
Obviously most of food will be spoiled but I gave all my freezer stuff to my dad who made a huge BBQ today. This will be a problem over next few days with merchants/restaurants who don't want to accept loses and will try to resell the defrosted perishables.
One thing that worked really great was a tshirt that I wore under my bproof vest. It was one of those wick away moisture shirts and in that heat it really cooled me down.

That would be it. Honestly it was fun. But that's because I was busy, if I had to sit home with nothing to do I would probably go nuts.

Hope that eveyrone is safe and sound. Cheers from Brooklyn,

Matt

Will trade 3 Rambo survival knives for one flashlight and battery powered radio. Welcome back Matt <img src="images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />