breaking news: blackouts in major cities

http://lucianne.com/threads2.asp?artnum=65694

Total power outages in many large N. American cities now happening (04:57 EST), including NY City.

Hope our board members in the stricken cities have their urban supplies on their person: light, cash, etc.

Any affected folks from this board, please post your experiences from today's events.

I just sat down and noticed my e-mail box with 200 messages from the NANOG list (north american network operators group, they are the guys that sit in control centers and make the internet work, I was about 1/2 hour ahead of the national news on sept 11th because everyone started asking why their equipement in the world trade center quit responding)
Seems the Niagara-Mohawk power grid went down and other power plants and transformers are being overloaded as well due to thier extra load, reports of transformers blowing and equipment blowing from the repeated power cycles and or surges and brownouts. I have been carrying a Mag Solitaire flashlight for about 5 years because I would be in big buildings from time to time and they get dark when the lights go out and there are a lot of places without emergency lights. A year or two ago I added a two AAA minimag since the little solitaire doesn;t put out much light and has a short run time. Now I just need to get a generator for the house.
I'm wondering what will be the death toll from the heat or from no AC and or riots and such that may break out.

Hmmm...hope folks take a moment or two to step outside and enjoy looking at the sky without all the light pollution, get a good look at the Milky Way etc.

Wishing the best for everyone impacted by the event.

What normally takes me 90 minutes to get home each night took 3 hours tonight. Highways and roads in and out of Toronto, Ontario were nothing short of a nightmare.

Line ups at gas stations were stretching down most streets.

The temperature in southern Ontario today was extremely hot and the humidity, or heat index for the Americans, was pushing temps well into the mid to high 90's.

Contrary to most reports, NOT all of southern Ontario was in the dark. A certain area, which has their hydro supplied by The Nanticoke Generating Station on Lake Erie, seen no interruptions in electricity (luckily I'm within this small area).

I passed no intersections with operational stoplights. Only one intersection actually had a Police officer directing the traffic.

Some reports now are saying certain areas could be without hydro for up to 2 days.

It has not been a fun day.

This blackout brings to mind a few things. Traffic is serious because signal lights are out, water is tough to get because of the lack of pumps. While in a city we all take light for granted, street lights, traffic signals, etc. Sounds like I need to beef up my EDC stuff to include a better light source and more water. I always take a backpack around with me, to and from work and keep it in the office. My PDA will not be very useful in an emergency! I need water bottles and a good light source! A 4"AA" headlight for me and minimum of 2L of water!!
All the best to everyone enduring the blackouts!!

If you would like an indicator of the blackout's effect, just look at our 'whos online' feature. I just counted 5 regulars and 25 guests. I have no doubt Major SurplusNSurvival is throwing together another blackout kit. Groups with agendas; alternative power, less restrictions on fossil fuel extraction,progun-nogun are gearing up lobbying efforts. Meanwhile lots of folks are struggling with or without what they have tonight. Lets pray for all and be "equipped"for the increase in forum traffic.

While I am not in the affected area, I make note of the fact that the kit I carry in my car and the items I carry on my person would have greatly aided me if I were in the North East. This kind of event really makes the case for this board.

One thing to keep in mind: no electricity may mean no news.
No computers. No TV, certainly. The man or woman
with a functioning radio will be very popular. There were reports
of Cell Phones being non-functional due to no power to
repeater towers. Got batteries?

Werty called this one about a week ago didn't he <img src="images/graemlins/cool.gif" alt="" /> Seriously though, hope everyone's ok. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go double check all my batteries

Closely watching what's happening back East. Here in So. California, land of earthquakes and riots, a lot us are prepared. I think I'd have done okay if the East Coast scenario occured here.

Hope this is useful to somebody. And I'm open to suggestions, if I missed anything.
1. 15 flashlights in my house and car, half of them long lived, battery stretching, non-bulb burning, LED types. Two of them are headlamps, very convenient for freeing up hands. Three are ARC LS's and three ARC AAA's, perfect for pocket carry.
2. A box full of D, C, AA, AAA batteries.
3. No generator, too expensive, but I have two inverters that can convert car battery power into AC, about 500 watts worth, enough to power a TV and a few lights. I'll loan a hundred watts to my two neighbors in exchange for gasoline to keep my car battery charged. Can recharge cell phones and operate a laptop..
4. A box of rechargable C, AA and AAA NMHi batteries. I can recharge these from the car battery using my inverters and my 1 hour Ray-O-Vac charger.
5. I also have a Brunton solar charger, as my last ditch power source to recharge my AA batteries, though they are limited to charging 4 AA batteries per day.
7. I recently bought adapters to convert AAA cells into AA, AA cells into C, and C cells into D cells.
8. Half a dozen battery powered battery powerd radios of various sizes.
9. One 2" TV powered by 5 AA cells, with AC adapter to run from my car battery+inverter.
10. 2 cases of MRE's, a lot of food on hand, and at least 10 gallons of bottled water.

I work at the airport on swing shift so I routinely carry lights. If I'd been stuck at work, I'd have access to at least 12 flashlights. The ARC LS and ARC AAA in my pockets, a Surefire E2e in my attache, a couple cheap mini-LED light also in my attache. I also have three AA lights in my locker. I have a half dozen AA batteries, four CR123 cells, a half dozen AAA's. The office supply cabinet contains a box of AA cells, and our department emergency kit has a D cell light and two cases of MRE's and at least 40 gallons of water, and I keep a couple AA to D cell adapters. If I can reach my car, I have a Surefire G-2, a Zipka headlamp, and a couple cheapo AA lights and C cell light. Also, two miniature, battery radios, one of them in my car.

I sound smug now because I spent time, money, and studying this web site to be in my position, but I know not to be too confident, because events don't always follow my pre-planned scenarios.

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="" />

How many extra batteies are you thinking of carrying and what is your typical attire? If you just want a couple of batteries, I've found one of the easiest things to do is tape a pair together with electrical tape and slip them in my pocket.

FWIW,
Chris.

I'm in a business casual place now. I have stuff in my pockets but they always slide around and make noise bumping together. So far no one has cared about my leatherman wave on my belt (I do put it right beside my cell phone so its somewhat hidden). I have a e-mail pager on the other side clipped on my belt and I'm thinking if I can find a small pouch the side of 2 to 4 AAA's that would clip on my belt it would be small enought it would go unoticed.

Dick Assman was a Canadian guy featured on David Letterman's show for his obviously funny name. David Asman was on Fox with the Petzl.

<< I'm wondering what will be the death toll from the heat or from no AC and or riots and such that may break out. >>

Hey. This ain't Paris, man. Nobody sat in their offices waiting for some "authority" to tell 'em what to do; no one died of heat stroke waiting for some government program to come rescue them; no pompous trades unionist with a bad haircut and a bullhorn told us when to riot. This is North America, man! The New World! We don't wait for authority - we ARE the authority. We don't.......

Oh.

Guess my lithium wore off. Sorry.

Seriously though, that's the first REALLY big story here - what didn't happen. Imagine - the largest city in America, a city who made the middle finger gesture into an art form, a city that gave "attitude" it's attitude - looses the mother's milk of the post-industrial age - power. And what happens? Food Riots? Nope. Wholesale looting? Not that. Massive pillaging? Big zero there. Headquarters of ConEdison stormed? How about Gracie Mansion? Nor even. NYC goes dark, and Dan Rather has a SLOW news night. Imagine. What did happen though, is that New Yorkers, and many others in many other places, for the most part went through this with spirits high, helped out complete strangers who were out of luck, had mass sleep-ins in parks, and generally got on with life!

What we saw was how America (and Canada), post 9/11, now takes on adversity. One person at a time. Our friends in this world should take note; our enemies should be loosing sleep over it.

And the other REALLY big story here? Why, the agony of low battery life, of course. But I think we've already pummeled that expired equine rather well, so my comments are on it are superfluous.


.....CLIFF

To err is human; to really, spectacularly screw up takes technology. Really expensive technology.

Just returned from Wasaga Beach, http://www.wasagabeach.com/ post “Blackout” , doing the family camping thing, was uneventful until listening to the music from the arcade at the beach pounding away at your head, the beer parlours playing rap or house or hip hop , noise is noise when at 4:14 Thursday afternoon it all became quiet. Since California has had rolling blackouts, Canadians are smug and leave worries to other nations until something like this happens. A misspent youth and memories from my single days draw me to this beach, to capture that magic . Now with hair turning white and two kids, my dear wife turning red under the sun, I feel life has been kind. Even the silence pierced the sea gulls cries for a stray pomme frit, only the gentle surf was louder. Determined to lose my headache, I strolled in search of asprin but was met with closed shops and lo even the arcade had dropped its doors. Power failure , that was the word on the street, the beer parlours were still slinging but no lights or sound was made. Ah, sweet relief. A stroll further along the bikini walk was pleasurable knowing the mating rituals are not affected by blackouts, nuclear attack or plague. All the local stores had closed up or having discount sales on ice cream. The gas pumps were also closed, another worry. I had enough chow for a few days. The thought of shark feeding raced through my mind and reduced my estimate. Returning to our blanket, I scanned the channels on our FM band and heard the worse. The entire east coast and Detroit was unpowered. Talk to anyone from Toronto and they will burden the listener with SAR’s , Mad Cow, The Rolling Stones, getting out of the city by their employers generosity and civic holidays. Wasaga Beach remains the great equalizer, as everyone on the beach is equal under the sun. My thoughts return to Santa Cruz, the beach volley ball, the Crows Nest Restaurant, the Marina, a different place sharing the sun. The campsite supper was by coleman lamp and candles, the park lighting and water system dead. I had stashed some water in my cooler for the kids, so I took quick inventory and if things got really bad, I would unpack my water filter and refill the bottles from the river. It was also amazing how other campers gather together around a fire and start to relate the news heard on radios since all cell phones had died. Candles were shared, baby food, batteries, harmonicas. We went to bed late, thankful, listening to the CBC most of the night thinking about others who are in true need.

Maybe by getting a new case for either your phone or Wave you could find a place to keep the batteries without adding another pouch, if you are going for descrete. Something like this , for example from Nite-Ize. I've never seen this product in person, however, and it looks like it might be a little bulky. I don't know of one, but maybe someone makes something along this line for a leatherman.

FWIW,
Chris.

Here's an article from the Philadelphia Inquirer that talks about what might happen if the lights hadn't come back on.

What would happen if power went out - and stayed out?

Probably nothing new in the article to most of the people here, but it did have an interesting take on why there wasn't any looting this time.

I found a link to these little pouches in another post on this site, and have been very happy with them. They hold 4 AA,'s or 3 CR123A's plus a pill box with extra bulb. They have a velcro strap on the back so you can attach to belt, backpack strap, etc. Not the absolute best quality around, but they hold up pretty well.

http://www.drifterbag.com/battery.htm

I thought I would post my experience and a quick summary of what worked and what didn't. We didn't have power for 40 hours. First, thanks to Doug and Chris (and others) for creating a very useful forum that is not 'survivalist' in nature. The blackout (or should it be 'Blackout') was a very useful reminder that many 'situations' occur in day-to-day life and this is often what one needs to respond to, be it snowstorm, blackouts or floods.

Here are some general observations (based on Toronto). People are great (mostly)! Lots of people took the time to help direct traffic, make room for emergency services, hand out water to people walking home, visit and check with elderly neighbours, create the 'Mother of All BBQs', provide updates to neigbours, help sipon gas, etc.

Some people suck - those that decided to rob stores and, in my mind, the even more evil gas station owners that decided to jack prices by 30 - 40%.

In this kind of emergency, you (if you are reading this site) will be the most prepared. Take some time to help out the neighbours - this isn't the time to pull the gun and guard the hideout.

Some thoughts on What worked:

1. Have your car(s) filled with gas and have some spare gas (with fuel stabilizer) handy. Major problems with people who wanted to get out of town but couldn't. Thankfully my wife had filled our truck, car had some gas and a spare 5gal in my bike - keep tanks at least 1/2 full. Buy a proper sipon system (about $5), Toronto had over 20 people taken to hosp from sucking in fuel (likely with their garden hose = a really big gulp of gas) - don't be an idiot, EMS is already way too busy!

2. Have a battery powered/solar/wind-up radio. Many people had no idea of what was happening. My solar/wind-up Freeplay was FANTASTIC and saved having to run back to the car every 5 min. As others have noted, many stations off the air for some time

3. LED flashlights are very useful. Small = have them with me, didn't have ot worry about batteries and just the right amount of light for the day-to-day tasks (like taking a pee, looking for the cooler, etc). We had 'bigger' lights (eg SureFire), but not critical for most stuff. Lots of people stuck underground in the subway - hot and dark = nice to have a light

4. Some form of lantern would be helpful. We had Coleman, which we really didn't need. I want to buy/build 2-3 LED lanterns that run off large batteries. We also had glow sticks (which we didn't use - see below), which would have been helpful

5. Water. You need it. You really need it if you are in an Apartment. While experience varied, many apt dwellers had no water. We had 60l in 'water cooler' style containers and probably ~40l in bottles, etc (before hitting the wine collection!). We also have a very good water filter from camping. As I left work, I reached into my drawer and grabbed 2 500ml water bottles to take with me. If you don't need it, the sweaty guy directing traffic does!

6. Ham radio and Lic (kicking myself for not having it with me initially). A net was established from the CN Tower repeater almost instantly and was very useful in getting good data and real-time info on useful information for ME (ie road conditions on road we would be taking to leave town). Very small hand-held unit, AA batteries, AM/FM/TV receive, autopatch to patch into phone system, all EMS freq - great unit that is the size of a pack of smokes

7. Having gear ready to go (food, etc). I chucked these in the truck, added other stuff and we were good to go

8. Batteries are useful, but standardize. I find it quite helpful to have most of my gear standardized on ONE battery type (AA) and buy the big bricks of name brand batteries at Costco. The SureFire is great, but useless once you run out of batteries.

I didn't need it, but I have a good marine deep cycle battery and an inverter that could have been very helpful (lots of power for Ham radio, ability to power lights, etc)

Stuff that didn't work as well:

1. Cell phone. As expected, these are completely useless for communications in emergencies. Many cells seemed to have no power and system was completely overloaded. Don't rely on this in an emergency, you should have some $$ for pay phones and see HAM RADIO above!

2. Having emergency kits that I packed many moons ago with no idea what was in them, or where critical things were (...now where is that radio). Keep lists posted to the packs with contents. This is the reason we didn't use the glow sticks

3. Having no gas in the BBQ tank

After preparing our stuff, making sure all was ok, helping some neighbours we spent the night in the back yard drinking wine with neighbours and looking at the best night sky I have ever seen in Toronto (including Mars) and then 'bugged-out' the next AM for a location with power (with all of our emergency gear).

I hope this helps

I happened to be visiting family in Toronto last week, and when the power outage occurred I was on the train from Toronto to Ottawa to visit my brother. We thought we were hard done by when we found out that the train had to travel slowly (no power for the r/y X'ing signals, so the train had to go slow every time it came to a road). The train was almost 2 hours late getting to Ottawa, on what is normally a 5-hour trip. Later, I came to realise we were among the lucky ones, when we saw how it had affected air travel and buses.

Arrived in Ottawa after dark - very weird, walking through the train station with only a couple of emergency lights. Kicking myself because I had left my key-ring with the Photon flashlight on it at my sister's place in T.O. Tried to phone my brother but none of the payphones were working - I found out later that I could have made a collect call but didn't realise it at the time. Took a cab to my brother's house in the dark, again very weird driving through the dark and treating all intersections as 4-way stops. I don't know if this happened elsewhere but every driver in Ottawa just seemed to do it like they'd been trained that way. My brother was home waiting for me when I arrived, we sat around talking for a while, then went for a walk around the neighbourhood. Power came back on about midnight, we watched the news, then I went to bed about 1 a.m. Power went out as I was going to bed, didn't come back on until about 5 a.m. when it woke me up. It was on for a while, then went back out, came on again briefly, then was out for most of the rest of the day.

All in all, I think we got off very lightly. Our water kept running and the power came back relatively quickly. We did start to get into the mindset of doing things as soon as the power came on, because after it failed the third or fourth time, we clued in that it could go out again at any minute.

I didn't remember until the second day that I had my Altoid tin in the bag for my laptop, and there was another Photon inside - I took that out and hooked it to my (other) keychain, but I never had to use it.

I must confess, I used to think all the discussions on this board about "urban survival" were a little bit over the top. I have now seen the light - ironically <img src="images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

I never got around to putting my Altoids tin back together after it got ripped apart by airport security personnel a couple of months ago. I hadn't realised how much I had gotten used to carrying a Photon on my keychain until I needed it and didn't have it. Also, I had debated bringing my Ham radio with me and had decided against it because I didn't expect to use it and didn't want to carry the added weight. I'm seriously thinking about buying a 2m handheld now.

I think the people who were worst affected were probably the people who "put all their eggs in one basket". The ones who needed electricity for *everything*, including water.

For me, the blackout never got to the point of being even an annoyance - it was more a mini-adventure than anything. As we were right across the river from Quebec, which had power, I knew that we could always fill up with gas and, if necessary, propane, albeit at greatly inflated prices, but we never had to. I know that for many others, it was very serious.

With the number of disasters happening concurrently - SARS, mad cow disease, the prolonged droughts in the prairies, the killer heat wave in Europe, the forest fires in BC and southern Alberta, and now the largest blackout in history (at least, if you don't consider the absence of electricity in Iraq and Afghanistan to come under the heading of "power outage"), I think things may be about to get much worse, permanently. Commentators no longer talked about global warming as a theory, they spoke of it as an established fact. It's frightening to think that we may already have passed the point of no return, and that nothing we do can avert global environmental catastrophe.

A few years ago, I would have dismissed such speculation as wacko conspiracy theories; now, I'm more than ever convinced that all these disasters are Mother Nature's way of saying "Geez! Take a hint, you morons!" <img src="images/graemlins/blush.gif" alt="" />

I called my friend up who runs local Star hardware store... He is sold out of all the flashlights, water, AA operated personal fans and batteries.

Now I know why I'm lugging around all this junk. When my boss on Monday found out that there was a 2.5 gallon container of water, mag light and power bars he was really angry since he had to make a trip in pitch black with no water. Now everyone is stocking up their desks.

Hi - as an addition to the things I would do differently for my EDC to prepare for the next blackout:

I added a Minimag flashlight to my backpack. I wanted a smallish flashlight that would be easy to feed with batteries - AA are the easiest to find. I've modified mine to LED - I highly recommend an Opalec LED module - about $25, and you swap it in in less than a minute, and it will last at full light output for about 10 hours, longer with decreasing light. Or, if you want a brighter/shorter-lasting light, for $35-$45 you'll get about 2 hours or so with the various LED drop-in modules from the "Sandwich Shoppe" you can reach via www.candlepowerforums.com. They fit in several 2-AA flashlights, including Brinkmann.

I'll carry backup batteries with me, because it's not guaranteed I'd be able to get more.

And I'll carry maps and schedules. I was left to walk through parts of Brooklyn I NEVER go through - not that they're bad neighborhoods, just that I bypass them, sight unseen, on the subway. No clue what streets cross what avenues, because it's nothing like the streets in my neighorhood.

Also, I'll carry subway and bus maps/schedules. I know how to get around the subway to go where I normally want to go, but the subway wasn't working for a couple days, so I had to take the bus. I never take the bus, and I have no clue what bus line runs where, where it meets another, what transfers I needed. That was a sharp lesson (with lots of walking in the heat to underscore it). Also, I might be forced to connect the two - alternate subway line, then walk 15 blocks to a bus stop in a totally unfamiliar neighborhood. Wish I'd had those maps with me.

And for my wife, I'll be getting her a small AM/FM radio to stash in her desk at work. It helped me to get the news reports when the power went out.

Dave