RE Getting home from Manhattan during a blackout.

I was in Times Square Subway station during the last one, and I live in Bayside, which for those of you who don't know, is about as far east in NYC as you can get (Douglaston and Little Neck are further, but that's it)

It's about 14 miles from Times Square to home (Both the one I lived in then, and the current one)

Now, DaveT can tell you, I'm not exactly in shape, unless you consider round a shape, but I started walking - I got about 4.5 of those 14 home, when I ran into a friend who was about to be picked up, and got a lift

I will stay that once you got over the Queensboro (59th St) bridge, buses were running but jammed and slow, and lots of folks were giving other folks lifts. One thing you will find about NYers - we do tend to pull together when things happen - 36 hours later, things might be bad, but for that first 24-36, we band together