NYC in the Blackout
Saturday night, July 13, created a new memory for dear husband and me. We were in the City for the week, staying at our timeshare on West 56th across from Carnegie Hall. It’s a great location--walkable to most of our destinations.Although it was hot, the crosstown breezes from the Hudson River made it bearable. Uber and taxis made their fair share of money from us, though, as we went back and forth to daughter, son-in-law, and granddaughter’s apartment on West 84th.
We did our usual vacation treks: to the Met to see the baseball card collection (dear husband’s wish), Broadway show, eating out or ordering in, and a bit of babysitting. Dear husband and three-year-old granddaughter took--Elmo in his stroller--for a walk around the block. Around the corner, up Broadway, 85th Street, down Amsterdam, and back home. Nope, the 3-year-old was not ready for a nap, but dear husband was.
Saturday evening, we were headed back to the timeshare when our Uber driver called our attention to no traffic lights and no building lights. When we approached 64th Street, the road was blocked and there were police, firefighters, and all sorts of equipment. The car radio then announced a fire of unknown source in that 64th Street manhole. This fire then triggered five more outages all the way downtown. The Upper West Side from the ’70s to Madison Square Garden was dark. ConEdison reported they were working on the problem!
After hanging out around the timeshare building for a while and talking to various people we could not see well in the dark, we called the daughter and said we were coming back to the light. Bless Uber--we got back to 84th Street to watch the news.
Here’s my take on the situation from reading the news reports:
- A good overview map, but I don’t know what the numbers mean. I could not find a key for them, but this does indicate the blackout area. (To give you perspective: Madison Square Garden is on 33rd Street, the theatre district in the ’40s with the popular Restaurant Row on 46th, and Lincoln Center is 66th – 70th depending on which building you wish to enter)
- The lights were not out long enough for there to have been substantial looting; most emergency calls were folks stuck in elevators (think apartment buildings, not big hotels which must have backup generators)
- This blackout lasted less than 6 hours. It was pretty in a weird way ==sunset without electrical lights
- The irony is that this blackout occurred on July 13, the same date as the massive citywide blackout of 1977 from which there occurred a “NYC baby boomlet” nine months later, and a spate of crime in parts of the city
- Hospitals have their own generators
- Many subways and trains were closed
- Buses – I don’t know where they went – we just didn’t see any (maybe because of blocked streets they kept to the east side of the city).
- All those food carts on the corners (best hotdogs in the world) use LP gas (I even read health code Chapter 6 regarding moveable carts. The pdf includes everything from potable water, to equipment washing, to temperature for cold and hot foods, licensing, and, and, and …. I have a new respect for these entrepreneurs!)
- Some people decided to take their lives in their own hands. Bicyclists were everywhere holding their cellphones for lights. (great idea, huh?)
- Some tourists got into the act (we saw one older gentleman directing traffic with his cane)
- According to Stubhub (show ticket vendor), they refunded approximately $500,000 in ticket costs
- A NY Times article estimated that Broadway lost approximately $3.5 million – 27 shows were affected
- Restaurants lost much revenue, but thus far, a real cost is uncalculated for the press. Pizza stands were selling by the slice if one had cash. (With a 5-6-hour window of no electric, my guess is that much food was lost along with the revenue from the diners for the evening.)
- J Lo’s concert at Madison Square Garden was evacuated before her 4th number. (I can testify entering or leaving the Garden is crazy and claustrophobic on a good night)
- The Carnegie Hall concert singers moved outside and sang in the street (nice touch – lots of folks gathered)
- New Yorkers are basically friendly, nice people!
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