OT: I Survived The Great Blackout Of 2011
Sep. 9th, 2011 08:49 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lazypadawanSo at 3:40 p.m. the electricity went off at work thanks to some Homer Simpson at a power plant in Arizona. Fortunately we have some backup generators that kept some lights on and the elevator working, but the computers and air were off, so everybody started to leave once a few phone calls verified the power was out all over the place, not just in our immediate area.
The problem was several million people did the exact same thing at the exact same time. I commute about 35 miles to work and I had just over half a tank of gas. That little fact and the knowledge I couldn't possibly get more gas if power was out everywhere made me very nervous, especially with the stop-and-go traffic jams everywhere. What also made me nervous was the possibility of still being on the road after dark with very few traffic lights working. I brought a granola bar with me but no water. What the heck was I going to do?
I listened to the fog of war playing out on a local a.m. radio station, one of the few that was operational, where the first rumor to come out was power plant explosions in Coachella and Salton Sea. Uh, not quite. But at first nobody seemed to know what was going on or why. All anyone could figure out was there was no power from Laguna Niguel in Orange County to Palm Springs to El Centro to Mexicali to Tijuana, with parts of Yuma, AZ and New Mexico also out of power. L.A. still had power and so did Temecula, a large town just over the line in Riverside County.
To make a long story shorter, it took me over three hours to get home on mostly surface roads. I figured it was better to run out of gas on a residential street in a swanky neighborhood than on the freeway. Actually, aside from the experience of going through countless intersections with no working lights, it wasn't so bad traffic-wise. It helped to save gas by avoiding a lot of stop-and-go traffic and turning off the a.c., especially when I got on the coastal roads. I got home at dusk with just over a quarter tank left.
Fortunately I had a gas stove and lots of bottled water, so I could eat something without opening the fridge. I had a little old transistor t.v. that still worked and picked up analog t.v. signals from Baja California, enjoying some Mexican soaps and some news before going to bed...with the power suddenly snapping back on at 1:15 a.m.. Th'End.
The problem was several million people did the exact same thing at the exact same time. I commute about 35 miles to work and I had just over half a tank of gas. That little fact and the knowledge I couldn't possibly get more gas if power was out everywhere made me very nervous, especially with the stop-and-go traffic jams everywhere. What also made me nervous was the possibility of still being on the road after dark with very few traffic lights working. I brought a granola bar with me but no water. What the heck was I going to do?
I listened to the fog of war playing out on a local a.m. radio station, one of the few that was operational, where the first rumor to come out was power plant explosions in Coachella and Salton Sea. Uh, not quite. But at first nobody seemed to know what was going on or why. All anyone could figure out was there was no power from Laguna Niguel in Orange County to Palm Springs to El Centro to Mexicali to Tijuana, with parts of Yuma, AZ and New Mexico also out of power. L.A. still had power and so did Temecula, a large town just over the line in Riverside County.
To make a long story shorter, it took me over three hours to get home on mostly surface roads. I figured it was better to run out of gas on a residential street in a swanky neighborhood than on the freeway. Actually, aside from the experience of going through countless intersections with no working lights, it wasn't so bad traffic-wise. It helped to save gas by avoiding a lot of stop-and-go traffic and turning off the a.c., especially when I got on the coastal roads. I got home at dusk with just over a quarter tank left.
Fortunately I had a gas stove and lots of bottled water, so I could eat something without opening the fridge. I had a little old transistor t.v. that still worked and picked up analog t.v. signals from Baja California, enjoying some Mexican soaps and some news before going to bed...with the power suddenly snapping back on at 1:15 a.m.. Th'End.
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no subject
Date: 2011-09-09 09:50 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-09-10 09:39 am (UTC)Our city had a blackout in 2007 while I was at work - there was a bad storm outside so we had to stay put. We had a lot of internal corridors that were now pitch black... it was like being on the set of a B-grade horror movie, eep.