Tales from the Blackout

Excerpts from a collection at:
As Brooklyn Slowly Drunkened (Ftrain.com)

On the street people were shadows and silhouettes, voices and fragments of bodies illuminated by moving headlights. Souls passed in darkness, voices in Spanish and English, cigarette ends bobbing from invisible mouths.

"So much for the open container law," said my neighbor, popping a can. The only noise was human, and the water-rush sound of freeways. Doors slammed, the ball bearings of passing bicycles clicked, shoe leather scraped the ground. One plane, not a dozen, moved through the black sky, the moon hanging, waxing, orange-tinted.

World New York: The Great North American Blackout 2003

All the bars were packed. People ignored the open container law and the cigarette ban with impunity, as they stood outside and packed the inside, joking and horsing around. There is a bit of a "so what?" attitude going around, but I'll see if it holds if the power does not come back on before morning.

Many bars stayed open late into the evening, including Enid's on Manhattan Avenue in Greenpoint. Candles lit the room, the ice bins were full, and a gambling pool had been started up. A dollar per guess: when will the electricity be restored in the neighborhood? The place was packed, and jovial, with that snow-day or rainstorm kind of giddiness you'd normally see in a schoolroom. Get-togethers planned before the blackout went on without changes. A small child-sized record player put out tinny music suited to the low-fi technological environment.

Fireland | stupid fucking electricity

And then that stupid guy who dragged out his generator and deafened the neighborhood so he could keep ESPN2 up and running. When the time comes, you will be the first I hunt for food, I thought, siphoning gas out of the Le Sabre next door.

NY Daily News: The subways: A special hell

An uptown 4 train got caught north of 34th St. with dozens of 7- and 8-year-olds from the New Settlement day care center aboard."The kids were freaking out," said Danielle Dalia, 37, a secretary for the United Federation of Teachers, who was also on the train. "They were hysterical, crying and screaming."

After about an hour, they were ordered to get off the train and walk along the tracks to 42nd St. They made it, but it was a tough haul."Everyone started getting hot," said Jennifer Romagno, 21, of Queens. "People were passing out. People started pushing."

There was also confusion and panic after the motorman pried open the doors of the L train that Ana Sorio was on and led passengers into the tunnel."You could hear the rats running around," she said. "Children were falling on top of each other. People were screaming. Old ladies were crying."

Nuri Urena, 38, clutched her 18-month-old daughter Cristina in one arm and braced herself against the tunnel wall with her free hand. A fellow rider carried her stroller."It was very dark. It was very hot. I thought I was going to die," she said.

Posted by Vanderleun at August 19, 2003 11:33 AM