The Blackout of '03

[Spartan]

I was a year ago that the Blackout in the Northeast happened.. just thought I'd share some photos to refresh your memory

Cleveland

NYC

NYC

NYC

NYC

---Overall---

[BigCityAttitude]

That last photo really puts it into perspective

[Urbanrailfan]

The nighttime map really proves a point about the Blackout being the biggest outage ever when it comes to 50 million people in that big dark chunk of land. Thankfully everyone lived through it with no rioting.

[Spartan]

Yeah, and I think that says alot of good about our country.

[wolfdawg54]

Pretty intense!

[Allan]

We lucked out in the blackout. 1/2 mile south of my house there was no power. Also, a mile or so north of my house they had no power. It was pretty crazy around here though, since people kept coming here for food and gas. It wasn't long before the gas stations ran out of gas and the stores ran out of non perishable foods. Fortunately it only took about 2 days to get the power completely restored.

[josita]

Yeah, and I think that says alot of good about our country.

Actually, it wasn't too long ago (the last big blackout in the 70s) that we did have massive rioting in the streets. However, it was followed by declining economic conditions, a strong heatwave, the serial killer (summer of sam), etc. Consider us more lucky rather than a "civilized" people. When it comes down to it... we all have our breaking points.

I love the aerial shot though.... very cool

[Cotuit]

Contrary to reports by CNN and others at the time, you can see that Providence was bright and shiny that night. I had moved to Rhode Island from New York City shortly before the blackout. I pointed at my friends in the city and laughed and laughed.

PS, that image was actually altered to simulate what the blackout looked like from space. You can see that the blacked out area is actually black while other areas without lights (forests and such) are actually bluish. Also note the lack of cloud cover over the entire continent... The original image is a composet over numerous nights.

Still an interesting image nonetheless.