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It's been ten years already? I was working at 50th and 5th at the time and had just returned from H&M when the lights went out and we evacuated the building. Ended up walking to a coworker's house on 110th Street and waited things out until I could get home to the Bronx. Considering it happened not too long after 9/11, people were worried!
Of course, there was price gauging for water and any necessities. Of course, there were people hanging for dear life on the back of the few buses that ran..
haha!
I vaguely remember the blackout happening. I was too new to the company I worked at cuz they didnt call me for OT. I worked for a cômpany that supported a company on Wall st. My company was based in mideest. When the transit strike happened though, our phones were off the hook cuz everyone in nyc wanted to work from home and needed to be set up. Sucked for you guys but I enjoyed the nice pocket full of change from OT:-)
I was playing video games when it happened, though my parents didn't pay the electric bill. Drove to the place then realized every traffic light was out too.
I was working on the upper west side when it happened. People were saying it was the whole east coast which at first sounded weird since we used to blew out our fuses all the time were I worked and thought it happened again. I quickly went outside and saw people had started buying up supplies very quickly and got to buy a couple of flashlights.
Actually anything like pizzerias and grocery stores were all jam packed and everybody bought out any thing they could, there was some gauging from what I heard, I just remember trying to get the last bottle of Johnny Walker from the Liquor store shelf, guess everybody was thinking the same. I started heading downtown with one of my co workers.
We heard people were stuck in some elevators and were trying to get the firemen into buildings to rescue them. People were actually being very helpful and respectful with each other. We saw people in cars and vans giving people rides, I'm guessing for free. Some people actually went out of their way to direct traffic, not sure but it actually looked like it made it worse but oh well.
Everybody was partying it up by Union Square, in bars and by the park, nothing crazy mostly people drinking with candle lights and cars parked outside with music. At one point by the ABC district we saw crowds of people that had created fires in those large tin barrels like how they show in movies when homeless people use to keep warm in the cold, but they were using it for light and people were playing drums for music.
I remember walking into streets in pure darkness, if it wasn't for those flashlights not sure I would have made it too far, the darkness was scary but yet intriguing. Looking down into subway stairs was like looking into black holes.
We finally made it to my uncle's place were I had to walk up 20+ flights of stairs were we and his mate drank the rest of the Johnny Walker.
Next morning some places were open and we risked eating their food and it was fine. Than I finished my journey walking the Brooklyn Bridge and went to my mothers place in Brooklyn. I think the day after that finally the subways worked.
It was a only a few months after I moved to the city. I walked home from the office, which luckily was only about 20 blocks. I remember going out later that evening and getting free ice cream from my corner deli—they were giving it away. I was living in Murray Hill at the time and it felt like a block party. Everyone was in the street drinking warm beer. Didn’t feel dangerous at all.
i gave a co worker a ride home to Willimsbridge, then ended up on the highways out of the way i n Yonkers to avoid the traffic lights (or lack of them), Dino's Pizzeria on Mosholu Ave was giving away free calzones so i took one, got home walked up 6 flts of stairs lit a candle, slept OK, next AM at 8 the power came back
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