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Remember that one. It was so strange. People didn't quite know what to do with themselves. Usually they'd go home in the evening and watch TV. TV was not workin
by rdtsc 9y ago
Remember that one. It was so strange. People didn't quite know what to do with themselves. Usually they'd go home in the evening and watch TV. TV was not working so they they just kind of ended up going outside and met neighbors they had never talked to before. It was great.
The food was going bad in the refrigerators and freezers so neighbors got together and those who had generators offered to store some of the food. People were firing up their grills and grilling out together, talking, socializing.
In the morning they were used to hitting Starbucks to get their caffeine fix but local Starbucks was out of power, so I remember a few neighbors complaining among other things that they have coffee headaches.
Next thing when the power came back, everyone went and bought generators. Spent thousands of dollars on those things. But I don't remember them being used much after that as there were no other such major outages since.
Oh and also they promptly went back to watching TV (and now probably browsing the web) and being just as isolated as before from each other.
- chasing 9y agoI wasn't in NYC for this, but it reminds me of two events I was in NYC for: The earthquake of 2011 and the aftermath of hurricane Sandy. During the earthquake many people fled their buildings, so we wound up at a kind of impromptu block party at the restaurant across the street with everyone excitedly telling their stories. After Sandy, lower Manhattan was still dark. But people were out kind of giddily enjoying the bizarre experience of dark Manhattan and sharing stories, which gave the town an interesting sort of social buzz. Anyway. The moral of the story: Despite NYC's grouchy reputation, New Yorkers seem to immediately come together during these events to talk, hang out, help, etc. It's a reminder that we live in a good town.
- thesmallestcat 9y agoEverything is an event in New York. Even a minor earthquake 300 miles away that shakes your silverware.
- chasing 9y agoNo, actually surprisingly few things are "an event" in New York. Even stuff as major as the NYE Times Square Ball Drop are completely ignorable in most of the city if you turn off the TV. Earthquakes, though, are rare. And if you haven't felt one before, kind of a crazy novelty.
- tunap 9y agoAnother interesting anomoly I experienced driving around north Detroit metro during the outage, to check on grandparents, friends and the hospital for a birth, was traffic moved much more efficiently when intersections turned into 4-way stops. Driving from 12 mile to Square Lake and Southfield to Rochester Rds was unusually brisk, even with all the hotrods cruising & loitering[0]. Perhaps they could benefit from some roundabouts... [0] Woodward Dream Cruise https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woodward_Dream_Cruise https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woodward_Dream_Cruise