It's been 10 years since the big blackout

[Old Ironmaker]

I was on my way into Hamilton to attend a retirement dinner when I noticed there weren't any stop lights. Went to my cousins bar where I was working a bit after retiring. We were the only bar around with power.

 

I had just retired the year before and had been doing failure analysis before leaving, I talked him into getting a generator and we had just had it installed.

 

The only bar downtown that I know of that had cold beer until it sold out. We saved many thousands of dollars in meat. And he sent my wife and I to México the next November as a bonus, gotta love it.

 

Scary part was my wife was in the air and couldn't land in TO or Hamilton, and I didn't know what airline she was on.

 

Seems like yesterday, 10 years, wow.

[backbay]

In those days I worked downtown, 53rd floor of Scotia Plaza. I commuted to work on my bike, so once I got to ground level I was good to go.

[hutch4113]

^{I was working near the airport at the time. Was going to get gas on the way home - good call. Anyway - went over to a co-workers house - it was like "my big fat greek wedding" - only Italian. Because they had an extra guest - and I was a growing boy (30 ish at the time) extra food was made. We had homemade wine - and my favorite - Grappa.}

^{His next door neighbour was a mechanic, and had a 10 gallon jerry can, which gave me enough gas to get home. That part was the strangest, and most cool. Bombing down the 400 to Barrie - no lights anywhere, and tons of cars pulled over at the Highway Gas stations, because they did not want to risk going any further.}

^{The thing I remember most though, was how active everyone was when I got home. It was 11PM or so - people were out all over the place, walking/talking, etc. Tells us a little something about the "modern communication age" we live in......}

Edited August 14, 2013 by Tupelo

[BillM]

Blackouts definitely get people off the couch We could use one for a few days once a year like mentioned above, lol.

[DanD]

I/we didn't even know it had happened, we were at a fishing camp that week, West of Matachewan and it didn't have hydro service anyway.

The wife wasn't too impressed; I had all the flashlights and Coleman lantern.

OOPS sorry dear. LOL

 

Dan.

[tb4me]

We here in Brantford lost our power too..I remember cell phones werent working either..It was creepy..Anyway I found out that Scotland (the town of) not even 20 min down the road had power..Myself and 2 neighbours went got gas , Beer, ice and cash.. We were set for the next few days...

[Tim Mills]

I was building a deck around Jane and Bloor. We initially thought our compressor blew the breaker then everyone started coming out on to the street and we knew it was bigger than that. It was a long drive back to the suburbs that night.

[Lunker777]

I had invested appox 3 days of time into a fishing game on the PS3 .... I didnt have enough space on the memory card to save it, so i just left the console on for those three days.

 

 

I was in the middle of reeling in a big one ( lol fisher man dont lie ) and all of a sudden the power kind of dropped off, lights dimmed, fan slowed down etc..... it didnt go off, or flicker.... it was just like someone has started a huge fan or something. I kind of thought " hmmm thats funny ??? " ... .then all was fine for about 10-15 seconds then out it went.

 

Friends of ours own a driving range / ice cream / small restaurant, so when we realized the grocerie stores and variety stores had been picked over for hamburger buns , condiments , etc. We headed out there and had full range on ANYTHING we wanted .... so we took a few scoops of ice cream and a bag of buns and went home for a " BBQ Fest" as we called them. It was actually not that bad.

 

Except for the 3 days of missed work.

[steelhedrmatt]

I went fishing out of the Bluffs for salmon. Launched in the dark. Pretty impressive sight to see the Toronto skyline when the whole city is without power. I think the fish were eating everything that day too, cause we smashed em that morning.

[Rich]

I was up north, no power, go figure. Didn't even know it happened.

[bucktail]

I was sitting in the control room of the Oakville Water Plant watching my sites go black as the power went out. Not a good feeling!

[kickingfrog]

I was sitting in the control room of the Oakville Water Plant watching my sites go black as the power went out. Not a good feeling!

 

Ya, that would have a fairly high pucker factor.