Blackout Blog

Power is back up in Ithaca, NY.  Check this link for blackout coverage on the web.  Yesterday, our power cut out at 4:11 pm like many on the east coast.  I was in the middle of a work email and was irked, thinking it was a fuse blowing out.  We looked out and heard neighbors commenting about the whole area losing power.  Z heard someone mention something about New York City.  That’s when we got out our hand-crank shortwave radio and tuned into a station bringing live street reports from Manhattan.  We were immediately suspicious of terrorism, particularly having seen a recent PBS special that described how certain extremist groups had been attempting hacks on America’s infrastructure technology, some of which is actually online.  My first thought was of E and friends in NY, hoping they were close to home and each other.  I imagined all the the poor people caught in the subways and elevators.  And, of course, all the stranded commuters and folks from the outer burroughs.  Just two days ago, it could have been Z and I stranded there.  Watching the footage of the masses walking across the bridges, I had to again question and confront 1. my lifelong desire to live in New York City and 2. my fears of being trapped on the island on foot with 8 million other people.