My office is in midtown Manhattan. When we lost power, I called my husband who was on the other side of town and immediately knew this was a big deal when he said he lost power too. We made an arrangement that he would walk to my office and meet out front. We both went to the bathroom in the pitch black while leaving our phones off the hook because we were afraid we would lose our connection. Someone in my office was collecting batteries for his radio, and I gave him the batteries from my pencil sharpener and we got a report. We were astounded to hear how far spread the power outage was. I walked down the stairs in my building from the 15th floor with a lot of other people, some of whom had small flashlights, so it felt quite safe. There was a mass of humanity in front of my building and in the streets of New York, but my husband found me. Laypeople were helping the police by directing traffic.
My husband and I walked to Brooklyn over the Brooklyn Bridge. My shoes were not the most comforable, but compared to others, they weren't bad. I saw women walking to Brooklyn in high heels, which must have been painful. We were caught in "pedlock" on the Bridge, but it did move, and we made it home by about 7 pm or so. My husband, forever the nerd, actually had 2 flashlights with him so we were able to make up the stairs to our apartment and see our way. It wasn't until I got home that it occurred to me that I didn't know what happened to my secretary, who lives in NJ. Also, several of the attorneys live in Westchester. My thinking was rather unfocused, and I am still feeling rather odd. My husband had a short-wave radio that was battery-operated and we were able to listen to all the reports, which was very comforting.
We ate hot dogs by candlelight, took cool showers by candlelight, and went to sleep. When we woke this morning I was chagrined to see that the power was still out, and determined that I would stay in bed until it came back in order to stay cool. Fortunately everything came back at around 9 am.
I'm very glad to have the A/C again, but my diet is totally thrown off. I'm eating bread because it's the only unspoiled thing, but I'm not supposed to and I'm not sure the refridgerator is really working. I think we may need a new one. I feel kind of thrown off and out of control sitting here drinking my warm water. :-( And we were the very lucky ones.
-Nancy
Do any of you live in the power outage affected areas? Around 4:15 PM Eastern while I was at work, the power kept flickering on and off. Of course at this time of day I am the only one left in the department (there are only 3 of us, nice huh?) I thought maybe there was a storm around, so I looked outside and nothing. On my way home, most of the traffic lights were out, arghh! I live in the southern tier of New York state. Luckily, when I got home our power was on and still is.
