2003 Blackout: lessons Learned

Article: In 2003, there was a surprise blackout across much of northeast America and Canada, shutting down the power grid. The immediate concern was people stranded in elevators in skyscrapers and underground in the subways. Everyone was told to get home however they can. In New York, people walked miles home or hitched rides with "good Samaritans." Random people took on the job of manning intersections, acting as traffic lights, and directing traffic. It took 29 hours for the power to get back on. 11 ppl died and cost $6 billion dollars in losses. It's now thought that the blackout was caused by an undetected and overworked power line, which hit a tree; this put too much pressure on other power lines and eventually led to a power grid shutdown.

Personal take: This blackout occurred 3 days after I got married, while I was living in NY. We were supposed to have a "shevah brachot" that night at a friend's apartment. Instead, we walked home from work (miles away) and the shevah brachot became a candles-only BBQ on the rooftop of a friend's apartment building. The city was eerily black that night and everyone, surprisingly, was really helpful to each other.

Discussion:

• What is a power grid? (Look outside and find one; note the wires connecting grid to grid)
• What does it mean to be a good Samaritan? How are ways one can be a good Samaritan in a crisis?
• Who is responsible for the blackout crisis? (The power co that didn't tree trim the trees around the original power line, though they weren't fined until years later)
• What can we learn from the blackout? (They now try to have government accountability for power companie.s) We still don't know why the power grid was so powerful. Now we try to stop blackouts before they start by monitoring the systems.