Topic: Today is the 45th anniversary of...

[Antares]

the Great Northeast Blackout

On this day in 1965, New York and parts of seven neighboring states and eastern Canada lost electricity in the biggest power failure in U.S. history. A 230-kilovolt transmission line near Ontario was tripped that afternoon and caused a power surge that resulted in the failure of the entire Northeastern transmission network. The blackout began during rush hour, trapping 800,000 people in New York's subway and thousands more in office building elevators. Power was restored by the next morning.


I was 5 years old when this happened. My family lived in Massachusetts and I remember having to eat dinner by candlelight that night.

[Critter]

Geez, I wouldn't want to be stuck in an elevator overnight. Not a great set up if you all needed to use the bathroom.

[Kathy]

Geez, I wouldn't want to be stuck in an elevator overnight. Not a great set up if you all needed to use the bathroom.

I never use elevators...this give me one more good reason not to!

[hal9g]

I was 14 and lived in Connecticut at the time.

All I remember is that the birth rate skyrocketed nine months after this event!  

[Antares]

All I remember is that the birth rate skyrocketed nine months after this event!  

This is now considered an urban myth...

From Wikipedia...The myth of the blackout baby boom

A thriving urban legend arose in the wake of the Northeast Blackout of 1965, in which it is told that a peak in the birthrate of the blackout areas was observed nine months after the incident. The origin of the myth [1] is a series of three articles published in August 1966 in the New York Times, in which interviewed doctors told that they had noticed an increased number of births.

The story was debunked in 1970 by J. Richard Udry, a demographer from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, who did a careful statistical study that found no increase in the birthrate of the affected areas.

[hal9g]

All I remember is that the birth rate skyrocketed nine months after this event!  

This is now considered an urban myth...

From Wikipedia...The myth of the blackout baby boom

A thriving urban legend arose in the wake of the Northeast Blackout of 1965, in which it is told that a peak in the birthrate of the blackout areas was observed nine months after the incident. The origin of the myth [1] is a series of three articles published in August 1966 in the New York Times, in which interviewed doctors told that they had noticed an increased number of births.

The story was debunked in 1970 by J. Richard Udry, a demographer from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, who did a careful statistical study that found no increase in the birthrate of the affected areas.

Just have to spoil a good story, huh?   

[Blair]

Birth rates are always skyrocketing... even when there aren't disasters happening!

Granted things have changed quite a bit since the 60s, and admittedly I wouldn't want to be stuck somewhere suddenly except for at home, but it still amazes me how badly so many people in the United States (and I assume many other large populations in the world) freak out just because of the loss of power for a day. So many people freak out at the idea of not having their technology to keep them company.

I remember when an ice storm hit in my area (as well as many others down the line) in 1994 and my father kept flipping light switches forgetting that the power was out    We lost power and phones for two weeks, I think, while some out-of-the-way areas lost power and/or phones for over a month. We simply had to sit around and talk to each other, sit by the fire to stay warm, heat up water via fire to take a bath, and go out bundled up into the cold (which really wasn't that cold) to play. It was no big deal, but I remember many of the younger kids going nuts because they "didn't have anything to do".... and I didn't even live in a city nearly the size of New York.

[Dragonfire]

Geez, I wouldn't want to be stuck in an elevator overnight. Not a great set up if you all needed to use the bathroom.

I never use elevators...this give me one more good reason not to!

Geeze..how I have one more reason to be freaked by elevators.  I've been afraid of getting stuck in one for years - I've seen too many movies I think..  Anyway, now I have to worry about that and having to go to the bathroom too.  All the more reason to avoid them...and tall buildings.

[Critter]

Geez, I wouldn't want to be stuck in an elevator overnight. Not a great set up if you all needed to use the bathroom.

I never use elevators...this give me one more good reason not to!

Geeze..how I have one more reason to be freaked by elevators.  I've been afraid of getting stuck in one for years - I've seen too many movies I think..  Anyway, now I have to worry about that and having to go to the bathroom too.  All the more reason to avoid them...and tall buildings.

I avoid Elevators like the plague (in Australia they are called lifts). That's for an obvious reason though, as I have stated here once before I have been stuck in lifts on three separate occaisions. It's enough to turn anyone off them. I now try and take the stairs whenever possible.

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

the Great Northeast Blackout

The blackout began during rush hour, trapping 800,000 people in New York's subway and thousands more in office building elevators.

Not to forget the 250 that got trapped on escalators. 

[Blair]

 

There is a series here called "The Smoking Gun Presents: World's Dumbest..." and each episode has a theme: dumbest partiers, dumbest drivers, dumbest competitions, etc.

I don't remember the theme, but apparently this woman has left something at the top and didn't realize it until she was about 4 steps from the bottom of what was about a 30 to 40 step escalator. So what does she do? She turns around and begins walking up to go get whatever the item was. Now, without any other info you could always reason that maybe this is something she does somewhat regularly for nothing more than exercise, replacing a stair stepper at home (I've seen it done a few times). What made this obviously not the case where the dozens of people she was having to squeeze around or get out of her way... and in the 30 seconds or so of clip she wasn't even an inch higher than when she started