2002 Blackout

The heatwave is putting some serious stress on the New York City grid.

All of the East Village, Union Square and Gramercy Park, including Peter-Cooper and Stuyvesant Town, have been browned out. We just had someone from the administration knock on our doors to alert us that there may indeed be a blackout in our area.

I live two blocks away from the 14th Street ConEdison plant. I just saw a note posted next to our elevators that MetLife is shutting down one elevator in all their buildings and are denying people access to the laundry rooms in order to limit energy consumption within their properties.

I would not mind if this meant that we'd need to go up and down the stairs. Unfortunately, we live on a 12th floor.

If brownouts and blackouts only meant disruptions in electricity, I would not have a problem. I mean, I have a gas stove. The fridge, as long as it's closed, can ride out a few days of no wattage.

The problem we have in New York City is that brownouts and blackouts also mean potential water supply disruption. I learned this in 2002 during the blackout. I was out at a playground relatively close to Avenue D and from there we heard the boom and saw the plume of steam that signaled when the turbines screeched to a halt during during the blackout. We ran home and found almost a dozen elderly neighbors waiting to be helped up to their apartments. Since ours is the last floor, we helped them all. Once up, one of my next door neighbors and a native New Yorker commanded me to immediately fill up every pot and pan available as well as the tub. "In two more ours, the water will be off too." And what do you know, she was right.

So here are Liza's to-do's during a brown/blackout :