BLACKOUT BLOG

While we power up and restore our servers after Thursday's Northeast power outages, this Weblog will be your link to blackout coverage on the Internet.

5:21 p.m.
All hail the Internet. It still works!

5:07 p.m. Eastern
NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg just chastised Con Edison for giving him overly-optimistic estimates on when power would return. Bad move, Mayor Mike.

5:04 p.m. Eastern
WCBS-TV says Thursday night was unusually busy for the fire department. Apparently, the 9-1-1 emergency phone system cut out a couple of times overnight. The FDNY is blaming Verizon.

5 p.m. Eastern
A grinning Gov. Jim McGreevey is on WCBS-TV in front of Hoboken Terminal. He says...
-- 99 percent of customers have power
-- NJ Transit is on a Saturday schedule. Monday, all trains will be back to normal.
-- He's beating the drum for a new grid system ... No word on how cash strapped states, like Jersey, are gonna pay for this, but it's a good soundbyte.
-- He's hoping we have a nice quiet weekend at the Jersey Shore ... Amen to that.

4:40 p.m. Eastern
The Star-Ledger is online! Well, sort of. NJ.com Editor-in-chief Dean Betz has blogged an abbreviated version of The Star-Ledger stories.

4:30 p.m. Eastern
Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz is on TV telling eveyrone in the borough to come out and barbecue tonight rather than letting that meat spoil in the 'fridge... "Let's make this the biggest block party in borough history,," says he.

4:15 p.m. Eastern
CNN is wise to the fact that NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg's flagging approval ratings could get a short in the arm if he comes out of this crisis looking Giuliani-esque. You know that ain't gonna happen.

4:13 p.m. Eastern
Brooklyn freelancer and blogger Amy says her cat seems to have been rendered mute in the wake of the blackout.

4:11 p.m. Eastern
To celebrate 24 hours since the start of the blackout, take a look at some nice photos in the NYC blog, The Gothamist

4:02 p.m. Eastern
The wife calls to say that the teeming crowds in our local Costco rival those of any Saturday afternoon.

3:41 p.m. Eastern
An entertaining travelogue from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette about two western Pennsylvania guys whose pilgrimage to New York to see Broadway shows was short circuited by the blackout.

3:34 p.m. Eastern
The Canadians say don't blame us, according to The Washington Post.

3:31 p.m. Eastern
CNN is showing video of theater fans in New York queing up at TKTS, the outlet for discounted Broadway tickets in Times Square. I guess the shows will go on.

3 p.m. Eastern
What's the over-under on the time it will take radio talker Sean Hannity to blame the Northeast blackout on Bill Clinton?

2:55 p.m. Eastern
LIPA and Keyspan, Long Island's two big power providers, are having a hard time keeping the electricity on that they'd restored earlier today, Newsday reports.

2:50 p.m. Eastern
New York Daily News columnist Mike Lupica on what we all thought right after the lights went out: Is this terrorism?

2:33 p.m. Eastern
CNN just started reporting other news besides the blackout, War on Terror stuff.

2:33 p.m. Eastern
CNN just started reporting other news besides the blackout, War on Terror stuff.

2:28 p.m. Eastern
The Akron Beacon-Journal reports that a rolling blackout hit Cleveland today at about 11:30. The event was done on purpose by FirstEnergy in order to stabilize the electrical system.

More reporting on the Lake Erie Loop, where the blackout may have begun ...
[snip]The chief suspect is the electrical transmission lines that circle Lake Erie and Lake Ontario connecting Detroit, Toledo, Cleveland, Buffalo and Toronto.[/snip]

2:25 p.m. Eastern
Supplies of water and gasoline are headed for Michigan, according to the Detroit Free Press. Oh, and tonight's Kiss, Aerosmith and Ted Nugent show at Comerica Park in Detroit is cancelled.

2:07 p.m. Eastern
If the blackout has got you thinking, 'I gotta be less reliant on electricity,' maybe you want to look into Luddism. Luddites are skeptical about new technology and basically aren't into electricity (Now watch me get all kinds of angry e-mails from Luddites ... wait, can Luddites send e-mails)?

1:50 p.m. Eastern
I think WCBS-TV in New York just stopped doing all-blackout-all-the-time coverage ... 'As The World Turns' is on the air!

1:30 p.m. Eastern
If the blackout has you thinking 'I gotta buy a generator,' Sears has plenty

1:16 p.m. Eastern
The Mets will play tonight's game vs. the Rockies at Shea Stadium.

1:15 p.m. Eastern
I don't know about you, but I'm going through Zoom Cam withdrawl.

1:13 p.m. Eastern
This electrical catastrophe missed California, but SFGate.com wonders if the Golden State could go dark as well.

1:09 p.m. Eastern
Kudos to Modell's. Today the Eastern sports equipment retailer handed out 2,000 pairs of free sneakers to New Yorkers, foot-weary from walking all over town.

1:05 p.m. Eastern
The world reacts to the blackout ...
[snip]In Nairobi, some residents were far from sympathetic, saying Americans were receiving a taste of what it was like to live in the world's poorer countries.

"America, welcome to Kenya, see what we go through," said Alex Mwaura, a logistics officer with an aid agency in Nairobi.

"I'm happy -- let them experience how bushmen live without power, even for just one minute," added Emma Nzau, a 28-year-old receptionist. "Americans are so used to electricity, they should be like the Chinese and ride bicycles to work."[/snip]

1 p.m. Eastern
First New York TV mention of the phrase ... "the worst is over."

12:25 p.m. Eastern
If you never heard about The Lake Erie Loop, you'll be hearing all about it in the coming days. It's apparently a troublesome section of transmission lines in the Midwest which became Ground Zero for the blackout, according to CNN.com.

12:09 p.m. Eastern
Sports Update: I called The Meadowlands and as of now, tonight's Carolina vs. Giants preseason game at Giants Stadium will be played. Apparently the Panthers made it to town for the game, but their hotel had no A/C.

MLB.com remembers the blackout of '77 with the Mets and Yankees.

High Noon Eastern
The Philadelphia Inquirer reports on why the City of Brotherly Love and points south were not hit by the blackout ...
[snip]Working inside [PJM Interconnections of Valley Forge, Pa] nondescript building in an office park, technicians fed reserve power into the grid to smooth out irregularities caused by the surge - keeping the region's lights on. PJM, which operates around the clock, brought in an extra shift of technicians to help out.

It was the kind of moment PJM's technicians practice for, Harris said: "Coordination is rehearsed and drilled several times a year."

By last evening, PJM was sending a modest amount of its reserve power to New York's system, with more available once New York and others cities were capable of handling it.[/snip]

11:55 a.m. Eastern
The jackhammer serenade has begun here on the perpetually under-construction streets outside Advance Internet World Headquarters in Jersey City, NJ. Sounds like just another day.

11:50 a.m. Eastern
Sick of blackout news? Try Jim Romenesko's Obscurestore site.

11:29 a.m. Eastern
Finger-Pointing Department: Two years ago, The North American Electric Reliability Council told the feds that the nation's electrical grid would crash, according to a report on WashingtonPost.com ...
[snip]"The nation is at . . . a crisis stage with respect to reliability of transmission grids." [the report said] It calculated that $56 billion was needed to upgrade the nation's grids, but only $35 billion was likely to be invested. For two years, the Bush administration and leaders of congressional energy committee have called for new legislation to help expand the transmission system, but a major energy bill has yet to get through Congress.[/snip]

11:25 a.m. Eastern
The share price for the Southern Peru Copper Company hit a 52-week high today. Coincidence? Copper goes in wiring and wiring goes into rewiring and big blackouts are cause for miles and miles of rewiring. Just connecting the dots for you.

11:18 a.m. Eastern
New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, who was our energy secretary under President Bill Clinton, yesterday described the United States as a superpower with a third world electricity grid. Ouch babe!

11:18 a.m. Eastern
Bill Richardson, who was our energy secretary under President Bill Clinton, today described the United States as a superpower with a third world electricity grid. Ouch babe!

11:07 a.m. Eastern
Direct from jolly-old England, the BBC's coverage of the Northeastern blackout ...

11:04 a.m. Eastern
Jersey blogger James of Parkway Rest Stop writes of the blackout ...
[snip] should note here that New Jersey has its priorities in order, as ALL the toll plazas on the Garden State Parkway had plenty of power (obviously from emergency generators) to guide motorists through the toll-collecting maze. The airport may have been closed, but EZ Pass was up and running. [/snip]

11:02 a.m. Eastern
Responding to the news that NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg advised all non-essential personnel to take the day off from work, ESPN radio's Tony Bruno quipped, "So does that mean the Mets won't be playing?" Haw!

11 a.m. Eastern
Check it out: The Iraqis have blackout advice ...

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - Iraqis who have suffered for months with little electricity gloated Friday over a blackout in the northeastern United States and southern Canada and offered some tips to help Americans beat the heat.

From frequent showers to rooftop slumber parties, Iraqis have developed advanced techniques to adapt to life without electricity.

Daily highs have soared above 120 degrees recently as Iraq's U.S. administrators have been unable to get power back to prewar levels. Some said it was poetic justice that some Americans should suffer the same fate, if only briefly.

"Let them taste what we have tasted," said Ali Abdul Hussein, selling "Keep Cold" brand ice chests on a sidewalk. "Let them sit outside drinking tea and smoking cigarettes waiting for the power to come back, just like the Iraqis."

Here are some tips from the streets of Baghdad:

-- SLEEP ON THE ROOF. Without power -- and hence without air conditioning -- Iraqis have taken to climbing up stairs in the hot nights. Some install metal bed frames on rooftops, while others simply stretch out on thin mattresses. "It's cooler there," said Hadia Zeydan Khalaf, 38.

-- SIT IN THE SHADE. Many Iraqis head outside when the power's off. "We sit in the shade," said George Ruweid, 27, playing cards with friends on the sidewalk. Of the U.S. blackout, he said: "I hope it lasts for 20 years. Let them feel our suffering."

-- HEAD FOR THE WATER. "We go to the river, just like in the old days," said Saleh Moayet, 53.

-- SHOWER FREQUENTLY. "I take showers all day," said Raed Ali, 33.

-- BUY BLOCKS OF ICE. Mohammed Abdul Zahara, 24, sells about 20 a day from a roadside table.

-- GET A GENERATOR. Abbas Abdul al-Amir, 53, has one of a long row of shops selling generators in Baghdad's Karadah shopping street. When the power goes out, sales go up, he said.

-- CALL IN THE IRAQIS. Some suggested the Americans ask the Iraqis how to get the power going again. "Let them take experts from Iraq," said Alaa Hussein, 32, waiting in a long line for gas because there was no electricity for the pumps. "Our experts have a lot of experience in these matters."

10:42 a.m. Eastern
Kudos to FedEx. We've already had a delivery this morning. As for the U.S. Mail, eh ...

WASHINGTON (AP) - People in areas affected by the Northeast and Midwest power blackout should expect delays in mail delivery and some deliveries may be missed.

Postal Service spokesman Mark Saunders said Friday the agency is experiencing particular problems moving the mail in the New York and Detroit metropolitan areas and mail may be slowed elsewhere also.

The Postal Service activated its command center Thursday night, he said, with staffers organizing alternate forms of transportation to move mail to and from the affected regions. The Washington-based center was continuing in operation Friday.

But delays are likely until power is restored, Saunders said.

10:38 a.m. Eastern
This Just In: The blackout did not effect the production of M&M candies!, according to a report on WNYC radio.

10:36 a.m. Eastern
Oxymoron of the Day: North American Electric Reliability Council ...

10 a.m. Eastern
Looks like the feds have an idea where the power outtage began, according to the Associated Press ... [snip}investigators said they believe the power disruptions began in northern Ohio. "That's where the information is starting to point," Ellen Vancko, a spokeswoman for the North American Electric Reliability Council, said in an interview. "It looks like that's where the collapse started."

9:24 a.m. Eastern
Jersey blogger Gigglechick's tale of blackout peril ...

9:10 a.m. Eastern
Niagara Mohawk, the Upstate New York electric company where the power outtage may have began, says it is restoring power.

9 a.m. Eastern
The first glimpse of power flickered on in New York's Times Square. The Irony: NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg has urged New Yorkers to conserve power lest we trigger another blackout, yet Times Square's signature neon signs shine unimpeded, advertising electronics and sucking volts.