The first warning was when my noisy fan got quieter. It slowed, then restarted before I could turn around, and then stopped. I turned around, thinking I’d have to get a new one. Then I turned back and noticed that my computer had gone dead.
Once we’d ascertained that it wasn’t just the building (I thankfully had just replaced the batteries in my Walkman), I stocked up with some items from the emergency bag our firm distributed after 9/11 and walked down the stairs. All 53 floors’ worth. Descending 53 flights of stairs in 10 minutes is not the ideal form of “first exercise in ages,” and my quads are making sure it won’t be repeated anytime soon.
After reaching ground level, I rested for a few minutes (is it raining inside? Oh, that’s just perspiration) and then started off for the Upper East Side, where my friend is the assistant rabbi of a prominent synagogue. I figured he would allow me to crash at his place if I couldn’t escape Manhattan.
Once I reached the Upper East Side, I found a synagogue congregant with a working cellphone (I will not be a Sprint customer much longer) and finally reached Mrs. Manhattan, who confirmed that the express bus lines to my neighborhood were still running. As a stop was around the corner, I walked there and waited for a bus. And waited. (The buses that came were filled beyond circus-clown capacity).
After two hours, there were six of us going to the same neighborhood who were tired of waiting. We finally got a livery cab to stop and made him an offer he couldn’t refuse. So I got home a little after 10:00 PM. Not too bad, all things considered.
When I first heard about the reach of the blackout, I was convinced it was terrorism. While that doesn’t appear to be the case, it was true that the atmosphere was suffused with the spirit of 9/11 – a combination of dread and industriousness. Walking from Grand Central, I immediately saw many pedestrians volunteering to direct traffic (click here for a first-hand story). I waited on the street until after 9:30 P.M., much later than I had originally intended to wait on the darkened streets. And while there was – at least initially – dread about whether or not the blackout was an act of terrorism, there was no fear of the streets. Much different than the last big NY blackout in 1977.