Thursday the 14th 4:10pm. Lisa plans to leave the office…Whoopsies…hydro gets cut off. Hmm why’re the lights in the elevator going out? Lucky me, I was only stuck in there for about a minute before the power generator kicks in. Driving home, traffic lights are all out…for a moment, I had a short glimpse of what anarchy would be like. No one was treating the intersections as 4-way stops. Gas station pumps weren’t working. Everything is electrical. Eerie to be driving around and none of the traffic lights are working. At night, looking out into the neighbourhood and seeing pitch black. The only lights would be coming from the occasional car that drove by.
The number one thing I realized was how dependent we’ve become on electricity. No internet, no tv. I had to listen to my 10 year walkman on CFRB 1010 am radio to get updates on what was happening with the blackout. How very archaic. Power in my house wasn’t restored until the next day at 1pm. But there were some really unlucky people that didn’t get power until the Saturday!
My dad and I went to pick up Jaipo to take her to Uncle Andrew’s house for a bit of relief (a/c). Her bachelor apartment was like an oven. (No fans!) The gas station at Don Mills at Steeles had a queue of cars from both entrances. Somehow they had the power restored…but at the same intersection, the traffic lights weren’t working. There was a civilian directing traffic in the blazing sun. This kind man had a cane!
It was amazing that after these few days without electricity, I drive around now and notice how many people/businesses waste power. Stores that are closed have billboard-sized lit signs. Totally unnecessary. Even myself, I’ve come to realize how many times I’ve turned on lights in my house needlessly. Someone suggested on the radio that the price of hydro should be raised. It would be the quickest way for the general public to reduce the amount of hydro that they consumed.
Poor Toronto. Losing so much money this summer. No CNE until tomorrow. Fireworks! Gotta check those out..
