Riding the Umbra

[bcholmes]

I managed to not be affected by the blackout that hit the west end of Toronto, although my office lost power over night, and I spent part of the morning ensuring that servers were alive and running.

I knew, before I left home this morning, that the subway wasn't running so I took the car in to work. I tend to avoid travelling at rush hour, so that worked out fine.

But what was interesting was coming home. My office had power by the time I got there, but as I left the building to come home, I noticed that just one block over was still almost-completely black. You could see candlelight in some of the windows, and you could hear a gasoline powered generator somewhere in the neighbourhood. But street lights were out, houses were dark. Even at 6:30 pm. Some places were without power for twenty hours (and might still be without power).

Then, as I was driving along College back to my place, I hit a spot where the south side of the street had power, but the north did not. It's so strange to see the city so dark.

I came home to an email from my MP, telling me that her office was open to anyone who wanted to come and warm up and have a cup of coffee.