The everyday impact of The Great Blackout of '03 (as New Yorkers are now calling the outage with a whiff of winsome nostalgia) was more irritating than calamitous.
Air-conditioners spluttered to a halt, so locals decamped to parks and balconies to wait for power to be restored. Mobile phone networks jammed as callers tried to contact loved ones, and streetside payphones were briefly popular again. Cash machines went offline and supermarkets sold perishables at below cost - two pints of Haagen-Dazs ice cream for the price of one or dollar deals on organic meats. Pizza parlours were packed because their coal-fired ovens operated even in the dark. And buildings lost water pressure, so some residents had to shower elsewhere. It was an oddly anti-climactic event - except, of course, in the buzzing hub of the city, Times Square.
Nowhere was the power failure more spectacular as the throbbing neon signs simultaneously stopped flashing. DJ Kendra Borowski, 24, was about to enter the Times Square subway when she heard a noise.
'The lights stopped all of a sudden,' she said. 'There was a 'pouff' and then I heard clank, clank, clank as the lights shut down like in a baseball stadium. Everything around me went dead.' There was little panic though. The tourists around her seemed confused rather than afraid and simply started hailing cabs. 'Of course, some guy on the corner started yelling about the end of the world,' she laughed.
For a moment, executive assistant Miriam Friedman agreed with him - she was in a high-rise elevator a few blocks away when the power died. She was stuck there for more than two hours. 'But it wasn't that hot, and thank God I had just gone to the bathroom,' she said. A dozen maintenance workers from the building formed a makeshift rescue team, and prised the doors open to haul her out. 'They lifted me up, these sweating wonderful heroes, and I gave each a hug,' Ms Friedman said. She's keen to see the men recognised for their efforts and is even writing to the mayor, Michael Bloomberg, to seek commendations for them.
She was able to walk the short distance home but it was a tougher journey for those travelling in or out of the city. Hundreds of trains were cancelled, marooning thousands of commuters. Subways were out of operation and most airlines cancelled or diverted services to the city.
