From Wikipedia:
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On this day 23 years ago there was a was a widespread power outage throughout parts of the Northeastern and Midwestern United States, and most parts of the Canadian province of Ontario on Thursday, August 14, 2003, beginning just after 4:10 p.m. EDT.

Most places restored power by midnight (within 7 hours), some as early as 6 p.m. on August 14 (within 2 hours), while the New York City Subway resumed limited services around 8 p.m. Full power was restored to New York City and parts of Toronto on August 16. [...] The outage affected an estimated 55 million people.
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Were you affected by this power outage? I was working at a photo lab at the time when the power went out. We had to manually get all of the film out of the machines and rinse them off at the other end, when it became clear the power wasn't coming back on soon, we closed early. We didn't have power either at home or at work the next morning, went for a drive and found a McDolands that did have power and got some breakfast. Power came back on for us in the early afternoon, so a little less than 24 hours in total.


Jay

... With great power comes a sizable electric bill

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On 14 Aug 2026, Warpslide said the following...

Were you affected by this power outage? I was working at a photo lab at the time when the power went out. We had to manually get all of the
film out of the machines and rinse them off at the other end, when it became clear the power wasn't coming back on soon, we closed early. We didn't have power either at home or at work the next morning, went for a drive and found a McDolands that did have power and got some breakfast. Power came back on for us in the early afternoon, so a little less than
24 hours in total.

Oh yea, I was affected.. I was at work, and when everything went black, we all walked outside and sat there.. After about an hour we found out that the entire east coast was out. We closed up and went home.. I sat in front of my house that night till about 11pm then went to bed. The lights came back on during the night sometime..


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I am curious as to what the birth rate spike was nine months later. I was living in central IL and Saint Louis at the time but I don't remember much from that time frame (I was a bit wild back then so much is a blur).

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Re: 2003 Blackout
By: Warpslide to All on Fri Aug 14 2026 03:02 pm

Howdy,

Were you affected by this power outage? I was working at a photo lab at the time when the power went out. We had to manually get all of the film out of the machines and rinse them off at the other end, when it became clear the power wasn't coming back on soon, we closed early. We didn't have power either at home or at work the next morning, went for a drive and found a McDolands that did have power and got some breakfast. Power came back on for us in the early afternoon, so a little less than 24 hours in total.

So being on the other side of the planet, no, but we had our own major utility outage:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1998_Esso_Longford_fire

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On 25 September 1998 a catastrophic fire occurred at the Esso natural gas plant in Longford, Victoria, Australia.[1] A pressure vessel ruptured resulting in a serious jet fire, which escalated to a conflagration extending to a large part of the plant. Fires lasted two days before they were finally extinguished.

Two workers were killed and eight others injured.[1] Natural gas supply to the state of Victoria was severely disrupted and was not fully restored until 14 October.
-+-

For most of us in Victoria, natural gas (not what you guys put in your cars :), is used to heat our homes, hot water and some use it for cooking.

While September is Spring, I remember it being particularly cold that year. No hot water, meant no showers and since I had gas cooking, it was take away every day. What was worse, when they restored the natural gas, we were on staged turn on, and because of my house number and suburb, I couldnt turn it on until 9th Oct (a Friday) - which was 2 full weeks.

I turned it on, re-lit the hot water heater (stored hot water) and went to work. Came home to find the hot water heater had disintegrated, had been gushing water all day, and it took me until Monday before I could get a new one installed. Argh!


...ëîåï
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On 14 Aug 2026, Brashrooster said the following...

I am curious as to what the birth rate spike was nine months later. I
was living in central IL and Saint Louis at the time but I don't
remember much from that time frame (I was a bit wild back then so much
is a blur).

LOL not as high as I think it was 66 but I am sure it was high! LOL


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I am curious as to what the birth rate spike was nine months later. I was living in central IL and Saint Louis at the time but I don't remember much from that time frame (I was a bit wild back then so much is a blur).

I was living in Kentucky and don't think it got this far south or east. May not have affected St. Louis either then. I wonder also about the birth rate. :D


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For most of us in Victoria, natural gas (not what you guys put in your cars :), is used to heat our homes, hot water and some use it for cooking.

Same here. ;)

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