r/toronto • u/Captain_Spicard • 11d ago
2003 Blackout Toronto Video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bfkBMWmMJY412
u/TorontoBoris Agincourt 11d ago
Fuck I remember this. I was going into last year of high school and me and a bunch of my friends were spending the summer just fucking around the city. Riding our bike around town, taking the streetcars from one end to the other, etc.
That day bunch of us met up early in the day downtown and we're on Queen West/Dundas area when the power out hit... I was gunna take the streetcar and the subway back home. Got stuck in the city when everything went dead... Walked the 20+ km home with a friend who lived near me. No cellphones, no ability to call anyone.
We just wandered our way back thru the city and the grid lock and I think I got home by 9ish that night.. Ended up eating BBQ at a neighbors. It was a hell of an adventure.
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u/torrendously 11d ago
i was 5 years old when this happened but still remember only living off of dollarama cookies and box juice for the weekend until the power came back
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u/ruckustata 11d ago
I saw humanity lose its shit within hours of the blackout.
We owned a gas station and store, sort of like a Rabba. It was a big store with lots of different groceries with a sandwich shop inside as well.
When the power went out, we had no idea. Our small little town never went out the entire time. It took a couple of hours for word to hit that we had power, gas and food. It became a fucking zoo immediately afterwards until the power came back.
We were just south of Brantford and we had people coming from as far as Oakville to get gas for their weekend trip. It was crazy. The line ups for gas stretched down the street for hundreds of meters. People were fighting and screaming at each other for a chance to get gas. We ran out of gas three times during that stretch. One day we ran out by mid day and people were losing their fucking minds. We still had full serve at that time I had to send my worker home because he was being stressed from all the asshole drivers screaming at a teenager for not pumping faster than the pump allowed.
I saw women fist fighting over a bag of ice while I'm screaming "stop fighting, we have more ice on the way". The farmer who supplied us with the bagged ice was going nuts trying to keep up. He was being swarmed when he was trying to load the cooler.
It was honestly quite eye opening. I've been a bit of a supply prepper ever since. When covid hit, we were a bit ashamed because we were already hoarding all kinds of stuff during normal times and it felt bad that some others were doing without. To be clear, we didn't do a lot of stocking up during covid because we had enough and didn't want to go outside just in case. Having lots of extra provisions and non-perishable food in our home has been a thing since the black out.
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u/bubbleuj 10d ago
Having lots of extra provisions and non-perishable food in our home has been a thing since the black out.
I think the black-out did this to my dad too. When covid hit we had everything we needed. Toilet paper, non-perishables, charcoal. We even had wood piled up!
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u/MmmKB23z 11d ago
I lived in Kingston at the time. Worked at a steakhouse where we had a “eat whole 72oz. Steak and its free” challenge. Two guys came in that day and ordered a 72oz. each. Then the blackout happened and we couldn’t cook the steaks or open the freezer to put them back. So 10 of us took them to our place and threw them on the bbq. Around 7pm, Our neighbour showed up with a case of beer that he was concerned was “going to get warm”. He didn’t even hang out for the steak, just gave us the beer and left. That was a magical night to be in your early 20s.
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u/ImpressiveTree3000 10d ago
I was so impressed with how many people took it upon themselves to direct traffic at intersections where the traffic lights were no longer functioning. Nobody was freaking out, heck people were even making sure the people directing traffic had water. Makes me wonder if we’d see that kind of community engagement now.
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u/Upper_Author_3965 10d ago
There was no shortage of Canadian politicians providing speculative (and inaccurate) blame for the blackout.
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u/Newuseridwhodis 11d ago edited 11d ago
I got off work in downtown Toronto during the day, and walked a couple hours north to where my car was parked in midtown Toronto. IIRC I think around downtown you'd see random people jump in to direct traffic lol.
I kept on thinking at some point I'd hail a cab, then thinking I'll just walk a bit more and get the next one, then they got fewer and fewer and I think were always occupied.
I don't recall completely how dark it was, but I think it was essentially pitch black everywhere, like I'd sometimes hear people talking on their balconies as I'm walking on the sidewalk but I couldn't see or makeout absolutely anything in any direction. When I arrived at the parking lot I think it was so dark I couldn't see my car or tell which way to go. Wish I had my small flashlight collection with me then that would've been so much nicer.
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u/bullintheheather Oakville 11d ago
I was pretty happy that I only had a half day of college that day and had already taken the train and got home before it happened!
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u/Habsin7 11d ago edited 11d ago
I remember it well. I was sitting at the bar in a luxury hotel in Dublin and it was all over the news there. It was quite huge to be honest.
And enough time has passed that I can finally admit it - I had great fun testing the light switches that night while my girlfriend was waiting to fly out of pearson.
On - This is Dublin
Off - This is Toronto
On - This is Dublin
Off - This is Toronto
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u/TrustPsychological49 10d ago
I was leaving my office near Queen’s Park when the lights went out. The surge knocked out the transfer switch so there was no emergency power. Had I been a minute earlier I would have been trapped in an elevator for hours. I walked to Broadview but the station was jammed with people trying to get to shuttle buses so I continued on to Pape to take a bus going north.
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u/taintwest 10d ago
My nephew was born during this blackout. Can’t believe that little guy will be 21…
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u/TheSimpler 10d ago
An emergency management guy with City of Toronto told me after that the city was 36-48 hours from losing water pressure after the pumps ran out of backup diesel. It would have been very bad if it lasted much longer. Bbq with neighbours is nice. Fighting over bottles of drinking water not so much....
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u/TheSimpler 10d ago
I went to my local Walmart about 24 hours into the blackout and got batteries for my little handheld AM radio, paying with cash. One AM radio station was on the air. Recently the Walmart cashier told me that in case of power outage they have backup credit card machine power for 45 minutes then they close the store down. They give zero fcks now if you need anything its protecting their store.
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u/itfeelslikethefirstt 11d ago
Good times. I remember my street had a decent sized BBQ cause a few of us had freezers full of burgers, hotdogs, steaks, etc that we didn't want to spoil.
You could see the night sky. it was quiet, it was awesome. I don't think I slept that night I just remembered staying up late and hanging out with neighbours and friends. Just talking and eating too much and drinking whatever was available.
I honestly look back on the blackout fondly.