story and photo by
LEO E. LAURENCE, J.D.
Copyright © 2011 by
Leo L. Laurence for Zenger’s Newsmagazine • All rights reserved
While KOGO Radio
was broadcasting gloom and doom as total darkness enveloped San Diego on
September 8, people in Hillcrest took to the streets and were in a festive
mood, albeit totally unprepared for the reality of the potentially radical
lifestyle difficulties looming back in their darkened homes.
The famous
Georgia Street bridge over University Avenue just a block east of Park
Boulevard is usually deserted even on a bright sunny day, but certainly at
night.
But as the sun
slowly set in the west and it became obvious that we were soon going to have absolute,
total darkness in a few, short hours, the sidewalk on the bridge suddenly
became filled with people.
As it started to
get really dark, I saw only about a dozen candles burning in open windows
throughout the whole Uptown neighborhood, mostly in the apartments of seniors
in the two tall Grace Towers buildings that are landmarks at Park and
University. The red warning lights on top of the Grace Towers, put there so
planes flying into Lindbergh Field don’t hit the buildings, had their own power
source and stayed lit throughout the blackout.
I found three
guys last night on the Georgia Street bridge who had small, hand-held radios
tuned to KOGO AM radio, broadcasting continuously on the crisis – though
missing the festive mood of the public: a Marine, a little old lady and a
teenager, all well-informed on the developing emergency.
After the sun
set completely and neighborhoods were swallowed up by darkness, the sidewalk
along University Avenue in the Uptown District became crowed with people in a
festive mood.
“WOW, this is
historic. It’s wonderful,” said
Daniel, 32, of Hillcrest.
“It’s
great! You can actually see the
stars added John, 23. “I love it,” walking barefoot in the bright moonlight
wearing only shorts.
The festive mood
on the streets may be generational, as many in the Uptown District were largely
young people.
The sky was
totally clear and a brilliant three-quarter moon was high in the sky bright
enough to create strong shadows on the ground.
The very bright
moon meant that the thousands of people out walking didn’t even need flashlights
to get around outside, and few used them.
Looming inside
their darkened homes, however, was a tougher situation. Even if you were lucky
and had a candle, simple tasks like getting a glass of water were challenging.
The usual
rush-hour traffic along University Avenue never materialized.
KOGO AM Radio
did an amazing job of covering the blackout crisis. However, they largely focused
on the doom-and-gloom situations. They alarmed listeners by announcing that the
airport was shut down, as was the entire trolley system.
Traffic, they
claimed, was a nightmare as people were rushing out of downtown to get home and
were clogging the streets and freeways. But University Avenue in both Hillcrest
and North Park had only light traffic, even during the rush hours. The approach
road to the 163 freeway briefly gridlocked at the start of the blackout, but
the freeway itself was clear.
Power
Restored
Ironically, many
people seemed to be having so much fun in the blackout that there were audible
groans of disappointment when electrical power was restored and the festive
atmosphere on the streets abruptly came to an end.
“Oh, NO, the power is back on,”
complained one young man on the Georgia Street Bridge as lights suddenly came
on.
Literally within
five minutes after power was restored, the sidewalks were again deserted as people
rapidly returned to their homes.
The Gay bars in
the Uptown District closed during the crisis. But one straight bar, the Alibi at the corner of Vermont and University, somehow
stayed open and operated with candlelight, apparently serving warm drinks,
though the customers didn’t seem to mind. The blackout produced a party mood.
The Live Wire
bar on El Cajon Boulevard in North Park also stayed open and ran their refrigerators
and air conditioner from an outside generator. Next door, a pizza parlor,
apparently equipped with gas rather than electric ovens, continued to serve
customers on an outside patio and even supplied them hip-hop music, blasting
from a car stereo in a blue SUV parked on the street outside.
When power goes
out and traffic lights become inoperative, intersections function like four-way
stop signs. Drivers – what few were out there – were following those rules, apparently
largely out of courtesy.
Major
intersections like Park and University Avenues experienced no problems with the
flow of the unusually light traffic, and apparently no accidents were reported
in Hillcrest during the emergency. Downtown was a different story, according to
one observer. Drivers there seemed confused how to negotiate intersections
without streetlights, and there were a few near-collisions.
Be
Prepared!
While happy
people crowded the sidewalks in the darkness, with light only from headlights
of passing cars, many would face the reality that they were totally unprepared
for a major emergency and didn’t have candles or emergency flashlights to cope
with the darkness enveloping the rooms of their homes.
Simple things
like getting a glass of water meant finding your way with the help of a single
candle, if you were lucky and had one handy.
San Diego Gas
& Electric (SDG&E) initially was saying that it could be one to three
days before power was restored.
That could mean
something as simple as fresh food might rapidly become very scarce because
there would be no refrigeration. Canned goods were O.K., if you had a hand-operated, can opener.
Perhaps this
blackout alerted lots of us to check out emergency supplies and
preparedness. Are you ready to
survive for days without power or water, realistic possibilities with an 8.5
earthquake?
If it does hit
and the city loses power and water, many
of us are woefully unprepared and don’t even have flashlights handy. A
hand-operated (batteries burn out) AM-FM radio will keep you posted on
emergency situations.
Photo caption: Usually totally deserted at night, people in a
festive mood flocked to the famous Georgia Street bridge high over University
Avenue during the blackout; and were very disappointed when power was restored.
Time exposure taken seconds after lights came back on.
