Twenty years ago, on August 14, this area went through the great North American Blackout of 2003. That was an experience unmatched by any other in the two decades since then. An extensive power outage disarmed electricity grids all over Ontario and the eastern U.S. leaving more than 50 million people across 24,000 square kilometres without power.

The blackout affected eight U.S. states and most of Ontario including Toronto, Ottawa, Kingston, Sudbury, Kitchener, London and Windsor. Around 100 electrical plants, including 22 nuclear power plants, shut down leaving more than 50 million people over roughly 24,000 square kilometres without power for varied lengths of time, some up to four days.

For some areas the blackout only lasted several hours, but for many there was no electricity for much longer. In fact a state of emergency went into effect until August 22.

In and around Kingsville though, the power was out for two or three days. I remember sweating (literally) about how to feed our five kids and keep them from overheating. I remember a man who ran a grocery store making sure that people with small children had milk and bread, even as much of the food in his store spoiled.

I hated the blackout, make no mistake about it. But I also remember some moments that were pretty special.

My husband and I went to bed hours earlier than normal just because — hey, it’s dark, no lights, no TV, no music … We understood now why back in the days before electricity that people would go to bed when the sun went down.

Our teenage kids and their friends, though, stayed up much later, and sat outside where it was a bit cooler late at night.

We could hear them talking and laughing out on the lawn, through our bedroom window. We had to smile as they marveled at the abundance of stars in the night sky. They had never seen a sky like that before.

As magical as that was, I hope to never see a sky like that again, unless it is by choice, and preferably at a cottage somewhere. I’d rather that our beautiful nights skies come to us naturally rather than by another massive power outage. Because that time without electricity was a hard slog.

The general reaction when the power came back on was enormous relief, an intense desire to get back to normal in as many ways as possible, as quickly as possible. And that feeling that we should be better prepared that we’ve all had after a power outage just got a whole lot stronger.

It was time to start giving more serious thought to what we needed to do to be prepared for an emergency in future.

ELK Energy Inc. advises that you keep 72 hours worth of supplies on hand.  ELK has compiled a checklist with lots of suggestions and recommendations in Your Emergency Preparedness Guide. 

ELK invites you to use this checklist to build your kit.

What do you remember about the Blackout of 2003?

Image by FMedic_photography from Pixabay