Blackout on Sackett Street
Woke to lights fizzing in the house at 5:30 this morning, even though they were off. Outside the neighbors’ outside lights were flickering, and the streetlights too. (This is a brownstone Brooklyn neighborhood.) I’m going through the fuse box trying to figure out what’s going on (and why it’s snap-crackle-popping at me), when red lights start flashing outside. Five fire trucks in the street. They start going house to house checking for CO levels. Three or four houses get evacuated (it ain’t that cold outside, but it’s cold enough), but we’re lucky. Our CO level is zero.
Turns out the street salt fried the electric lines under the street. It’s back now (otherwise I wouldn’t be on the net.) Kind of spooky for a while there. I’ve lived through all three big NY blackouts (three other stories), and this one was both the weirdest (it took a while to figure out what was going on - at first I hoped aliens were landing in my backyard) and the easiest. No making candles out of jam jars and salad oil.
Nellie the Wonder Dog was scared to death, especially by the big men wearing helmets, raincoats, and carrying sticks who temporarily invaded the house.
I just went back to sleep.
