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| New York, 1965 Blackout |
The blackouts that came in the
wake of tropical storm Sandy left millions of people without electricity. These
blackouts reminded Americans once again about how dependent they are on the
current that runs silently into their homes, offices, and factories. As
recently as 1965, when a major blackout shrouded the entire Northeastern United
States in darkness, it was easier to cope with the crisis. Many typewriters
were still manual, and the New York Times
still had enough of them to write up the news and get it out the next day in a
special edition that was printed in New Jersey, where the power remained
on. Back in 1965 important
information was not stored on hard disks, and computers still had magnetic
tapes. Then, the effects were most dire for travelers caught in airports, in
subway tunnels, or on the high floors of buildings.
In 2012 computers are embedded in billions of devices, all of which require electricity. Even those that run on
batteries need to be recharged after a short time. Some New Yorkers who
have electricity proved willing to share it with complete strangers, letting
them charge their cell phones, computers, and other devices, often for free.
This generosity was not an isolated phenomenon, but is characteristic of what
happens in a blackout. Generosity and helpfulness seem to break out on all sides. Unfortunately, journalists often miss htis side of blackouts, because they are looking for danger, death and destruction.
Widespread power failures only
became possible after the development of regional grids of electrical service
in the late 1930s and 1940s. As society increased its dependence on
electricity, blackouts presented ever-greater problems, especially in
hospitals, like that at NYU in 2012, when backup generators failed, and all the
patients had to be moved elsewhere through the flooded streets of New York.
Doctors and nurses gave selflessly to help their patients, for example by
operating equipment manually, when this was possible, until it could be plugged
in again. In the streets themselves many restaurants grilled neat and gave it
away to passersby, most of whom could not cook in their dark apartments,
rather than let the meat rot in rapidly thawing freezers.
As in 1965 and almost every other
blackout, people talked to neighbors they hardly knew and helped total
strangers. Blackout are a break in time, a semi-magical moment when the clocks
literally stop and ordinary life cannot go on, when people discover a common
humanity too often obscured by the demanding pace of contemporary life. When the Lights Went Out (MIT, 2010)
explores the experience of blackouts, beginning with their World War II
military necessity, including a wide range of reactions, ranging from
exuberance and playfulness to riot, arson, and looting.
Yet most commonly, Americans have
responded to blackouts by reaching out and helping one another. When thrust
outside their cocoon of electrical conveniences and communications, they
discover how much they share. In 1965, a woman returned home to her apartment
near Union Square and found all the neighbors gathering in the only flat with a
gas stove. Neighbors who had seldom spoken brought to one another out choice
items from their suddenly dead refrigerators for an impromptu party and
established friendships that persisted for decades.
To its surprise, the Office of Civil Defense found that
fear was not a widespread reaction to the 1965 blackout and that when fear was the first response it did not
prove contagious. The investigators were surprised, because "projection of
one's own fear on others is a fairly well-known phenomenon which has been
experimentally induced." Instead, it found a "contagion of joy."
