Bruce's Journal

Bruce Slutsky was born in New York City in 1949. I retired six years ago after working as a Science/Engineering Librarian at the New Jersey Institute of Technology in Newark for 25 years. I was married to Karen until she passed away in February 2021. I have a son Lee who is now 35 years old. I am very much interested in the popular music of the 1960s, especially Bob Dylan and the Beatles. I am interested in rock and roll radio. I am an enthusiastic fan of the New York Mets.

Wednesday, August 14, 2013

Remembering the August 14, 2003 Blackout

It was 10 years ago today as I left NJIT at 4 PM as usual. I found out that the Newark Light Rail was not running, but thought it was just a local power outage. I walked toward Newark Penn Station and observed that the traffic lights were out. When I arrived at the train station we were informed that it was a blckout covering most of the eastern U.S.

I walked back to NJIT and went to the Public Safety office where they let me stay in a dormitory room. The power was restored in Newark at about 9 PM, but NYC was still out. I slept in the dorm until about 6 AM. I was able to find an open restaurant nearby to eat breakfast. I then walked back to the train station and was able to board the PATH train to NYC.

The NYC Subways were not running, but I was able to ride an express bus back home where I arrived at 10:30 AM. I was lucky to be able sleep in an NJIT dorm room since so many stranded commuters had to sleep on the sidewalks.