What Happens When the Power Fails
JULY 13, 1977, was a very hot and humid day in New York city. About 9:30 p.m. the concluding song was being sung at a Kingdom Hall, in the southeastern part of the borough of Brooklyn. Suddenly the lights went off, the air-conditioning system stopped functioning and the emergency lights flashed on.
“It’s a power failure,” said the elder presiding at the time. “This is a hot night with many air conditioners and fans going. There’s nothing to worry about. The emergency lights will enable you to see enough to pick up your belongings and leave the hall.”
Living in a comparatively quiet residential section of Brooklyn, those in attendance were not particularly disturbed by what had happened. After the meeting was dismissed with prayer, they engaged in brief, friendly conversations. Then a few decided to investigate outside. They were surprised to see that the surrounding blocks also had been plunged into darkness. But most of those in attendance thought that the power failure was local.
Arrangements were made for all at the hall to have transportation back to their homes. One car group, consisting of two married couples and a young man, had to drive seven miles (11 kilometers) across Brooklyn. Taking with them another member of the congregation, a woman living nearby, they were soon on their way. Not too many vehicles were on the streets, and the absence of traffic lights did not pose a great problem. After dropping the woman off at her home, they continued traveling on a busy thoroughfare on their way to the nearest expressway. At intersections traffic became snarled, and there seemed to be little hope of making any further progress. However, seeing the problem, some young men risked getting out of their cars and began directing traffic with flashlights. Because of their commendable efforts, many were able to reach the expressway without difficulty.
It was certainly a relief for the group of five to be homeward bound. Not having lived in New York city at the time of the last major blackout in 1965, the women began talking about how exciting it was to witness a power failure. But the young man added a sobering note: “It’s very dangerous. Think about the people that may be trapped in subways and elevators. I’m wondering about others who had meetings tonight. I sure hope everything is going all right for them.” As they drove onward, it became apparent that the whole city had been plunged into total darkness. Only here and there could one see lights in building complexes that had their own power supply.
Looters and the Police
But what was happening in the dark? Judging by what had taken place back on November 9, 1965, when New York city experienced such an extensive blackout, a person might have concluded that there would be little reason to worry about possible civil disorders. In fact, on that day in 1965 there were fewer arrests than for the same period at other times.
Wednesday, July 13, 1977, was different. It was a hot night and many people were in the streets. Especially was this so in the deteriorating parts of the city. What would they and others do under the cover of darkness—seize the opportunity to aid others or to help themselves to things that did not belong to them?
The answer came almost at once. One policeman was on his regular beat in southeastern Brooklyn when the police radio sounded the warning that a power failure was expected. Then came the blackout. In less than a minute, over the police radio he heard that looting had started.
That night the policemen often were overwhelmed by sheer numbers and could do little more than disperse crowds and recover a part of the loot. They were also in danger of being hit by bottles, rocks, bricks and sniper bullets. Happily, no policemen were killed, although hundreds of police were injured.
The looting did not stop with the approach of day. And while policemen were guarding stores that had been broken into, looters were selling items that they had stolen during the night.
An eyewitness to looting in Manhattan tells what he saw from an eleventh-story window: “The streets were swarming with people—men, women and children. It looked like a rally or a ball game. Stores were being broken into everywhere. One man with a car had a group of youngsters helping him load it with stolen goods. Others were piling up items on the sidewalks. Whenever a police car approached, the people would scatter. The most the police could do was to seize looted items that had been piled up on the sidewalk.”
From other areas the accounts were much the same. With the aid of chains, crowbars, brute strength and the power of cars, trucks or vans, looters pulled apart protective gates. Often windows were smashed with metal waste disposal containers taken from the sidewalks. Then the stores were invaded. Strangely, some looters viewed themselves as quite respectable. One woman from the Bronx commented: “You know, we weren’t animals up here. People took their turns climbing in through the broken glass, and nobody pushed or tried to get ahead.” However, at times looters fought over stolen items. Numerous stores, after being emptied of their contents, were set on fire.
An estimated 2,000 stores were looted. Total losses were initially thought to exceed one billion dollars. From one automobile showroom in the Bronx fifty cars valued at about $250,000 were stolen. Less than a day after the end of the blackout, thirty of these cars were found. All were damaged beyond repair. Often what the looters could not carry away they ruined. As a result of their rampage, parts of deteriorating neighborhoods began to look like areas devastated by war.
The police arrested fewer than 3,000 persons for looting. A sampling of 300 offenders revealed that 70 percent of them had been arrested before. But thousands of looters got away and shamelessly boasted about what they had taken. Among them were those who had good-paying jobs. Returning to work on Friday, one man proudly showed a fellow worker a long list of items that he had looted. In fact, he had stolen so much that he was talking about giving things to those who needed them. Summing up the attitude of many looters were the words of a youngster to a storekeeper who was viewing her demolished establishment: “It’s our Christmas.”
A Busy Time for Firemen
Arson, coupled with emergencies caused by the blackout, resulted in an exhausting work load for firemen. Typical of what happened is this brief account given by one of them:
“I went to work at midnight. A man afflicted with emphysema needed to have his aspirator powered by our generator. That task completed, we responded to a call in the Brownsville section of Brooklyn. Streets were so jammed with people that it looked like Times Square on New Year’s Eve. I thought we had been called to disperse the mob. But not so. A store was burning. I needed three tanks of air to go in and out of the building.
“By the time this fire was brought under control, two nearby six-story apartment houses were in flames. After helping to put out this fire, our truck was on its way to the station house. We had not even driven a quarter of the distance back when we were called to assist in fighting a rekindled fire. Five fire engines were already on the scene, and ours made the sixth. By now it was 6 a.m.
“Two hours later we responded to a call to help the same emphysema sufferer. We had our generator supply power for his aspirator. Thereafter the man was taken to a hospital.
“Once again we were on our way to Brownsville. The fire engines were organized into teams. All lined up in the street, ready to go to the scene of a fire. None of the engines making up these teams responded to false alarms.
“We went to put out a fire in a looted store on Broadway in Brooklyn. It was necessary to cut a hole in the floor to get into the cellar. After spending an hour and a half fighting this fire, we got back in line, waiting to drive to another one. At the scene of the next fire, the street was full of cartons from a burning warehouse, and people were wetting them down.
“Around 1 p.m. we found ourselves in front of another looted warehouse. This five-alarm fire was so intense that fifteen minutes later the walls collapsed and the structure burned to the ground. Because of the tremendous heat from the flames, four vacant buildings across the street caught on fire, as did other neighboring houses. Our twenty-one-hour tour of fire fighting was completed at this location.”
A Flurry of Activity at Hospitals
Hospitals near areas of extensive looting were kept busy attending to people with knife and bullet wounds as well as injuries from broken glass. One hospital in Brooklyn, where the emergency generator failed, set up surgical and emergency services outside. Two generators from the Fire Department supplied the current for high-intensity spotlights, which provided illumination for treating the wounds of what seemed like an endless stream of injured persons, mainly in their teens and twenties. In another hospital that lost its emergency power supply, doctors and nurses squeezed bags of air manually until electrically powered resuscitators operated again. Basically, the city’s hospital system continued to function well with auxiliary power-supply units.
What About Subways and Elevators?
By comparison with the looting and arson, problems resulting from subways that got stuck were relatively minor. Although between 175 and 200 trains were in operation at the time of the blackout, only seven were stranded for hours between stations. The credit for minimizing the problem of stuck trains goes to an experienced man at the command center. He noted electrical difficulties before the blackout and ordered all trains to go to the nearest station.
Among those passengers who were stranded was a woman who went into labor. She was first to be carried out of the train. Then the police helped the other passengers to get out. Reportedly there were no injuries; nor was there any panic in connection with efforts to empty this and other subway trains.
Some passengers waiting for subway trains did not even realize that there had been a power failure. Regarding his experience, one young man relates: “The moment the blackout occurred auxiliary lights simultaneously lit the station, making the dramatic happening barely noticeable to me. After waiting thirty minutes for a train, I finally realized that something was wrong and headed for the exit. The closer I got to the street, the more shouts and screams became audible. I saw policemen, flares, and people sharing the light of their candles. ‘Lightning blew out a power plant,’ a burly man, with a crew cut and wearing a T-shirt, yelled to one of many inquisitive passersby.”
The number of people who got stuck in elevators was surprisingly low. Often the rescue was effected in far less than an hour. Of course, some were trapped on high floors. Around 500 people were eating in the restaurant on the 107th floor of the World Trade Center when the blackout occurred. They completed dining by candlelight and were able to reach ground level on an emergency-powered service elevator. However, the thirty-five people on the observation deck of the Empire State Building did not fare quite so well. After receiving breakfast—with compliments of the building’s management—half of them took the stairs from the 86th floor and finally reached the ground. Those remaining waited until elevator service was restored Thursday afternoon.
Other Opportunists Come to Life
Looters were not the only opportunists. As restaurants were plunged into darkness, numerous diners rushed out without paying their bills. Many people caught in stores during the blackout became shoplifters, grabbing what they could within their reach. There also were persons who asked outrageous prices for common items. In one section of the borough of Queens, the fabulous price of $3 each was being asked for cold cans of beer and soda.
Bright Spots in the Darkness
However, by no means did all yield to the pressure to profit selfishly from the emergency. Told that she could profiteer by selling candles at a higher price, a storekeeper in the Brooklyn Heights area refused to hear of it. They were fifty cents before the power failure, and she continued selling them at that price.
Learning that five young men were going to the same area of Brooklyn from the Bronx, one woman volunteered to pay cab fare for everyone. This enabled all of them to get home safely.
Some persons even admitted that the emergency had brought out their better side. Three black and four Hispanic males worked together to open the door of an elevator that had stopped between floors. One of them was overheard saying: “All are friends now, but after we get these people out of the elevator we’ll start cursing and fighting again.”
When a 150-foot-high (45-meter-high) Ferris wheel at an amusement park stopped on account of the blackout, sixteen passersby pitched in to help. They pulled the giant wheel with their hands and thus made it possible for the riders to come down.
Men and women went to the police station houses, declaring their willingness to help to direct traffic, share in safety patrols and assist lost pedestrians. Other New Yorkers provided escort services.
In certain cases the power failure, which in some sections of the city lasted for twenty-five hours, brought individuals closer together. People would go out into the street and there talk with neighbors to whom they had not spoken in years. A couple whose divorce was to be finalized in three months came to New York for a “divorce party” and got stranded on the 38th floor of a hotel during the blackout. They ended up talking at length with each other. The result? They decided to save their marriage.
What Would You Have Done?
Truly, times of crisis can expose publicly just what is in people’s hearts. Said Time magazine of July 25, 1977: “Behaviorists generally believe that, given a similar combination of total darkness, blistering heat and simmering anger on the part of an underclass, much the same kind of riotous looting could erupt in almost any other city in the U.S.” Based on recent history, the same could certainly be said of many cities in other lands. This makes it appropriate to ask of others, What would you have done? Would you have looked out for the interests of other persons, responding to their needs? Or, would you have thought just about your own welfare and that of a few close acquaintances, perhaps rushing home without checking on what you might do to help out in the emergency? Worse still, would you have helped yourself to the possessions of others, without thinking about the hurt you were causing store owners and your neighbors who would be deprived of nearby shopping areas and would thus be forced to take public transportation to get daily necessities?
Actually, a crisis is not needed to reveal what you or your neighbors would have done in a similar situation. What the individual does from day to day indicates whether he is upright and honest or not. “The person faithful in what is least,” says the Bible, “is faithful also in much, and the person unrighteous in what is least is unrighteous also in much.” (Luke 16:10) Are you striving to be faithful in what is least so that your presence during an emergency will be a blessing and not a curse to others?