We didn't freak here, but traffic suckked balls. Our gas stove worked fne and just turned on the headlights and opened the front blinds. oddly, i was right on the border of the power oputage. The closest grocery store had power so we just bought cold beer there, a little food for diner, and left our fridge closed incase it took a while to come back on. did put a bag of ice in the top of the fridge for extra care. other wise candles lit the bathroom and bed rooms. Scared the chit out of me at 3 am when everything in the house suddenly powered up. TV, bathroom fan, several rooms with lights..etc.. i jumped out of bed quick. lol
and just to add why people "freaked out". We have traffic as a normal day to day. When you take a major 4 lane thuroughfare, meets another of the same, at a freeway off ramp, you have issues if those are being treated as 4-way stops. There were cars overheating, or running out of gas all over the place. If you ran out of gas in the middle of a balcked out area, you could not buy any, so you were stuck. The grocery stores would not sell you food, because theur computers were down. So it was not just about matches and candles. the north end of the black out was a conjuntction of freewya called the "El Toro Y" where over 300,000 cars are expected each afternoon. just sayin
