Blackout - Adrian Ruano

On Thursday, September 8th, 3:40 PM, more than 1.4 million people were left without power. Having experienced a power outage before, I thought it would last at most an hour. My Mom had just finished cooking dinner for our family before the electricity had gone out. It was a sigh of relief for all of us. While I still had power on my phone, I rushed online to check if there was any information on the outage. When I had read there wasn't an estimated time when the power was to be recovered, I became precautious and finished my homework before the sunset. Around 6 PM, my Mom and brother's phone had already been on very low battery. We were struggling to find vital necessities around the house such as flashlights and candles to light. Around 8 PM, my Mom took action and took my brother and I to my grandparents house. On the drive there, we noticed many neighbors walking on the sidewalks with their dogs and flashlights at hand. We arrived at my grandparents' house and had stayed there for a while to listen to the radio and any information we could gather. My grandpa had given us some candles and more flashlights to take home with us. We went back to the house and we had just decided to fall asleep hoping that the electricity would be back when we woke up.

During this experience, I had realized that electricity is something in which we all highly depend on. Without electricty, we wouldn't have things such as internet access, TV, and more. It was a taste of what it was like years ago when children relied on outside activities for enjoyment rather than just watching TV. It was also a reality check in which I realized that I needed to be more prepared for a situation like a power outage.