Urban darkness

We lost power in my neighborhood for three days and three nights. This is what the street looks like in the dark, with just car headlights sweeping across or bearing down from the end of the avenue where there was power.



It is a weird thing to walk around in urban darkness. I thought it would be scary because, you know, you can't see. You hear something and see a dark person-shape but you have no idea what kind of person it is. But similarly, as a five-foot-three Asian girl, people can't tell that I'm a victim-waiting-to-happen. I could be a burly dude, you just can't tell. So I found that I actually feel pretty comfortable in the darkness, where people are just as wary of me as I am of them.

Blackout Aftermath...not talking about booze...

While the streets were filling with water, the power also went out. About 24 hours after losing electricity, the people in my neighborhood took to the streets and were banging pots, pans, buckets, iron balconies, and street signs. Then they started burning trash in the middle of the intersection, which was empty because police were diverting traffic to streets with light.



It was so surreal. The burning trash smelled fantastic! But it was totally a party atmosphere. There were kids and families and everyone was just...you know...pounding casserole pans. In fact, my roommate told me they call these kinds of "demonstrations" "cacerolas."