Ottawans reminisce about the 2003 blackout 20 years to the day

It's been two decades since Ottawa experienced its largest blackout on Aug. 14, 2003. The massive power outage, stretching from Ontario to Illinois, left the capital in darkness.

The memories of Ottawa's blackout remain vivid. Airports shut down, traffic lights stopped working, and homes were without power until the following day.

Patrick Martin directs traffic at a busy Ottawa intersection in this August 14, 2003 file photo. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jonathan Hayward

Catherine Beaudet remembers the day as if it was yesterday.

"It was an experience. It felt like we were camping half the time," she said."We had the barbecue out; grilling, flipping burgers, whatever we could find that could fit on the barbecue," says Beaudet. "We were bringing out the fondue sets, the ones that weren’t electric, just to be able to boil some water for coffee or make some soup."

However, Beaudet says the blackout was not without challenges.

"Everything that was in the fridge. That was total loss."

Approximately 50 million people were affected by the blackout, reaching as far as New York and Chicago. An investigation revealed that the outage originated from a power plant failure in Ohio.

• IN PICTURES: A look back at the 2003 North American blackout

Todd Parcey, Operations Manager at the Independent Electricity System Operator, was a systems supervisor at the time.

"It was pretty phenomenal what we pulled off 20 years ago on this day."

Parcey oversaw Ontario's electrical grid and was in the control room as the system shut down.

"It was very intense. The adrenaline was running pretty high. I finished probably around 12:30 or one o'clock in the morning when I left. We restored 18,000 kilometers worth of transmission by midnight."

Despite the difficulties caused by the blackout, many hold positive memories.

"We had a group of friends over and we basically barbecued everything in our freezer," said Ottawa resident Shelly Lyonnais.

Denise Ralph, who also experienced the blackout, says, "I was pregnant and we had no AC so we actually went to Quebec for the night because they had power and we got a hotel room over there."

While power was lost across a large swath of the province, some viewed the blackout as a return to simpler times.

"Everybody was on the street, everybody was chatting with everybody, everyone's talking, everyone brought chairs out in the community," says Ottawa resident Mark Malkowski. "It was kind of good because it brought down technology and it brought down internet and brought down phones and stuff. So it was like we were back into the 1920s or 1950s where people were actually talking to each other and not talking to stuff."

For Beaudet, the blackout offered a unique opportunity to connect with the night sky.

"Seeing the Milky Way and those stars just streaking by, punctuating it, it was unearthly." 

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Lights brighten up the skyline in Ottawa Sunday, August 17, 2003 following a weekend of rolling blackouts in the wake of Thursdays massive power outage with shut down the electricty in the nations capital. (CP PHOTO/Jonathan Hayward)