Blackout!

Welcome to Miami's blackout of 2-26-08. On normal days, especially in hurricane season the power goes out and no one in Miami freaks out. Today, almost all of Miami lost its power! And unfortunately in the post 9/11 world, when the power goes out everywhere in your world simultaneously, its hard not to think, WHAT IF!

And then you start to think, maybe its not so far removed, with a city, actually one of the largest counties without power, what could happen. CNN actually reported that the power outages ran from Jacksonville to Miami and even impacted the west coast of Florida in Tampa, there were some 6.6 million people without power.

They evactuated my office building, men with flashlights came and told us we had to leave and they would assist us down the interior stairwells. The traffic lights weren't working, and the streets were full of honking cars, and gridlock prevailed.

It makes you realize, that we used to live such insulated lives, where we never ever contemplated that there was someone or something out there that would ever dream of threatening the good ole USA. And maybe we're paranoid, but when you realize they used Commercial Airplanes as bombs and flew them into the World Trade Center, its not hard to conceive that cities could be crippled with massive power outages and then who knows!

I for one, don't mind being a bit paranoid if it makes me more aware of my surroundings and a bit more cautious!