Seafarers who crew NY Waterway passenger ferries provided transportation for scores of commuters in the New York region during the Aug. 14 power failure which forced the evacuation of office buildings, stranded thousands of commuters and inundated some hospitals with people who fell victim to the oppressive heat. The outage—whose cause still is under investigation by the U.S. Department of Energy—struck abruptly at 4:11 p.m. ET and cut off electricity to millions of residents in New York City, Toronto, Ottawa, Detroit and Cleveland. Other affected cities included Buffalo, Albany and Syracuse, N.Y.; Hartford, Conn.; Lansing and many other smaller cities in Michigan; Akron and Toledo, Ohio and some counties in southeast Pennsylvania. It was the largest power failure in U.S. history and lasted upwards of 10 hours in some areas. An estimated 50 million people were without power during this period.
In the New York region, virtually every mode of transportation failed except for ferries and feet. Reports say traffic jams grew to dozens of miles long, bringing buses and even emergency vehicles to a standstill. Police and hordes of self-deputized citizens tried to control the streets with handmade stop and go signs. Subway and commuter trains were paralyzed on their tracks, some in tunnels. A Long Island Railroad Train reportedly was trapped beneath the East River for almost two hours with no air conditioning.
With no trains running, cabs marooned or practically nonexistent and buses moving only a few blocks an hour, people around the region tried to get home any way they could. Pedestrians for hours packed the Manhattan and Brooklyn Bridges as they streamed their way away from the island. Ferry lines, according to some reports, reached lengths of a third of a mile in lower Manhattan.
NY Waterway had 50 vessels in service immediately following the blackout. Captains and crews worked extended hours to accommodate as many commuters as possible. Despite the fact that many would-be passengers waited in line for more than two hours—a result of sheer volume —NY Waterway vessels and crews still got the job done. In the end, 200,000 people were ferried off the island, 40,000 more than the company accommodated during September 11.
SIU Capt. Tom Colomara and his crew aboard the Bayonne provided transportation for some 4,000 people during his shift. A resident of Brooklyn, N.Y., Colomara has been a Seafarer for almost two years. “We worked from about 2 p.m. until midnight on the day of the blackout,” Colomara recalled. “We were all very busy and at times it was particularly demanding dealing with the passengers.
“It was very hot and most of them (the passengers) were nervous and scared because they did not know what was happening,” the captain continued. “I’m sure that many of them had flashbacks about 9/11 and that’s understandable considering the circumstances. I’m just glad that everything worked out in the end.
“Altogether, we made about 25 to 30 runs during our shift and we were filled to capacity on each run,” Colomara concluded. “Everyone (the crew) did a great job in getting as many people home safely as they could. I’m delighted with their efforts.”
Bob Capenegro, the SIU captain of the Lautenberg, worked his normal shift and then was called back in to man his vessel for an additional four hours on the day of the blackout. “It turned out to be a pretty exciting evening for myself and the crew,” said the SIU member of three years, who lives in Atlantic Highlands, N.J. “Normally, we provide transportation for about 1,100 people daily. On the day of the blackout though, that number more than doubled. I’d say that we ferried more than 2,000 people. When you consider that the capacity of my boat is 150 people, that’s quite a few runs.”
Capenegro echoed Colomara’s description of passengers’ moods. “Most of them were nervous because they didn’t know what caused the power failure. Many thought it was another terrorist attack at first, but after we told them that it was not, they felt relieved,” Capanegro said. “A lot of others were upset because they could not get out of the city when they wanted to. Many could not leave until 10 p.m. and they were pretty irate about that, but we did our best to calm their moods and get them home as soon as possible.”
“We are very proud of the job our captains and crews did in the aftermath of the blackout,” said Michael McPhillips, NY Waterway operations manager. “The performance and professionalism they exhibited during this episode was nothing less than spectacular. It was a true testament to their tremendous dedication and superb training.
“I really was not surprised at their performance,” concluded McPhillips, who himself is a former SIU deep-sea division member. “They always rise above the occasion.”
NY Waterway has the largest ferry and excursion fleet in NY Harbor. The company’s SIU-crewed vessels provide ferry service between Hoboken and Manhattan, seven days per week.
Elsewhere, the blackout had a minimal lasting impact on the SIU and it operations. SIU Vice President Atlantic Coast Joseph Soresi noted that the union’s hall in Brooklyn closed early the day after the outage, since it had no operable computers or phones and the city’s transportation system largely was crippled. All was back to normal on Monday, however.
SIU Vice President Great Lakes Tommy Orzechowski had a similar assessment of the power outage. Operations at the SIU hall in Algonac mostly were unaffected by the blackout. “Although the people in Detroit had a 24-hour outage, everyone remained calm and in control of the situation,” he said. “We did have a boil-water order in effect, but that was about it.”
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