I woke up, still on my air mattress, but I was unsure of where I was floating. Initially, what woke me up was a boat going by, and the wake of the boat rocking me back and forth. I realized that I had floated across the lake, 2 entire islands away from Oak Island (The name of our island). It turned out I was very near to a resort called DACKS, and since the thought of paddling back all that way, against the current wasn’t quite a pleasant one, I decided to use the payphone at DACKS to see if my mom might come to get me. Just my luck, Nobody was home.
I arrived back at home around 8:30 PM, after an hour and half of paddling through the choppy water, and let me tell you, my arms were sore. There was a note on the table that said my parents had gone out for dinner to the Muskoka Lakes Golf Club, and that they wouldn’t be back until about midnight. It was then that I realized we had no power when I tried to make myself some dinner and the microwave wouldn’t turn on. I became very confused, not knowing why the power was out, so I jumped in the boat and went over to Rock haven (our family cottage, where my aunt was staying at the time) to see what was going on. It turns out while I was floating around in the lake, under the beautiful hot sun; the entire world was in chaos. My aunt filled me in on what had happened. A blackout, spreading across the entire continent. Initially, I was shocked. To me the scariest part of the entire day was the boat ride back to Oak Island. I never realized how vital the very dull lights from on land cottages was for guiding your way around on a dark lake. I felt lost in a sea of black, and had to drive extremely carefully in order to get back in one piece.
The blackout wiped out major cities power including New York City, Ohio, Montreal and Toronto. It was caused by an overuse of energy. One of the major reasons the blackout occurred on what was one of the hottest days of the year was the fact that most people, along with using normal amounts of energy for appliances and household needs, were also using extra energy to cool their homes by way of air conditioning.
It is obvious that our population is quickly increasing, and with that our basic utilities, such as hydro, should also be increasing, however, companies who supply this basic need have fallen behind. I believe it is the governments responsibility to ensure that these needs are met, meaning they should have either expanded these companies, enabling them to produce more energy, or they should have, at the very least, warned the public of the possibility of over-use. Instead, what they have decided to do is increase the price of hydro, in order to pay for new facilities that can create energy. This is ineffective because in the amount of time they are using to obtain the finances to build such facilities, they are putting off construction of new facilities, endangering both Canadian and American cities, citizens and economies. It is definitely time for the government to invest some time and money into Canada’s utilities, if they neglect to do so, there could be even more trouble just around the corner.
