An earthquake. A Black Bloc smashing spree. A power failure. What's next, a plague of frogs?
When the lights went out and the air conditioning went off at 4:42 p.m., it was a reminder of how utterly dependent a big city is on electricity, truly the lifeblood of our frenetic modern way of life. For a while on Monday afternoon, things simply came to a stop. People poured out of darkened cinemas, spilled out of stuffy office towers and, with elevators gone dead, walked down flights and flights of stairs to the streets.
Of course, it had to happen at rush hour on the hottest day of the year, just when people craved their AC most. In fact, though the root cause of the fire that caused outage was still unclear last night, it was hard not to wonder whether it happened because it was rush hour on the hottest day of the year, a time when high electricity demand puts extra stress on the power grid.
Gaia's punishment for our power-sucking lifestyle? "Only guessing cause, but maybe tomorrow a bit less AC plz," commented Mayor David Miller on Twitter. Air conditioning is a marvel, no doubt, especially in a city prone to gusts of hot, sodden air from our neighbours to the south. But how did we get so thoroughly, even pathetically reliant on it? It was only a generation ago that central air was all but unknown in households. You drew the blinds, slept beside a fan or watched TV in the basement. Somehow, we all survived.
It was hard not to wonder, as well, what would have happened if the juice failed during the G20 last week, when dozens of world leaders and statesmen were gathered in their hermetically sealed, air-conditioned meeting rooms. Cities across Canada are vulnerable to such events, which often stem from decades of underinvestment in the basic sinews of urban life: sewers, water mains, bridges and power facilities. One recent study estimated that Canadian cities needed $123-billion simply to keep their crumbling infrastructure functioning at its most basic level.
A power failure in a big-city heat wave can be a dangerous thing. Around 30,000 people died in the great European heat wave of 2003, many of them isolated elderly people. In the 1995 Chicago heat wave, author Eric Klinenberg reminded CBC viewers, more than 700 people perished, double the figure for the great fire of 1871. Toronto opened seven special cooling centres on Monday to help avoid just such a disaster.
But if the nature of modern life makes cities vulnerable to any break in electrical supply, modern communication helps them to cope. Mayor Miller issued minute by minute updates on progress in restoring power. Toronto police issued a bulletin asking those who leaped to direct traffic at intersections with malfunctioning lights to please desist (too dangerous; protocol is just to treat the intersection as a four-way stop instead). When subway service got going again, the TTC posted an alert telling riders "all clear" - the delays on the Bloor Danforth Line and at Union Station were over.
All in all, the city took the outage in stride. Many restaurants and bars stayed open throughout. The Queen and the Prime Minister delivered talks at the Royal York as planned. By around 8:30 p.m., things were getting back to normal. "Lights are back on at CBC building," one jokester from the Mother Corp. wrote in a tweet. "Perhaps I was premature in eating two of my co-workers."