The phones work, the network is alive and cable telephony devices continue to operate. People pick up their phones, greeted by that familiar dial tone. They feel compelled to call a friend or neighbor, just to overcome the feeling of having been cut off from the rest of the world. In an hour or so, the traffic signals suddenly flash back to life. There will be more overtime for city workers as they begin the task of resetting the controls and synchronizing them.
Lights come back on in homes and offices as the local time of punishment ends.
Cheers and curses leave the lips of people as life begins to return to normal. They grab their phones to call the IT department and complain about their smoking monitors, which they forgot to shut down. And as they slowly recover, they shudder as they realize this may occur again and again. As the power shortage continues, another community or part of the electric grid is plunged into darkness and the process repeats itself. Consumers, elected officials and utilities wonder just how long this will continue.