I have friends who survived both the NYC blackouts and the 2003 as well (I survived that, being in Michigan) and after the generators stopped, people started getting weird. Of course, 18 years later, there's Asian Carp, invasive ocean life coming in from the St. Lawrence Seaway, rising water levels in the Great Lakes while river levels are dropping. By 2060, the Mississippi River will carry a quarter of the water it used to, same with the Ohio and Missouri. The future isn't looking too good.