4:11 p-m on Monday August 14, marked the exact minute 20 years ago that the lights went out for 50-million people in Ontario and the northeastern U-S.

The system supervisor in the control room overseeing Ontario’s electrical grid says at first, just four alarms popped up on his computer screen, then 30-thousand more.

Todd Parcey and his team were on a bank of six phones for about 20 hours straight, trading off in shifts of four hours, to get the grid back on track.

For many in the GTA is was a time of neighbours barbecuing together and sharing fridge clean-out meals by candlelight, and ordinary citizens trying to keep the city moving.

In Ontario, the blackout caused a net loss of almost 19-million work hours.