Several years ago during one of those big regional black outs that hit the Northeast, I remember one of my good friends got stuck in an apartment elevator in Philly for hours and hours in the dark. He had to be set free by the fire department eventually. The elevator was stuck in between floors and I guess jumping out of the elevator once the doors were open was really freaky. He said the rescuers said something like "try not to stumble backwards when you land"... because if he did he'd have gone into the exposed elevator shaft!
Yikes!