blackout

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OK...I'm on the computer right now cause I'm in Canada...just wondering how many of you (when you get your power back)where in the big blackout and what your experiences were.

 

I'm out of it, but I'm expecting my morning commute to be screwed up - just because they'll have an excuse!

 

I wasen't involved, but I was close. dman informed me right away and I got to watch it all evening

 

Blackout ? Did something major happen across the ocean ?
It is early morning here and I have not seen the news yet, so could please someone elaborate on this (if your pc il still working, that is... )

 

What happened was that part of the Northeastern power grid in the States shut down, cutting out the power in NYC, Canada, you name it. But, with me being in Texas and having my own power grid, I had no blackouts. They said that lightening stuck some station in Canada. They don't know for sure though.

 

Ahh, they're just trying to keep the public calm. In reality it was terrorists. Oh yes. WW3 is coming!

Hmm... been some time since I last spammed a dumb joke like that. Oh well, don't claim that it didn't cross people's mind in any case.

The news was fun to watch though, I saw it in real-time as it happened on BBC. Reminded me of what happened 2 years ago, in an exactly same sort of way. One accidental plane-crash into WTC, and live on the camera the second plane comes in, with the added realisation that this was no longer an accident. I do have to admit I was awaiting for the same sort of spectacle to happen with this blackout. Whatever the cause was, though, it must've cost billions for the US to lose all work capability for that day, including the security threats of course, not only on the street level.

 

Fortunately, the blackout occurred just after 4pm local time, which means that most of the current days regular-hours business was done. I think that the losses may be worse today as they're still trying to restore power in some places. Some 14.5 hours later, some people still may not have made it home from work yesterday yet. Lots of people will not be going to work today.

 

It's incredible that an area some 3,600sq miles can be covered by the same grid without a pucka back up plan?

They surely should have been able to shut off the affected part of the grid and circumvented it to restore power in the rest of the grid fairly quickly?

Oh well, you do things large over there, even power-cuts.

 

Viking, problems with the power grid are greatly magnified in summer, especially on a hot day like yesterday. Most stations are running at close to full capacity to accommodate the load from A/C, so if any one element of the grid goes down (from a generating plant to a substation to a transmission ine), the rest of it has to handle the difference very quickly and likely doesn't have the margin to do so. This is why the big baseline power plants never schedule regular maintenance or refueling in the summer.

The best theory I've heard for how it all started (and they think it was on the Canadian side of the Niagara substation) involves a case of Labatt's Blue, an electric fence, and some guy saying "Hey, watch this, eh?"

Besides, life is only imitating art. This was the season finale of "Law & Order" last year!

 

"They're looting the Food King! They're looting the Food King!!!"

 

It's getting hot in here.

I often tend to forget that the US is a southern country with continental climate. I can't even stand the heat here, no, me, I couldn't in the heat there.

Blame Canada !

 

I work in a hydroelectric dam (is written right?)in Argentina, I heard about the blackout and how happened, the case is that the way centrals work, in this case, it was impossible to prevent, because the demand of power... let's see, how do I put it... ok, there are 5 power plants to sustain a net, in some point one of then has a major failure (that's what happened in this case) but, when the other tried to back up they also need some for themselves, so is like a chain reaction, the point is that because of the heat the people uses too much power, making a big demand of power from power plants.
Sorry for my poor english, I'm from Argentina.
I hope you could understand even just a little about what happend... and, it wasn't a terrorist thing, I know this because where I work we are connected with all major power plants in the world and when something happens we are the first to know what happened, in this case, a lightning struck a transformer making explode causing a chain reaction.

 

Well, this summer has been quite straining a little bit all over the northern hemisphere. I hope you folks in the states will soon be able to use electricity again as before

 

It's skynet, shutting down our power, to unleash the terminators on our unsuspecting civilisation!!!!

Sorry, I saw T3 the other day. Fine looking robots...

 

Well, thankfully I'm on a grid that is pretty good, except when the local construction crews dig up a line.
My favorite part about this blackout, was getting to watch Connan O'Brien last night. The studio had enough backup power to run the sound and cameras, but they had to rely on flashlights for light. There were no audience, no guests, none of the crew dressed up, and best of all...no monologue! It was so funny! But unfortunately they decided to go to a rerun shortly after Connan explained what was going on. It wasn't that bad either, I didn't mind looking at Jerri Ryan for a second time on the show.
Anyway, I hope all the folks that were left in the dark last night are safe and everything is fine now.

 

I was in the office at 4:15 PM yesterday when the power went out. I was without power until 5:15 AM and then it went out again at 10:30 AM. Power came back at 1:45 PM but we are expecting rolling blackouts if demand is too high. As a result, no air conditioning and we are supposed to ration water as some of the pumping stations do not have enough power. The premier has asked all but essential service workers to stay home from work. The lines at gas stations and donut shops are huge and the traffic signals are having sporadic problems.

Amazing how the mayor of New York City can come out and and say the problem started in Canada and then a couple hours later the Governor of New York is saying the problem started around Clevland. Of course our idiot politicians are no better, I think they have blamed three different U.S. cities so far.

I am supposed to fly to go to England tonight and my flight is still showing as being expected to leave on time so I guess I will have to cross my fingers and hope it works out. Otherwise goodbye vacation.

 

Ironic footnote: Considering the constant problems with electricity and blackouts in the US (like regularly in california) Iraqis wonder what benefit it would be when the americans really bring their expertise to Iraq to restore power lines there.

It is illuminating that Cheney's secret energy commission focused on from where overseas to get resources from while not wasting a single thought on power distribution at home. Investing the daily cost of the Iraqi invasion into domestic development might have been ... a good idea?!

No real US bashing, just my bewildered moring rant.

 

Along time ago in a land far away (from New York anyway) a old college professor was trying to teach a group of fellow students and I how to calculate the current-carrying capacity of power transmission lines. He was talking about the possible problems of underestimating the capacity when his eyes misted over and he started relating a sinister tale about lightning strikes and New York power stations. He revealed his Elder Geek status by giving us a full, half an hour long, blow by blow account of what had happened just for the fun of it.

My associated notes from that day have the title ‘It was a dark and stormy night…’ above a staid list of current-carrying capacity formulas.

I didn’t know it then, but he had been describing the New York Power failure of July 13 1977, which has been committed to the Lore of World-wide Electrical, Emergency Response Management and Conspiracy Theory Geekdoms. This particular event even got a Geek mention in the movie Men In Black. If you remember the destructive little silver ping-pong ball J released in the space-port.

K:
‘This thing caused the 1977 New York blackout.
A Practical joke by The Great Attractor.
He thought it was funny.’

J:
‘Sorry y’all, it was ha hass-cident.’

All the theories that you are currently hearing as to what happened to cause the recent New York blackout are just the sounds that a Geek Myth makes as it sucks life into its limbs and stomps its way into Global history, which is a hell of a feat for a few blown fuses. Yerril is on the right track with his skynet comment.

By the way those men in dark suits and dark sun glasses charging about during the blackout had simply been evacuated from a Blues Brothers convention; and those lights in the sky were simply the moon’s rays being refracted though the mists on Venus, or something, damn, where’s my flashy thing?


On a side note, I think that evacuating people from a hotel all night simply because of a power black out sucks. A two dollar torch would have allowed them to get into their rooms and go to bed, especially with the emergency lighting staying on for at least three hours. As a result of having a litigious society, everyone is afraid to bend the rules, even in an emergency when common sense and trust are needed the most.

Friendly Arm Inn owner:
‘You can’t come in.’

Adventurer:
‘Why not?’

Friendly Arm Inn owner:
‘The electricity is off and you might hurt yourself, or damage something. My insurance won’t cover that.’

Adventurer:
‘What is electricity?’


Geeks only - blackout.gmu.edu/archive/pdf/ny_state_77.pdf

 

Doesn't that lore hold also that nine months later, there was shortage in hospital beds, because of all those little babies born ?