Major power outages reported in New York City, other parts of Northeast!!

[Memnoch]

My sister's in New York for a week and had to walk all the way from 34th St down to Battery Park and then up 33 flights of stairs with just a flashlight at about 7pm...it wasn't pleasant, apparently. [img]graemlins/wow.gif[/img]

She's catching a flight to Florida tomorrow - are the airports open yet?

[Memnoch]

This is pretty poor actually - one fire at an Ontario power plant and the entire East Coast goes dark?? Is there no backup or contingency plan? [img]graemlins/wow.gif[/img]

[WillowIX]

Originally posted by Memnoch: This is pretty poor actually - one fire at an Ontario power plant and the entire East Coast goes dark?? Is there no backup or contingency plan? [img]graemlins/wow.gif[/img]

Actually that's just a rumor so far Memsy. It appears no one knows where the dang fire originated. And the politicians are too busy putting the blame on eachother. What a bunch of 5 year olds! Anywho, it was a very quiet night here in Toronto. I was expecting to have an old nighter but nothing happened. I heard some youths having a party a few blocks down but that's all. [img]smile.gif[/img] And from what I've heard nothing serious have happened elsewhere either. [img]graemlins/thumbsup.gif[/img]

[Cloudbringer]

I've only seen that one person died in the city and a firefighter was injured responding to an emergency, so far. There are alot of people stuck on the street this morning (evacuated from subways and elevators etc) who are glad the sun's up! Apparently power is being restored to small sections of the city now and most of the towns around mine are back on, although the news reports that about half of the state is still without power.

Mems, I have NO doubt it was a very unpleasant experience for her! Driving out to get Jim and then getting home yesterday was pretty bad for me, can't imagine having to walk across the city like that! BTW, I heard that some stores cashed in on the emergency down there by selling little tiny 3 dollar flashlights for 17 after the subway was evacuated. Sheesh!

[Ziroc]

Iraqis Offer Tips Over U.S. Blackout (pllluuuueeaasssseee)

By NIKO PRICE
The Associated Press
Friday, August 15, 2003; 9:32 AM


BAGHDAD, Iraq - Iraqis who have suffered for months with little electricity gloated Friday over a blackout in the northeastern United States and southern Canada and offered some tips to help Americans beat the heat.


From frequent showers to rooftop slumber parties, Iraqis have developed advanced techniques to adapt to life without electricity.

Daily highs have soared above 120 degrees recently as Iraq's U.S. administrators have been unable to get power back to prewar levels. Some said it was poetic justice that some Americans should suffer the same fate, if only briefly.

"Let them taste what we have tasted," said Ali Abdul Hussein, selling "Keep Cold" brand ice chests on a sidewalk. "Let them sit outside drinking tea and smoking cigarettes waiting for the power to come back, just like the Iraqis."

Here are some tips from the streets of Baghdad:

- SLEEP ON THE ROOF. Without power - and hence without air conditioning - Iraqis have taken to climbing up stairs in the hot nights. Some install metal bed frames on rooftops, while others simply stretch out on thin mattresses. "It's cooler there," said Hadia Zeydan Khalaf, 38.

- SIT IN THE SHADE. Many Iraqis head outside when the power's off. "We sit in the shade," said George Ruweid, 27, playing cards with friends on the sidewalk. Of the U.S. blackout, he said: "I hope it lasts for 20 years. Let them feel our suffering."

- HEAD FOR THE WATER. "We go to the river, just like in the old days," said Saleh Moayet, 53.

- SHOWER FREQUENTLY. "I take showers all day," said Raed Ali, 33.

- BUY BLOCKS OF ICE. Mohammed Abdul Zahara, 24, sells about 20 a day from a roadside table.

- GET A GENERATOR. Abbas Abdul al-Amir, 53, has one of a long row of shops selling generators in Baghdad's Karadah shopping street. When the power goes out, sales go up, he said.

- CALL IN THE IRAQIS. Some suggested the Americans ask the Iraqis how to get the power going again. "Let them take experts from Iraq," said Alaa Hussein, 32, waiting in a long line for gas because there was no electricity for the pumps. "Our experts have a lot of experience in these matters."

[AzRaeL StoRmBlaDe]

I'm in Cleveland and let me tell you that stuff sucked. We have power now, but Last night we were just pacing around with nothing better to do. And right when we got madden 2004 too. It was terrible. There were no street lights, it took me 45 minutes to complete a 3 minute drive after work. It was funny them issuing warnings to avoid alcohol and stuff, because everyone just got drunk because there was nothing to do. It was really quite a weird thing to be a apart of.

[Timber Loftis]

Superpower with the 3rd World Grid.

[Seraph]

This is pretty poor actually - one fire at an Ontario power plant and the entire East Coast goes dark?? Is there no backup or contingency plan?

So you feel it would be better for the plants to try to keep the grid running and suffer dammage that would keep them out of action for weeks? The grid does a very good job at what its supposed to do, that is keeping the power plans from getting power spikes, or sudden surges in demand, which can dammage generators and cause blackouts that will last a lot longer then the 9 or 10 hour blackouts that most people had.

Timber Loftis: Given the fact that the same thing happened in the 60s I don't think you can call it a new problem and then blame it on de-regulation.

[AzRaeL StoRmBlaDe]

Here is what I can't bend my mind around. There are 2 power plants within 20 miles of here. a coal burning plant, CEI, and Perry nuclear power plant. because some breaker went down in Canada I don't have power? That sounds like the single most assinine thing I have ever heard of.

[Timber Loftis]

Originally posted by Seraph: Timber Loftis: Given the fact that the same thing happened in the 60s I don't think you can call it a new problem and then blame it on de-regulation.

Sure you can. In a de-regulated (which we will analgize to free market, even though they truly are still heavily regulated -- "de-regulation" means "less regulation" and "privatization") system, no one has incentive to build the power lines. You can pump out all the power you want, but line load is a bottleneck. No one adds new lines, as that will benefit their competitors as well as them. Our problem is not so much the number of power plants, as it is the transmission of the power they pump.

So, there should be economic incentives to update the power lines. Theories: (1) require new plants to build lines, or (2) establish the lines as a separately-owned utility, and allow companies to own the lines and sell transmission over the lines to the Utilities. No utility corps or subsidiaries should be allowed to participate, or at the very least they should not be allowed to give unfair discounts to their sister corporations.

Big problem is that NE and SE power companies don't want their power getting siphoned off to California, so they don't want the connections built. If CA could easily get KY's power, then Kentucky Utilities (one of the nation's cheapest for years) would see prices rise, pissing of the KY customers.

[ 08-15-2003, 11:32 AM: Message edited by: Timber Loftis ]