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

[Timber Loftis]

Originally posted by 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.

There are several power plants in NYC, too. Your local plants are having their load siphoned by the entire grid. Power travels from then onto the grid before it ever gets funnelled to you.

But, isn't that the way it ought to be? That way, you are not reliant on only your local plants, and you will have power (theoretically) if they lose power. Of course, when the whole system is stressed, you have the problem you're experiencing. If there were not "traffic jams" that forced the system into system shock and shutdown, you would never completely power down (except for local storms damaging lines, etc).

[quietman1920]

Well, while walking down 40 flights of stairs wasn't fun, at least I didn't have to do the mad 'hotel room scramble' like a lot of people I know did. Grilled food on the propane grill, ate it by candle light with red wine.

I also regretted greatly ever making fun of these people:




http://store.yahoo.com/special-offers/light2.html

[AzRaeL StoRmBlaDe]

I just have a really hard time believing that no one ever imagined that something like this could happen, but then again maybe I am just steamed from sitting in a dark room staring at a wall for hours last night.

[ 08-15-2003, 12:25 PM: Message edited by: AzRaeL StoRmBlaDe ]

[Memnoch]

Originally posted by AzRaeL StoRmBlaDe: I just have a really hard time believing that no one ever imagined that something like this could happen, but then again maybe I am just steamed from sitting in a dark room staring at a wall for hours last night.

It's funny how we can take things for granted until we lose them, eh. Whenever I visit my cousins in the Philippines I'm always surprised at how they can live with blackouts/brownouts - it's been going on in some places of the Philippines for over a decade now. Just not enough power to go around for everyone. [img]graemlins/wow.gif[/img] People learn to work around it - they've gotten used to it, while I wasn't. I wasn't used to not having hot running water either.

[Memnoch]

Originally posted by Seraph: quote: 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.
[/QUOTE]Of course not - that would be silly, wouldn't it. Obviously they shut down the grid because they had no other choice. I'm no electicity expert, but I would have thought there would be some kind of contingency plan before you shut down the grid? What this is telling me is all someone has to do is take out one of these plants and they can cripple the entire East coast for half a day. [img]graemlins/wow.gif[/img]

[ 08-15-2003, 01:00 PM: Message edited by: Memnoch ]

[Reeka]

Today was the day at work when we change over to another phone provider and also got a T-1 connection at work. New South was able to get the T-1 connected and have us on line but they were unable to switch the phone service because the system BellSouth uses to switch your phone number over to a new carrier was down. It was supposed to happen at 8:30 this morning. BellSouth is claiming that it had something to do with the power outages in the northeast. Who knows? It was maybe just an excuse.

[quietman1920]

Originally posted by AzRaeL StoRmBlaDe: I just have a really hard time believing that no one ever imagined that something like this could happen, but then again maybe I am just steamed from sitting in a dark room staring at a wall for hours last night.

I bet the game servers were fast as hell too. I hope somebody got to enjoy it....

[Yorick]

Originally posted by Memnoch: quote: Originally posted by AzRaeL StoRmBlaDe: I just have a really hard time believing that no one ever imagined that something like this could happen, but then again maybe I am just steamed from sitting in a dark room staring at a wall for hours last night.

It's funny how we can take things for granted until we lose them, eh. Whenever I visit my cousins in the Philippines I'm always surprised at how they can live with blackouts/brownouts - it's been going on in some places of the Philippines for over a decade now. Just not enough power to go around for everyone. [img]graemlins/wow.gif[/img] People learn to work around it - they've gotten used to it, while I wasn't. I wasn't used to not having hot running water either. [/QUOTE]The mining town in North West Australia, on the edge of the Gibson desert, used to get regular blackouts. Just a part of life. Sydney has had one or two that I can remember. The effect that it had on New York dwarfed anything I've seen though. Subways! Thank God I wasn't on one.

A neighbour of mine was caught underground for THREE HOURS, before climbing out one of those big round manholes. Then, he watched a taxi burning on the street. No firemen. A few people stood around watching it burn.... and then it blew up! Huge flames. Blew up!

Wierd day.

Kind of imprtant we have periods without electricity I think.
1.We appreciate it, and take less for granted.
2.In NYC there was more connection, as people were on the streets, (cooler than indoors) instead of alone indoors (with airconditioning.) Some areas were like huge block parties.

Tonight though, there were still areas without power. Chelsea, Styveson town, the East Village etc. I've got friends staying at other friends places all over.

3.We have to entertain ourselfs without electronic distractions. Can leave us with room to think about many things. Time passes slower. We have more time.

4.It breaks the norm. Challenges us. Some of my frinds took four hours to walk home. How many would do that without the necessity being thrust upon them?

[IAmThumper]

I find it kind of funny that when I first heard of the power outtage it was reported by US government officials that some power plant, in the states, had a fire (struck by lightning) buy now everyone is starting to point fingers. No one knew what had happened but hey why not immediately point fingers at the other guy. Let's just forget that it was an accident and millions or people on both sides of the border are without power.
It took a screwed up power system to have this happen. The power grid is... was supposed to be so interlinked that if one plant went down then the others would know about it and be able to handle it is such a manner that this wouldn't happen. They think that "maybe" they failed to compensate. One tv station had some "expert" say he believed it was a software problem.
It's not just the people without power. I figure that's the least of the problems this is causing. Hospitals, nursing homes, police stations, fire stations with no power or working off of generators. All the plants that use just in time delivery systems will get all screwed up. Grocery stores food will go bad. Really big pain in the butt all around I think.

[Luvian]

Well... they found the source of the problem, by the way. I'm not too sure what it was, I wasn't paying too much attention to the tv, all I remember is that it was the guy from Ontario that was right, whatever he said.