Power Outages!!!

[Summer]

Are you watching the news?? Major power outages in NY, out west, and in Canada. Does anyone know anything else?

[IAKaraokeGirl]

go to cnn.com, summer. Apparently the Niagra power grid was overloaded.

[Summer]

Lots of people in New York walking home. People leaving their work etc etc.

[Summer]

Major power outage hits New York, other large cities
Thursday, August 14, 2003 Posted: 4:58 PM EDT (2058 GMT)



People crowd into the streets of Manhattan during the power outage.

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NEW YORK (CNN) -- A major power outage simultaneously struck dozens of cities in the United States and Canada late Thursday afternoon.

Cities affected include New York; Boston, Massachusetts; Cleveland, Ohio; Detroit, Michigan; Toronto, Ontario; and Ottawa, Ontario. The power outage occurred shortly after 4 p.m.

State officials said the Niagara-Mohawk power grid was overloaded. The grid provides power for New York and stretches into Canada. The officials said the outage is a natural occurrence and not related to terrorism.

Much of Midtown Manhattan and Wall Street were shut down. All area airports and the Long Island Railroad were also affected. The airports were operating on back-up power and operations were reported to be normal, officials said.

The New York City Police Department said they were trying to determine what happened.

Thousands of people could be seen leaving buildings and walking into the streets. New York subways were reported stopped and people were trapped in the cars.

[Lilith]

Poor people are scared (((hugs))) to everybody!

[Lilith]

omg some are supposing it could have been cause by the blaster worn fucking stuff up :o

[darogle]

Oh, crap! This might keep Steph out of chat!!!

Who do I have to call to get this fixed?!? This needs to be fixed immmediately, if not sooner!!!

[Scarecrow]

I think PF may also be affected by the outage.

[MilkToast]

well... it did suck out here in Rochester for a little bit, but at least in my small local area power is now back on. The news (listening to the AM radio out of NYC) says that they are also starting to see power come back.

So far the blame is something in New York City overloaded the grid down there and it dominoed outward. Basically the other grids could not deliver the needed power and went into shutdown to prevent some burn outs (at least that is what they are saying on the radio). So it is just taking time to get things isolated and the grids back on line.

[MilkToast]

PS. when I walked home from work (not too far), as the car is stuck at the shop :(, I got in and everything was off except the PCs and the cable modem. They are on UPS.... I was able to send off an e-mail to my parents before I shut them down :)

[dicksbro]

I think in lay terms the power grid had an orgasm and had to get a little sleep then. :)

[Cheyanne]

LMAO @ dicksbro!!!!!

50 million people without power!!!

ABC is reporting that there are a lot of people "stuck" in the subway systems!!! About 350,000 people on the trains!!!

There is a special note that the power loss isn't related to that damn blaster worm...

I have attached a map of the locations that have been effected.....

[IAKaraokeGirl]

My S/O works in the power industry here; watching CNN tonight, he said that NYC's mayor was right on target as far as what happened with the overload and the requirements needed to go back online. He also made the comment that those in the plants affected were quite fortunate; the main plant, a 1200 megawatt nuclear facility, could have easily had problems had it "tripped." Thank goodness for back-up plans and safety checks.

[jseal]

Gentlefolk,

Keep in mind that here is a qualitative difference between a data network and a power network.

Pixies is a data network, where "too much load" causes a delay in service (slow response). A power grid is power or load network, where "too much load" causes the grid/network to STOP or go offline, in order to protect the physical plant.

The two types of networks are dissimilar.

[IggysGirl]

Yippie! I was in traffic when the power went out and the streets became a free for all! The streets of Watertown turned into bumper cars. Cars racing through intersections, cars turning onto main streets without a care that they might get hit. I needed a stiff shot after that!

[Cheyanne]

(((HUGS))) for IggysGirl.... happy that you are home safe and sound... :p

[Lilith]

I love that many New Yorkers are just partying...can't let that beer get warm;)

[Steph]

Oh. Man. What a night/day/adventure. I was at work when the power went out. We had TV on generator, too, so we were thinking it was terrorism at first. What? Toronto, New York, etc.? Everything's out? Gah. Our f-ing workplace STAYED OPEN. The police, firefighters, ambulances and DATING COMPANIES! We had no air conditioning, no access to food - I had a frozen veggie dinner that I was trying to defrost with hot water. Then, they offered me time and a half to stay extra because the next shift couldn't make it in. When I got home, soon after, my dog got skunked!!! I ended up sleeping out in the back yard with him because the smell was so bad. Quite an adventure.

It was incredible to look out at downtown Toronto and not see a light! I was reading in the backyard with a flashlight around 6 a.m. when the lights came back on.

It was so eerie driving home from work at 1:30 a.m. - streetcars were just left wherever they were when the power went out.

I am totally addicted to cigarettes, too. A bunch of us would trek down the stairs and back up the seven flights to smoke. Crazy!


LOL darogle - I'll try to make it chat again! :)

[musicman]

it was a different and unique experience - that's for sure....I know what you mean about Toronto Steph - I work down there and had some of the same issues though I was home around 730pm last night....

Spent my night on the back deck staring at the stars ona beautifullly perfect clear night....no lights casting shadows on the sky - it was amazing.....

Anyone have any interesting "done it in the blackout stories?"

Wife and I did it on the back deck where any of our neighbours could have looked out their windows to see us....being really dark helped but still it was exciting and erotic....

Anyone else got a story?

[skipthisone]

Headline .... May 14th 2004

There were a near record number of babies born today in the US and Canada.......


Just you wait...

[Lilith]

You are correct!!!!

[musicman]

so? gots me no problems with that.....

[PantyFanatic]

Blackout + 26 hours.

Yep Skip, it happened in 66! lol

Many subjects and topics have and will continue to be spawned from this event. For the interest of those that can only imagine, it wasn’t as scary as my be first thought. I’ll sharer the first-hand local view of a major city and a thought about the overall effect from the same reports you are getting.

Cleveland is at the end of Tornado Alley so maybe a few more candles and flash light (with batteries kept in the frig) are on hand in the general home. It was only dark for12 hours and 34 minutes for me personally. We already know that NOT opening the frig or freezer will minimize loss for a day. The heat added to the discomfort and water pumping stations being down periodically was more of a concern as something unusual.

Other than a couple dozen reported overnight lootings (including one with a shootout with police:() from the few assholes that are always going to be there, the VAST majority of a few million people in the Greater Cleveland area was the same as is being reported on the media. Stories boarding on a party atmosphere and a people friendliness and helpfulness that seems to spring naturally from North Americans was the norm. A lot of neighbors that haven’t spoken for years, if ever, got to say hello.

I’m not so sure I would be writing the same report had it been a duration of more than a couple days, but this was not bad at all. If all continues as is now happening, by a couple tomorrows, it will be an academic study for many groups, fodder for politics and a first event-story for many family gatherings in the future. It has been added to a list of about half dozen for this old fuck.

I was pleased to hear the reports were much the same from Toronto, New York and the other major cities. Of course there was a “terrorist” cry in each group on every street in every city and town effected. It was obviously, quelled or joked about EVERYWHERE, and panic or rumors was not a concern. That is the most notable happening about the event to me. In the world and society of today, the whole subversive issue is real,… but was NOT allowed to create instant panic or civil disorder. I DO believe that is perhaps the most potent defense we have with this kind of modern threat. If we didn’t eliminate electric service disruption as a target to them, we sure did reduce it value. For that I am proud of both the Canadians and Americans and want to thank you all for helping with the only real defense there is. The people!!!!


[BACK TO OUR REGULARLY SCHEDULED PERVING]

[Bopper]

Was stuck in it in michigan....finally got power back about 5:30 today. Of course just after we've moved our entire fridge to one that actually worked...and had to move it back.

Everyone was screaming terrorism where I was at too....can make you think about a lot of different things..different feelings...

Bright side....I got an extra day off work...not so bright side...well all the work that didn't happen over today/weekend will be hitting me square in the face monday morning....then again maybe i will just run from the building screaming...

Oh but it was much fun looting fridges at work for supplys while we watched traffic back up on the main roads all around us... ;)

[Steph]

Lots of T.O. is still without power. I drove a co-worker home and many traffic lights are still out but everyone obeyed the four-way stops.

Gas gouging is going on and 20 people were in hospital with gas poisoning from siphoning! Doh!

The lights went out here at 4 p.m. and came back on at 6 a.m. Luckily, when I got home from work at 1:30 a.m., my wine was still cool in the fridge!:)

[dicksbro]

Hats off to all of you who experienced the outage first hand. I know times we've lost power during storms how frustrating that was, so I can at least imagine how frustrating it was for all of you.

[MilkToast]

Originally posted by pantyfanatic
Cleveland is at the end of Tornado Alley so maybe a few more candles and flash light (with batteries kept in the frig) are on hand in the general home.
since I have an opinion on everything I thought I would comment on this one.

I am not sure that the fridge is the best place for battery storage. The cool temps make sense to keep the chemical reaction in the cell slowed down so that they last longer. But the fridge is also a very humid location as you open and close the door a lot. I would be more inclined to store them in a closet or somewhere cool but dry. Corosion on the contacts yields to very poor energy transfer... add to that the if you get enough humidity on the cell it can also be conductive (very little, but enough to begin a very very slow discharge).

In any case, it's a good idea to have spare batteries (and bulbs!) for the flashlights on hand :)

[PantyFanatic]

MT~
It is to slow the catalyst of the chem reaction, but we do know about the moisture issue. We store them rolled inside a plastic bag. I know of a number of people that store the entire flash light. We happen to have a hand-crank generator (Freeplay) radio and “lantern” in each of the families.

[MilkToast]

Originally posted by pantyfanatic
MT~
It is to slow the catalyst of the chem reaction, but we do know about the moisture issue. We store them rolled inside a plastic bag. I know of a number of people that store the entire flash light. We happen to have a hand-crank generator (Freeplay) radio and “lantern” in each of the families.
I just ordered one of those :) I did not realize that I did not have a battery operated radio that worked reliably until Thusday afternoon!

[Steph]

Originally posted by MilkToast
I did not realize that I did not have a battery operated radio that worked reliably until Thusday afternoon!

I couldn't find the old one I had. I'm definitely buying one of those wind-up radio/flashlights (one the price gouging goes down)!

[PantyFanatic]

My equipment seems to be old models. They were Christmas presents a few years back;) but have been reliable for me and both kids.

http://www.freeplay.net/.

[When I visited son and daughter on Thursday evening, “Paranoid Dad” got that unspoken smile] LMAO