Mass power outages

[banned username 2]

I don't think Falcon Capt.'s speculation is appropriate.

My speculation was during the first 10 minutes of the news reports of the events. Was just a guess on my part, seems weird that they would allow the power grid to affect such a large area with a single event.

 

[dmspilot00]

You're entitled to your guesses, of course. I just thought more people would know that this has happened before because it was such a major event.

 

[flywithastick]

I don't think Falcon Capt.'s speculation is appropriate. [/B]

have to disagree and support Falcon's assessment. Whether or not it was representatives of the "peaceful" religeon of Islam or just some punk hackers, I'm convinced someone did it intentionally.

Reasons... Big difference between the power distribution system today and 30 yrs ago is the interconnected and software driven load management systems. Unless dozens of load shedding devices (disconnects, breakers if you will) all failed or were simultaneously rendered inoperative (unbelievable having worked in the power industry a few moons ago), then it almost has to be a failure of the load management system itself. What two things would cause this entire system to fail? bad software or corrupted/altered software.

Just like TWA 800 was a "random, unique" failure... so will be said of the blackout of summer 2003.

my 2¢

 

[dmspilot00]

So a lightening strike was somebody intentionally sabotaging the power grid...sure...

 

[flywithruss]

Does anyone else hear the black helicopters circling overhead?

Perhaps it was the Trilateral Commission or the New World Order or the People for the Preservation of Stone Age Toilets?

We live in a world of technology. Sometimes technology breaks. When it does, we're inconvenienced, and then we fix it and move on.

Hopefully Mayor Bloomberg is right ... this will all be fixed by tomorrow and it will be nothing more than people asking each other, "Where were you when the lights went out?"

 

[flywithastick]

So a lightening strike was somebody intentionally sabotaging the power grid...sure...

Lightening taking out power distribution systems?! Lightening hits the US system 1,000 times a day and the system stays intact. it's designed to handle lightning, and designed *not* to collapse when overloaded or otherwise experiences a fault. It's called load shedding.

Besides, I said I believed it was a software hack/attack.

flywithruss -

We live in a world of technology. Sometimes technology breaks. When it does, we're inconvenienced, and then we fix it and move on.

You seem pretty agreeable with the possibility that it just "broke". Would that answer satisfy you with a crash of something like Swissair 111 (or any large aircraft)?

 

[dmspilot00]

According to news reports lightening struck in Niagara Falls which is the heart of the power distribution system for the Northeast. The power disruption caused numerous power plants to go automatically offline to protect themselves from overloads. I believe the news (all networks, CNN, Fox, etc) is saying that the power disruption caused 20+ power plants to go offline within three minutes. This is very similar to what happened last time.

 

[jergar999]

I just heard that there was no reported storm activity in the area, so they are looking at other possible scenarios. Anyone from that area, if you can turn your computer on, care to respond as to what the weather was like this morning?

 

[flywithastick]

I just heard that there was no reported storm activity in the area, so they are looking at other possible scenarios. Anyone from that area, if you can turn your computer on, care to respond as to what the weather was like this morning?

he Niagara Falls area wx.

http://www.srh.noaa.gov/data/obhistory/KIAG.html

I don't care if it was the heart of the system, or on the fringe. No distribution or transmission system I know of would go down with a lightening strike. Even residential distribution is designed and equipped to handle lightening strikes.

Could just be that the system just "broke". If so. guess I'll be eating my words later. but, I'm not holding my breath.

 

[dmspilot00]

(1996)The West was struck by a heavy blackout last month, when an outage on an Idaho transmission line, combined with record power demands during hot weather, caused a ripple effect that cut power to 15 Western states and parts of Canada and Mexico. About two million people were affected.

So here we have a recent example of how one single transmission line caused a power outage in 15 states plus two other countries.

 

[hobbsmeter]

Hmm, I hope all the maternity wards are ready for May 2004

 

[KC-10 Driver]

Just landed from refueling a C-17 over New England -- flew through NY center on the way home.

Had a long chat with the ARTCC controller since he had nothing else to do; it was very quiet in the air over this area tonight.

Pretty strange -- not as odd as post-9/11, but odd none-the-less.

It was especially weird flying right over NYC on a clear night, looking down, and seeing just about nothing.

 

[nimtz]

One Surviving Jersey Rat OVER HERE! It suck arse that the power dumped when it did! I gotta admit I was at the gym working out when it hit and in now time everyone was talking about NY, LA, Chicago, and most of Eastern Canada being in the dark. I walked around trying to get through to anyone on my cell for almost two hours (have Sprint PCS, you get what you pay for).

Good news was nothing looked out of muck in Manhattan, besides millions of people trying to get the f*ck out. I have to admit it felt very 9-11ish at first, especially since the power went out about when the market closed and many people were going home. Give NYers credit for keeping their composure during this cr*p and from me that saying alot since I'm a pure Midwest boy. After that it was all about a patient waiting game with booze supplied from the liqour store down the street that had a generator! Sometimes the worst situations bring out the best times! BTW, Osama can s*ck me, we're better then the you, DEAL WITH IT!

 

[Skyboss]

No Flights cancelled???

Northwest canceled 216 flights Thursday-spokesman
Friday August 15, 8:33 am ET


CHICAGO, Aug 15 (Reuters) - Northwest Airlines Corp. (NasdaqNM:NWAC - News) canceled 216 flights on Thursday because of what power grid operators are calling the largest blackout in U.S. history mostly to and from its Detroit hub, a spokesman said on Friday.
Other airlines also said they canceled flights and expect to cancel more on Friday because of the blackout, which cut power to broad sections of the Northeast and Canada, shutting major airports and stranding thousands of passengers.

Northwest plans to operate a limited schedule at Detroit on Friday, where it normally has about 350 mainline flights per day. The airline also diverted a number of flights on Thursday, including some international flights, spokesman Kurt Ebenhoch said.

Plenty more too:


http://biz.yahoo.com/news/airlines.html

 

[VivaZapata]

What? Nobody has yet to try and politicize this and place the blame on liberals?!?

 

[KC-10 Driver]

There's nothing political about this situation. Why would you bring that up? We're just talking about the black out here-- let's not try to make this a political flame fest, alright VivaZapata?

 

[Skyboss]

I think Gray Davis was in Niagra Falls yesterday. Sorry folks.

 

[skyking1976]

What? Nobody has yet to try and politicize this and place the blame on liberals?!?

Hmmmm..... New York=Sen. Hillary Clinton..... Maybe she forgot to pay the light bill.....

 

[VivaZapata]

KC-10 Driver,

Wow! This has nothing to do with politics? Thanks for pointing me in the right direction! Nothing gets past the message board content cop!

I was only being sarcastic. Think for a minute, it was actually commentary against those that try and start political flame wars from posts having nothing to do with politics...... a swipe at humor, alright KC-10 Driver?

 

[Skyboss]

There's nothing political about this situation. Why would you bring that up?

Hillary made it political....


Friday Aug. 15, 2003; 9:02 a.m. EDT
Hillary Blames Bush for Blackout

Just hours after the Northeastern power grid went down shutting off electricity for 50 million Americans, U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton took to the airwaves to blame President Bush and his administration's energy policies for pushing deregulation and coddling corrupt power companies like Enron.

"I happen to think that making sure we have a reliable, affordable system of energy is a national priority - and I don't think that this administration sees it that way," Clinton told CNN's "Larry King Live."

"They have continued to try to push deregulation and privatization, and to try to undo a lot of the systems in changes that many of us thought were important and necessary that we tried to work on during the Clinton administration under [Former Energy] Secretary [Bill] Richardson's leadership."

Sen. Clinton also accused the White House of throwing "a lot of roadblocks in the way of [Calif. Gov. Gray] Davis, when he tried to clean up some of the problems that he had with the manipulation of the energy markets by Enron and others."

"So, no," she insisted, "I don't think the federal administration under this president is really focused on making sure we don't have these problems in the future."

Before Clinton phoned in her comments to the King Show, however, Richardson, now governor of New Mexico, noted that her husband had done little to address the problem during his eight years in office.

"In the Clinton administration, everybody yawned about this, [saying] oh, we don't need to do this. Oh, we don't have a crisis," he told King.