Celestia Forums

Ok, this doesnt have anything to do with celestia, but there was a huge power outtage in the U.S. today. Most of the east coast was (and in a lot of casses still is) powerless. A lot of people think it's terrorist-related. I have power back (obviously) and their reporting about it on TV, and their saying there not sure weather it is or not (at least that's what their saying here), so we'll have to watch closely for the next day or two. Just thought I should bring it up to see how many people actually knew about it.

Not sure what TV or radio station you were listening to Mike, but I watched CNN for several hours *while* it was happening, and just watched again for 15 or 20 minutes (3 am EST).

The power outage did not affect most of the east coast. It affected a large part of New York state, some of southern Conn, some of northern New Jersy, as well as a path through Ohio to Detroit Michigan. That's just the USA ... in addition, several large Canadian cities in the same general area had an outage.

The mayor of New York City was interviewed via telephone after he had been in contact with ConEdison (New York City power company) and the word then, as well as up to this point (3 am EST), including from the Homeland Security office, the FBI, and New York governor, is that there is NO EVIDENCE that this was terror related.

This is NOT the first time this has happened either <frown>. It is the THIRD time since 1966 that New York City and the surrounding areas have had a total blackout condition. The power comes from Canada via the Niagra Falls generation stations and it's been pretty hot and wet in the northeast for a while now, with temps in the upper 80's and low 90's (F). This means a LOT of power was being used to cool buildings and homes (Air Conditioning).

Thus, the most likely cause is OVERLOAD (more power being demanded than is available), which automatically shuts down power stations and generators. When one shuts down on our antiquated power grid, the next station in line tries to replace the lost power which causes an overload at that station, and so on. At some point, the grid controllers are able to block this "cascading". Today, it took 15 minutes <sigh>.

So folks, let's not be jumping to any conclusions about this being terror related, when it is most likely just an overload -- for a third time.

Just my two cents worth <smile>.

Oh yes, here in the provinces we are quickly informed of whatever minor discomfort the capital suffers. The power outtage of NYC was reported in our night news (22.00 GMT+2), at real time. OTOH, I would know today making my daily review of the NY Times.

And we've been seeing and reading a LOT about YOUR heat wave over there as well. Very strange weather! Hope you are able to remain comfortable.

Well I heard on Fox that the Canadian's say a power plant near Niagara Falls was hit by lightning and that was the cause. I personally like the older one that was caused by a solar flare causing an overload in the system.

Don.

My city was also afffected by this...
It has been over 30 degrees celcius for several days.
Fortunatly the power was gone fore only 8 hours, the temperatures continue, and there may be another power outage. If Only the electricity system wasn't connected... Ontario has a very large power generation system... The one Plant caused a domino effect because all the plants are connected... Our house has a UPS system which could sustain the refrigerator, TV, 1 Computer, and Kitchen for 8 hours of working, it also has a port to add additional batterys onto it. Unfortuanly it was around 400 kilograms and when we took it apart to move it to our house it lost funcionlity. It's not hard to fix it though it would take all day of reading instructions, we might fix it this weekend, too prevent the possibility of the food being ruined in a duration of time with no electricity.

- Shadow

don wrote:It affected a large part of New York state, some of southern Conn, some of northern New Jersy, as well as a path through Ohio to Detroit Michigan. That's just the USA ... in addition, several large Canadian cities in the same general area had an outage.

Well, doesn't that sound like most of the east coast? (except for the michigan and ohio part)

I cant beleive that an American General, went on TV and admited that the nuclear sites went down, and are still down.

billybob884 wrote:Well, doesn't that sound like most of the east coast? (except for the michigan and ohio part)

Ummmm, the east coast runs from Maine to Florida Mike, which is about 1,800 - 2,000 miles long. New York is only one state of the eleven or so on the "east coast"

-Don G.

Darkmiss wrote:I cant beleive that an American General, went on TV and admited that the nuclear sites went down, and are still down.

In this day and age, people get scared real easy if a nuclear power plant is involved in anything, so I think what he did was a very good idea -- letting people know they are off-line.

-Don G.

Don. Edwards wrote:Well I heard on Fox that the Canadian's say a power plant near Niagara Falls was hit by lightning and that was the cause. I personally like the older one that was caused by a solar flare causing an overload in the system.

Don.

Hi Don,

I watched the Weather Channel on satellite last night and they said they looked at their saved radar data trying to find a thunderstorm in that area or a lightning strike, and they could not.

As for the solar flare idea, according to SpaceWeather.com, "Readers have asked if solar activity could be responsible for the widespread blackout in the eastern US and Canada. Not likely. There were no strong solar flares or geomagnetic activity yesterday to trigger the outage."

According to CNN, as of 4:40 pm EST (http://www.cnn.com/2003/US/08/15/power.outage/index.html)...


-Don G.

I live inbetween Detroit and Ann Arbor (U of M ) and it is hot and muggy
only the out lying areas are back up . Detriot will mostlickly have power back on about Sat. night or on Sun.

I'm marvelling at America's paranoia over this. It's only a power cut, that's all - albeit a big one. It's rather disturbing that the first conclusion that people leap to now when something odd happens is 'OH MY GOD! IT'S A TERRORIST ATTACK!" America really needs to get a grip on itself.

The only thing I don't quite get is how nuclear reactors can go offline because of a power cut - I thought they generate their own power don't they?!

Evil Dr Ganymede wrote:I'm marvelling at America's paranoia over this. It's only a power cut, that's all - albeit a big one. It's rather disturbing that the first conclusion that people leap to now when something odd happens is 'OH MY GOD! IT'S A TERRORIST ATTACK!" America really needs to get a grip on itself.

The only thing I don't quite get is how nuclear reactors can go offline because of a power cut - I thought they generate their own power don't they?!

First and foremost, I believe this NOT to be a terrorist act BECAUSE most terrorist attacks involve people loosing lives which is what the terrorists want to see. The power outage that affected the northeast on Thursday was an inconvenience. That is all.

Nuclear Power plants go offline just like any other type of power generating station. Reason for this is so that those generators (those electric motors in reverse that when you spin the axle, generates electric current) at those plants don't short out. It's the same reason you wouldn't want to connect a wire directly from the negitive lead to the positive lead on a battery. The battery would heat up to the point where it would explode and the wire would most likely melt. Generators at power generating stations wouldn't explode but they can overheat and cause serious damage. Therefore there are automatic switches that cut the power generated from being transmitted. The power station itself doesn't loose power obviously because it's... well... a power station.

I was affected by the power outage, and because I live next to a large city, I could never see any but the very brightest stars in the night sky. If there was one benefit of the outage, it was that on the evening of August 14, I saw more stars in the sky than I had ever seen in my entire life! The milky way was visible, and in my telescope I saw nebulae that were ordinarily invisible in the city's greenish glow. Did anyone else stargaze that night?

Art_Vandelay wrote:If there was one benefit of the outage, it was that on the evening of August 14, I saw more stars in the sky than I had ever seen in my entire life!

That is certainly a most excellent way to turn a negative into a positive! The sky certainly IS an incredible sight away from city lights.

We live in the country, 45 miles from the nearest small city, where stargazing is like that every clear night. But, since we have co-op electric, it tends to go out whenever there is a thunderstorm or snow storm (hundreds of miles of above land lines - poles - remember those?). Last time was for 22 hours during a blizzard. BUT, us "country folk" stay continually prepared for these kinds of things, with extra drinking water, portable heaters (non-electric), extra food, etc. Things that "city folk" don't even give a second thought about anymore.

Sounds like you need to get out of them city lights more often, to actually see what's in the sky. Especially now that you know what's out there

-Don G.

Satellite images of the blackout from orbit:

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2& ... &ncid=1756

http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories/s2015.htm

Pretty dramatic, but not completely "black" as you might think...

Amazing.

Thanks for the links Jack!