Moscow underground trains ground to a halt
Posted on 05/25/2005 6:39:31 AM PDT by Grey Squirrel
Edited on 05/25/2005 7:08:13 AM PDT by Sidebar Moderator. [history]
I cannot believe this has not been posted yet. This is my first post so I apologise for any inconsistensies errors etc. Also I only have sources of my native language about so no URL.
Blackout in Moscow and six surrounding oblasts. Water supply out. Hospitals, subway, police, trafic lights, 80% of internet etc. etc.
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BBC NEWS | Europe | Moscow hit by major power outage
Public transport services ground to a halt, Moscow's main stock exchange stopped trading and water supplies to homes were affected.
The electricity outage was caused by a fire and explosion at a substation, the energy minister told parliament.
It is not clear what caused the blast. About 20,000 commuters are reported to have been evacuated from underground trains stranded by the outage.
A transport police spokesman said emergency power supplies were used to bring trains into stations.
Areas up to 200km (120 miles) south of the city were also reported to be have been affected.
Duma deputy speaker Vladimir Pekhtin ruled out the possibility that the power outage was caused by sabotage. He told NTV Mir that it was more likely to have been caused by a technical incident.
"We are checking the information, but we can now rule out deliberate sabotage," he said.
Rising temperatures
A spokeswoman for electricity monopoly RAO UES said the problem stemmed from a fire.
"The problem started yesterday evening. The reason was a fire in the switching equipment at the Chagino substation," she told Reuters news agency.
"Staff dealt with the fire and overnight changed the equipment. However during peak consumption time this morning the problem recurred."
The Micex stock exchange stopped trading for two hours as many of its clients did not have power.
There is some speculation that the power cut could have been due to an overload in demand as Moscow has seen unseasonably high temperatures and people have started using air conditioning.
I'm flying to Moscow in a few days and I hope the landing lights are on by the time we start descending!
Thanks for letting us know about this. Fox News hasn't said anything yet, as far as I can tell. 
I remember thinking it was kinda fun. (LOL What did I know - I was a silly kid!). Using candles and sitting outside all night with my mom and my relatives was fun.
what 21 post and this hasn't been blamed on Bush yet?
Chemical Plant Blows Up South of Moscow: Special Forces on Scene (debka/pravda)
"It's Bush's fault!"
Nope, but Lazamataz blamed Rove in reply #17. That is basically the same as blaming Bush.
Thanks for posting -- this is troubling news. Big time.
Why hasn't FOX reported on this yet I wonder?
More here:
http://news.google.com/news?q=moscow+power&hl=en&lr=&c2coff=1&safe=on
Related to the chemical factory explosion somehow?
Has there been a post by a credible source on the chemical plant?
Is posting by sqvirrel.
Coincidence??? NYET!!!!!!!
Ping.
LOL @ Boris Badenough!
That seems to be a lot of items to go out for a single sub-station outage in a modern major city.
Could it have been something related to the blast of Chemical Plant that was posted on Free Republic recently?
ping
This is huge news in Germany as well. Everything is affected. 16 hospitals are working on generators. People don't have water and they are sending water trucks to help out.
WILD!!!!
Probably trying to get more of the story, my two cents.
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