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.
Great tag line! And how true!
I was going say that OMG
DAMN Dubya why you appoint Karl Rove LOL!
Yikes... it was +32 C here in Moscow yesterday (some 90 F, I guess). It all ended up with relieving rain and a thunderstorm.
Serves them right."
This looks like the photo made on 70th anniversary of Moscow Metro. They have reconstructed the interior of "Sokolniki" station (one of the first to open) with all the details of the event, including posters. They even put old train cars from somewhere.
The other person on the poster is Lasar Kaganovich, which was the Komissar (Minister) of Transportation in 1930s. I dunno who is the third one.
/sarcasm You remark "Serves them right" is a bit of a wishful thinking I guess? Do you really want us, Russians, to have posters of Stalin and such hung here and there? That will nicely fit the yellow press stereotype. So easy to grasp. /sarcasm
I live in Moscow and it was not that bad by 5 pm. Our bus to the outskirts of town took just as long as it always did. People were worried, especially about thier kids getting home from school, but mostly the cell phones worked and what kid in any country would be without a cell?
I think it is very symbolic that when nostalgia for 1937 settles in, the city gets immersed in darkness. God can speak in symbols too.
Sounds very prophetical, but... very far-fetched.
God gave you ten days to remove the damn posters and then gave up.
The posters were removed next day. Come on, invent something more inspiring.
You mean the next day following the blackout? I see them in the photograph.
Ah. The nostalgia for the darkest period in human history grips the nation. Then the nation repents. Then, ten or nine days later, the darkeness descends. That is illogical. Did the nation repent?
One little subway station puts a portrait of Stalin as a part of historical reconstruction - half of town gets a blackout. Darknesss... Yarrr... I told you, I knew it! They are godless pagans worshipping Karl Marx! They smear "Das Kapital" with the blood of the victims. /sarcasm off
No more wasting time on out-of-context stale hand-made prophecies. Good bye.
A commemoration of the darkest time in the history of the Wesrtern Civilization doesn't have to be big. The offense is in the mindset -- which you demonstrate. One portrait of Stalin in a public place is one too many.
Saw something about this earlier. May be sabotage.Yeah, b/c we know we can rule out human error as a cause since the system operators, the engineers and plant maintenance personnel are perfect and incapable of error, misjudgment, lax maintenance practices or slowness to respond to a dynamic situation.
(THAT, my FRiend, is sarcasm)
Was it a tree in the power lines that caused itStop kidding around; it was TERRORISM by ma nature - after all, it was her tree that did it* ...
* plus about half a dozen other factors that day, including the failure of a critical computer reporting system and nearly zero situational awareness by the system operators in First Energy's area of control that day.
Hiya Jim! I hope you have a great weekend :)
Gee jim, blush, I never new you cared.
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