Posted on 05/04/2003 9:01:05 PM PDT by null and void
Good Morning.
This is the Daily Thread of Operation Infinite Freedom, formerly Operation Iraqi Freedom - Situation Room - LIVE THREAD.
It is designed for general conversation about the ongoing war on terror, and the related events of the day. In depth discussion of events should be left to individual threads - but links to the threads or other articles is highly encouraged. This allows us to stay abreast of the situation in general, while also providing a means of obtaining specific information.
Sunday, 04 May , 2003, 13:51
Baghdad: At night, when the darkness is spooky and gunfire snaps and crackles in the air, Baghdad strangely becomes like any big city in the world -- a place where everyone would be better off if the lights came on. But many of the lights aren't coming on yet, and nearly four weeks after ousting Saddam Hussein the US forces here are struggling to deal with one of his oddest and most difficult legacies: the power grid.
"The electricity system is complex and archaic. It was set up to serve Baghdad," says US Captain Travis Morehead. "They were taking power from across the country to serve the city."
The engineers working to restore power to the capital and elsewhere across Iraq are discovering the grid is a kind of ultimate testament to Saddam's dictatorial central planning and even his megalomania.
To light up the golden palaces where Saddam and his sons ruled the nation with an iron fist, his lackeys created an electricity network that robbed power from everywhere and channeled it -- inefficiently -- to Baghdad.
Morehead says repair teams are grappling with unusual layouts and bizarre distribution networks that are slowing down the effort to get the electricity flowing again.
An inner ring of power lines in the city is mostly complete, according to Morehead, but an outer ring has more than 50 breaks whose repair is still some time away.
"The latest estimate is two to three weeks," he says.
But as the weeks of US occupation become months, and the war-weary nation heads into a broiling Middle East summer, the situation is turning into a time bomb.
When the refrigerators go off, so does the food, setting the stage for a mass outbreak of disease -- something Baghdad's already crumbling and looted hospitals could not hope to cope with.
With no power, the water and sewage treatment plants needed to sanitise this city of five million can go idle.
And at night, the lack of light on the streets sets the stage for more robbery and looting, and makes the already difficult task of bringing law and order that much more complicated.
"Our electricity priorities are water, sewage and hospitals," says Morehead, adding that the crews working round-the-clock to get Baghdad switched back on are facing still another problem.
The main power distribution plant in the city was ransacked in the chaotic aftermath of Saddam's fall. "It has been totally looted and partially burned," Morehead says. "There is nothing working in it at all."
He says Baghdad requires 1700 megawatts of electricity to run and that facilities are at the moment only producing only 370 megawatts -- 20 percent of the city's needs.
http://sify.com/news/fullstory.php?id=13049493&vsv=476
Thanks for the ping. I've been so busy with the "FReeps Ahoy" cruise planning that this situation room thread has been a blessing for me to get all the news that's fit to print in one place!
Leni/Bahama Mama
More information on the electricity problem. A report yesterday----the "Bad Reporting" piece---said the generators all over the city were evidence that electrical outages must have been common before the war.
Our guys have their work cut out for them, and I have no doubt they realize all of the problems noted in this article if things don't get up and running soon.
"Yes, yes for democracy," they chanted in Arabic in front of the Palestine Hotel where many foreign correspondents are based.
Red Cross demands access to Iraq PoWs
Baghdad: With fear mounting of an impending humanitarian disaster and security worsening, the International Committee of the Red Cross demanded Sunday access to Iraqi prisoners held by US-British coalition forces.
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