Power cut causes chaos in London

BBC ^ | 28 August 2003

[Hal1950]

A power cut is causing major disruption through London and the South East.

Train company Connex has reported the power is out between London and Ashford, affecting services through London Bridge, Victoria, Ashford, New Cross and Bromley.

No trains are running in south London, the area which has been hardest hit, and some Tube stations have been plunged into darkness.

Some commuters were stuck underground when the power went off at about 1815 BST.

London Underground has said the blackout was having a "serious impact on the whole system".

Buses are extremely busy as commuters abandon packed Tube platforms and some travellers are still believed to be trapped on Tube trains.

The spokesman added: "There will be travellers underground. I don't know the extent of that yet. It's at the end of rush hour, the peak period, so it's a busy time."

There have been reports of power returning in Clapham, south-west London.

Businesses and homes were plunged into darkness and traffic lights went out in Brixton, Battersea and London Bridge.

Sue Gill from EDF Energy said: "It seems that one of the National Grid circuits that feeds south London has failed.

"The National Grid are currently looking into it."

She added it was difficult to predict how long it would take to restore power.

Staff at St Thomas's Hospital, in south-east London are reportedly relying on back-up power generators.

A spokesman for the Department of Health said the power cut would not cause major problems.

He said: "All NHS hospitals have back up generators. They will be able to cope."

[marlon]

Cleearly Bush's fault!

[Happy2BMe]

If it DOES turn out that London undergoes a major power outage (not even two weeks after our Northeast main grids went down), DUBYA is definitely to blame!

God forbid that we should suspect terrorists.

[OpusatFR]

My sister is probably approaching Heathrow right now. What a mess. Something told me this was not a good trip for her.

[GOP_1900AD]

This would make the second SERIOUS disruption in and around Heathrow in less than one month. On July 19 I was stuck by the BA strike and could not get out at a reasonable price until July 21. I have to wonder, are terrorists / special ops from hostile countries fomenting and using these events to do major sabotage there or other wise set up for a major attack?

[Happy2BMe]

"I have to wonder, are terrorists / special ops from hostile countries fomenting and using these events to do major sabotage there or other wise set up for a major attack?"

Naw - it's just a little tweaking by the power company. Right?

[Countyline]

An everpresent hazard of our current society. We are totally dependent on electricity.

Perfect way for terrorists to disrupt and create chaos. If not now, look for it to happen later.

[colorado tanker]

Looks like the BBC hasn't yet decided if the blackout was caused by global warming or American unilateralism. Or did the Beeb just "sex up" the whole story?

[OPS4]

This is a duplicate post.http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/972171/posts

[YaYa123]

But wait! This is a BBC article. We need other sources.

[OpusatFR]

No problem. I always verify with other sources before trusting the BBC, or the NYT or Newsweek, Time, and The WaPO!

[txhurl]

No, this is a thread where you and _Jim are not blowing out bandwidth while everyone else tries to understand the situation.

[freeperfromnj]

It's an interesting thread but it seems differing opinions are not welcome. BYOTF

Some coincidences are a bit more difficult to just move on from than others. This might be one of those. The two major allies in the war in Iraq and against terrorism hit with power grid failures in a two week window of time. What are the odds? Anyone know the last time the UK was hit with a power failure?

[OPS4]

The blowing is about Cyber terror, which I believe is the cause. I did not know that this theory was far fetched enough to cause another thread. However, I have exhausted the subject matter, and I will err, on the side of caution,
and assume it is cyber terror, and will monitor and memo those who wish to keep up to date, in the coming days.

Ops4 God Bless America

[YaYa123]

Caution is our middle name, that's for sure, when believing information from the suspect sources you named. Thank goodness we have alternate sources now.

The worst offense of the left leaning media, is what they selectively choose not to report.

[_Jim]

"Something's" going on, seems like...

Sure - life ...

Why? Do you think mankind has all of a sudden gotten some sort of 'lock' on 100% reliability of large systems?

[_Jim]

The blowing is about Cyber terror, which I believe is the cause.

Wasn't that your line on the other thread?

[Shermy]

UPDATE: London power controlled by the French ;)


http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20030828/wl_nm/energy_london_dc_9


"...A spokesman for French-owned firm EDF Energy, which supplies the British capital, said it appeared to be a problem with a cable feed from the national grid in the Wimbledon area in south London.
..."

[_Jim]

Thanks, Shermy.