http://www.jacksonville.com/tu-online/stories/042902/met_blackout.html
Monday, April 29, 2002
Last modified at 9:09 p.m. on Monday, April 29, 2002
Massive power failures hit First Coast
From Times-Union staff
Much of Jacksonville is without power. The city and some surrounding areas were hit by a major power failure around 4:30 p.m. today. After roughly 60% of the area had been restored from the original outage, a second major outage occurred around 6:20 p.m.
Because of a drop in water pressure, all residents in Duval county are being asked to boil their water and to reduce their water usage, says JEA Spokesman Bruce Dugan. JEA is also asking residents to set their thermostats warmer and to reduce their use of appliances and non-essential electrical equipment.
The boil water alert is a safety precaution. As water pressure drops, water can fall back into the main system of pipes. If there are contaminates in someone's house, they could go back into the system as well. "Personally, I think the likelyhood of an illness is very slim," says Mayor John Delaney.
As of 8 p.m., power to 25 percent of the county had been restored. It will likely be after midnight before the JEA is able to get power restored to the majority of the county.
Dugan explained the reason for the delay in restoring power is that as circuits have been brought back online, additional problems have been discovered, including minor damage to the 500 megawatt Northside generation plant. "We've sustained a little more damage than what we first anticipated," he said. "We're learning as we go."
At an 8 p.m. press conference, Sheriff Nat Glover reported no law enforcement crises resulting from the outage. He said auxilliary staff has been called in to help support the existing staff.
As of 7:20 p.m., our First Coast News partner reported that power had been restored at Jacksonville International Airport.
According to JEA Managing Director Walt Bussells, the problem began at roughly 4:30 p.m. when two major power transmission lines on the Westside of Jacksonville detected a fault and shut down.
Shortly thereafter, an explosion occurred and a fire broke out at the Kennedy Generating Station at Talleyrand.
Computers then shut down the entire electrical system to prevent it from being damaged.
The fire at the generating station was reportedly extinguished by 5:30 p.m.
According to Bussells, the two transmissions lines that had tripped earlier in the day tripped again, causing the second interruption. The St. Augustine Record reported that this may have been the result of overuse by customers.
Power failures have also been reported in Nassau County and Clay County. The city's Emergency Operations Center is active.
O.K. so tell me how am I supposed to boil my water without electricity? Tell me how turning off all my appliances is is going to help when I don't have any power? I've set my thermostat warmer & colder and it has no effect, what gives?
Geesh, I can't imagine the mad house at the grocery stores tomorrow!!