Major power surge in NY? (Blackout is in NYC, Detroit, Ottawa and Toronto, per Fox News)

8-14-03 | Joe Hadenuf

[Joe Hadenuf]

Hannity station went dead for about 20 seconds. Said he had never seen anything like it.

[Davea]

"At least the Mets and Giants will be spared embarrassment tonight."

Cubs 7 Houston 1 Cubs a half game out. Go Cubs!!!!!

[Alberta's Child]

See #2252.

[Mo1]

MSNBC is reporting the Feds made calls to mayors and Gov asking if they needed help and had folks on call waiting for the requests but that the local/state govs didn't request any help from the Feds

[Rome2000]

He also indicated that he didn't have a clue what caused it at this point.....They are denying the lightning report now..

At least W has the decency not to lie to the American People.

He and we don't know what happened today, but rest assured when the truth comes out, the GOP will take of the problem better than the Jackass party.

[Joe Hadenuf]

His people could have done a better job prepping him. He came into the briefing, no notes, no podium.

I completely agree, he seemed ill prepared, and didn't seem to have a grasp of what happened....It seems now they are blaming it all on an old grid, old transmission lines, etc etc....

[Chad Fairbanks]

Riots, and lots of fires...if it doesn't happen, I will be VERY surprised....

[MEG33]

Texas weather can be heck on power at times so every time something inconveniences me..I think about a generator and then promptly forget it!

[Joe Hadenuf]

The night is young.....

[Fledermaus]

At least he got in the "I told you so" moment about the power grids.

[ThirdMate]

We have no evidence that this was terrorism, but we have no plausible cause yet.
If it was terrorism, and I am only speculating here, it would be an impressive demonstration by itself. But not a major hit.
Could it be a prelude? Biological agents are best dispersed at night. Germs are sensitive to sunlight and heat. But the trouble is that everyone is indoors at night. How do you get a major urban population to open up their doors and windows and go outside at night?
Just speculating.

[Old Sarge]

Joe, I need to thank you and all the FReepers on this thread.

By virtue of providing breaking and updated real-time news bites, I was able to keep decision makers appraised of running events, and thus we were better able to make decisions as to our response to this event.

Freepers on this thread were giving me data faster than the open cable networks, and that is an achievement!

WELL DONE TO ALL!

SARGE

[hole_n_one]

[justshe]

****50 mil people w/o power on no "natural" cause just raises a few red flags to me IMHO.****

I think that is most folks' mindset since 9/11. It is just natural.

[winker]

The Power Grid is very fragile and this unfortunate incident points up a obvious problem that exists nationwide. Loss of electrical power is probably our weakest link to deal with. Our enemies are taking notes on all this chaos and confusion created apparently by a Lightning Spike. It appears this is not terrorist related but as I said this has not gone unnoticed. A freakish storm accomplished what mass numbers of terrorists have laid awake at night wishing for. Every time this happens I remember the old style Christmas Tree Lights; when one goes they all go! With all the increase in technology one would think that the Power Grid could be Tweaked to at least not allow the entire system to crash. I guess its true the more things change the more they stay the same! There are serious concerns to consider here; next time we may not be so fortunate!

[Mo1]

True

[ThirdMate]

Well, I guess it works for you!

[Joe Hadenuf]

I totally agree. He looked a little lost.....

[NeoCaveman]

Riots, and lots of fires...if it doesn't happen, I will be VERY surprised....

So far so good.

[P.O.E.]

Made a pilgrimage to Wrigley while in Chicago at a seminar - probably the coolest stadium in baseball. Camden Yard & Fenway also in that category.

Of course, as a die-hard Yankee fan, there's nothing to compare to the House that Ruth built.

But those old-style stadium have a lot of charm.

[oceanview]

that's they key. the utilities know exactly what happened, they have telemetry systems et al, they know what has malfunctioned. the fact that we are being told that the cause is "unknown" bothers me, because the utilities know for sure by this time, yet we do not.