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.

[mtbopfuyn]

If they riot and loot, this time they will be rioting and looting during wartime.

Cavuto needs to get a camera out to Fredricks. We just missed a looting of Fredricks by about 10 minutes once but the tv coverage was hillarious.

With the airports closed, that'll be another day of no flights to Saudi Arabia.

[JustPiper]

Is anyone having sex yet?

LMAO! Seriously now reporting Illinois and Indiana doing fine. Ann Arbor and Detroit bad.

[lawgirl]

Look at all the people walking around on Fox News!!! IT's like an ant hill on steroids!

YIKES---glad I am not in a subway!

[CJinVA]

I grew up in Milford (first 15 years). Moved to Virginia in 1965. Lived on Winthrop Court. Nice little town. Ice skating on the pond behind the Townhall.

[Republican Red]

Some dolt on tv announced Atlanta was down. I've gotten three family members from different parts of the country call to see if I'm ok.

Atlanta is NOT affected. We have power. Thanks for the concern though!

[tophat9000]

It the Revenge of Gray Davis....Boo Ha Ha Ha!(evil laff)

(But he couldn't even get that right... his voodoo spell missed)

[Fitzcarraldo]

[floriduh voter]

I remember television knobs.

We're just having some kind of tropical storm today. I will be concerned if this spreads to the midwest.

Hannity is expressing that there's an information void in NYC so he's taking calls to get updates.

[Chancellor Palpatine]

I oughta load up a truck with some cheap .25cal pistols. I'd make a mint.

[ravingnutter]

This makes me glad I live in Texas, where I could rapidly get some distance between myself and my neighbors.

Yikes...they just said they have been ordered to increase the security at the local power plants here in San Antonio, hopefully just a precaution.

[Petronski]

Now there's a picture worth a thousand words.

[null and void]

Where are the FREEPers who were making jokes about France and their power problems? Where are they at now?

I'm here. Your point?

;^)

[olorin]

lol

[Ditto]

I believe I've read that it takes power to start a cold nuke, which seems rather ironic.

It takes power to get any plant running, nuke or fossil. Pumps, motors and fans have to be going to lite a fire, get water flowing to the boiler, etc. Most plants, especially larger one, have on-site diesels for just that purpose. It's called a 'black-start'. In this situation, most of those plants that had to cut load probably rolled back to "hot stand-by" mode --- producing just enough juice to meet the plant needs and they should be able to ramp up power relatively quickly. The trick in a situation like this is bringing them on in the right sequence at the right power levels to keep the grid ballanced and gradually return service area by area. That can take a long time. The dispatch and plant operators are all pretty busy guys right now.

[alrea]

YOU MUST BE A WRITER. MY HARD CIDAR IS COMING OUT MY NOSE.

[JustPiper]

Hey buddy! They are showing smokestacks smoking.

[Hildy]

I know that. But imagine being stuck in an elevator, in this heat...

[Timesink]

Am I the only one for whom FR has REALLY slowed down?

[Joe Hadenuf]

There are people trapped on elevated subways and in tunnels. Reports that up to 200,000 are trapped on subways

[lelio]

They just *STOP* without power. they don't fall.

Which brings up Life Rule #152: don't ever get on an levator needing to go to the bathroom.