Blackout Anniversary

[lpg]

One other thing was how long it took to restock the Meijer Store in Southgate with flashlight batteries, bottled water and canned food.

[ccbatson]

bbbut, but, we still had a great view of Mars.

[gazhekwe]

I was given a ballpark figure of $3500-5000 for a whole house generator. My house is not so big. If I got one, it would just be for peace of mind, not necessarily cost savings. I wouldn't want to be on a jaunt somewhere in the wilds of US 2 territory and come back to find all hell bust loose and either my pipes are frozen or my kitchen is full of stinky fridgewater.

We had fun during the blackout with our oil lights and our battery radio, but with all electric cooking gear, we were SOL on cooking, coffee and boiling water as instructed. I could have built a fire and cooked over that, but we elected not to. Canned tuna and salad fixin's got us through.

I agree the stars were wonderful to see, just like in the UP.

[Sstashmoo]

Sstashmoo pulled the country ribs from the freezer, fired up the Weber grill, boiled the ribs with garlic, deep fried some potato wedges, seasoned with Frizzlin Fry, threw some hickory on the fire, and smoked one of the best meals I've ever had. Watched a very bizarre Detroit newscast on the battery television, played the Martin a little bit, read by oil lamp and went to bed. Saturday morning, lined out MRE's and water for the next few days, went for a drive and was shocked, but not surprised how people were acting.

[Detroitej72]

What I'm curious to know is, do folks really believe that a simple tree branch falling on a wire in Ohio caused the blackout, or, more likely, was it something more sinister?

[gazhekwe]

Supposedly, the situation was already dangerously imbalanced due to operator/systems errors [[I can believe this). The tree falling on the wires [[I have a little trouble with this, have you seen those wires? In most places there aren't any giant trees hanging over them) started a cascading domino effect that eventually took down this huge area. Hm. I guess the answer is, maybe.

[oladub]

What I'm curious to know is, do folks really believe that a simple tree branch falling on a wire in Ohio caused the blackout, or, more likely, was it something more sinister?

There was a county power system in either Upper N.Y. State or Pennsylvania that managed to cut off all connections with other power systems it was connected to. Its manager acted immediately upon hearing reports of other power companies losing their power because of the electrical surge. He saved his power system.

So, given that we know there was a physical situation that caused a blackout in Ohio and that appropriate action could prevent damage from the resulting surge, it seems reasonable to believe that this particular power failure was do to mechanical failure and bad planning.

However, I assume that our electrical grid is vulnerable to a cyberwar attack because of all the computerized equipment that have been installed on our systems. When we attacked Baghdad and Belgrade, we destroyed electrical infrastructures to bring those places to their knees. It would be so much more efficient to do that with a cyber attack. I assume that the Chinese, Russians, and maybe others have already developed such plans and have the ability to deploy them. Imagine big cities without water, food and sewage systems.

[MikeM]

What I'm curious to know is, do folks really believe that a simple tree branch falling on a wire in Ohio caused the blackout, or, more likely, was it something more sinister?

Gannon meet Detroitej72, ej72 meet Gannon.

No, no one believes a tree branch fell on a wire in Ohio. What they do believe is that an overheated transmission line sagged into trees that were growing underneath it - trees that should have been trimmed or removed by the local utility - and that the transmission line ground-faulted several times causing a recloser to lock it out. Actually this happened to three different lines in the vicinity between 3:05 PM and 3:41 PM, as witnessed by residents in the neighborhoods and even by a tree trimming crew in one instance. On site investigation and system data review confirmed it.

Of course this wasn't the sole cause and if your sinister theory hangs on the belief that the conspirators could only dream up tree branches as a reason, then you're quite an amatuer. In the big picture investigators found many causes and grouped them into four primary causes, the tree situation being one of them.

[Det_ard]

Ahh, so MikeM's in on it too!

[Savoyard]

So now, thanks to the switch to digital TV transmissions, I won't be able to rely on my 25-year-old battery-powered Sony Watchman to comfort me during these power failures. All I get on it now are French Canadian TV channels, not that there's anything wrong with that!

Anyone want to buy a semi-antique Sony Watchman? You can have it cheap ...

[gnome]

I remember that The Kwamester was everywhere[[tv, radio, in person) keeping a lid on things. Sure, there were a couple of dust-ups but I remember that crime actually went down. Ya'll know I hate that prick, but I have to hand it to him. He was a fine leader and under huge pressure, he stepped up.

[Sstashmoo]

Quote: "[[Kwame) He was a fine leader and under huge pressure, he stepped up."

That he did.

[ccbatson]

I agree, 3-5K for a backup generator given the relatively rare occurrence of blackouts that result in monetary damages...it is a convenience purchase.

[G-DDT]

Quote: "[[Kwame) He was a fine leader and under huge pressure, he stepped up."

That he did.

Thank God I actually found something by someone who saw what I saw. Kwame [[who I didn't vote for-my mom knew Gill from the old photo store she worked at-I mean, I knew he was corrupt, but the devil you know...) really did pull us through, and I don't think folks give him enough credit for turning Devil's night around either. I could say a lot more on him to his credit, but...
Those 26 hours were interesting. I would hope folks keep in mind the things they may ever have to do without should something like that become more common or consistent. I still remember the "terror" hysteria. My mom bought this "wind-up" radio from a subsidiary of some pyramid scheme cult. It was hacked to only pick up certain local Evangelical stations [[even the same ones on different points on the dial). I still recall the shaky voice of an A.M. preacher saying "N-now folks, I don't want to alarm anyone, but if this is indeed the culmination of the feast of all seasons and rectification of all times...", and I was just getting into eschatology as a born-again Christian and starting to debunk apocalyptic and dispensational ideology and it's ugly history.
Man, that was a hot weekend! Our neighbor cop's [[seemed like a mellow dude) car alarm went off every five minutes. I don't care if you were in Detroit or New York, folks looked out for each other and seemed to do the best they could to aid folks [[whether they were trapped in elevators, subways, hospitals, or nursing homes).