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Topic: Major power outage hits New York, other large citi (Read 1018 times)

Rhune
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Major power outage hits New York, other large citi
« on: Aug 14^th, 2003, 3:50pm »

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Major power outage hits New York, other large cities
Thursday, August 14, 2003 Posted: 4:44 PM EDT (2044 GMT)

NEW YORK (CNN) -- A major power outage simultaneously struck several large cities in the United States and Canada late Thursday afternoon.

Cities affected include New York; Boston, Massachusetts; Cleveland, Ohio; Detroit, Michigan; Toronto, Ontario; and Ottawa, Ontario. The power outage occurred shortly after 4 p.m.

Much of Midtown Manhattan and Wall Street were shut down, including all area airports and the Long Island Railroad. The airports were operating on back-up power and operations were reported to be normal, officials said.

The New York City Police Department said they were trying to determine what happened. A Con Edison transformer on East 14th Street in Manhattan was afire, CNN learned.

Thousands of people could be seen leaving buildings and walking into the streets. New York subways were reported stopped and people were trapped in the cars.

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Rhune
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Re: Major power outage hits New York, other large
« Reply #1 on: Aug 14^th, 2003, 3:57pm »

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Is it just me, or is anyone else thinking this might be some kind of terrorist attack? Doesn't it seem a little odd that all these major cities would just simultaneously lose power?

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Rhune
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Re: Major power outage hits New York, other large
« Reply #2 on: Aug 14^th, 2003, 4:04pm »

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NEW YORK (CNN) -- A major power outage simultaneously struck dozens of cities in the United States and Canada late Thursday afternoon.

Cities affected include New York; Boston, Massachusetts; Cleveland, Ohio; Detroit, Michigan; Toronto, Ontario; and Ottawa, Ontario. The power outage occurred shortly after 4 p.m.

State officials said the Niagara-Mohawk power grid was overloaded. The grid provides power for New York and stretches into Canada. The officials said the outage is a natural occurrence and not related to terrorism.

Much of Midtown Manhattan and Wall Street were shut down. All area airports and the Long Island Railroad were also affected. The airports were operating on back-up power and operations were reported to be normal, officials said.

The New York City Police Department said they were trying to determine what happened.

Thousands of people could be seen leaving buildings and walking into the streets. New York subways were reported stopped and people were trapped in the cars.

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Rhune
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Re: Major power outage hits New York, other large
« Reply #3 on: Aug 14^th, 2003, 4:04pm »

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A natural occurrence? Hrmmm...color me skeptical....

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Irishlass
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Re: Major power outage hits New York, other large
« Reply #4 on: Aug 14^th, 2003, 4:17pm »

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on Aug 14^th, 2003, 4:04pm, Rhune wrote:

A natural occurrence? Hrmmm...color me skeptical....

I'm with you on this, add me to the list of skeptical. As of now, we here in central Indiana are still "plugged in". They are saying that this power grid goes all the way to the Rockies, but they think they have stopped the outages from spreading any more. Even so, I have filled some containers with water (we have a pump) and my husband has gone to fill the car with gas (gas pumps, don't work without electricity). I'm keeping my fingers crossed. I hope this hasn't touched too many of our ForumsNet folks.

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Rhune
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Re: Major power outage hits New York, other large
« Reply #5 on: Aug 14^th, 2003, 4:37pm »

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dudeguy89
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Re: Major power outage hits New York, other large
« Reply #6 on: Aug 14^th, 2003, 4:44pm »

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Ever since 9/11, every single minor and major occurance, always sparks thoughts of terrorist attacks. There have been power outages before in New York and there will be plenty more. I'm sure that there's no reason to think the worst is about to happen.

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Rhune
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Re: Major power outage hits New York, other large
« Reply #7 on: Aug 14^th, 2003, 4:45pm »

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If it was just a power outage in New York I wouldn't be so concerned, but the fact that it was all of these major cities simultaneously...

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eeschein
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Re: Major power outage hits New York, other large
« Reply #8 on: Aug 14^th, 2003, 4:52pm »

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well, i don't know if they got all of this right, because i am in boston and have had power all day... :idea:

i wish we had no power, then i could go home...
edited because i just realized i get to go home anyways in 10 minutes! yeah!

« Last Edit: Aug 14^th, 2003, 4:54pm by eeschein »

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BlankWillWin
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Re: Major power outage hits New York, other large
« Reply #9 on: Aug 14^th, 2003, 5:03pm »

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There was a blackout Nov 9, 1965 that affected New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New York state, metropolitan New York City and some small parts of Pennsylvania. The power grid in the Northeast is all interconnected, and power that is generated in Canada, is used in NYC. It's very possible that a overload in NYC due to high demand because of the heat and humidity cascaded up and tripped breakers throughout the entire grid. It's not supposed to do that, but it has happened before.

Eric.

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Rhune
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Re: Major power outage hits New York, other large
« Reply #10 on: Aug 14^th, 2003, 5:05pm »

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In this day and age it seems terribly un-smart to me to have all those cities connected like that via the same power grid...

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east
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Re: Major power outage hits New York, other large
« Reply #11 on: Aug 14^th, 2003, 5:10pm »

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this also includes several canadian cities like toronto (where our addams is). they keep saying on the news that this is not a terrorist attack and yet so many cities...i am a skeptic at heart too.

my prayers and good thoughts go to all in any of these cities who are without power. :hug:

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Rhune
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Re: Major power outage hits New York, other large
« Reply #12 on: Aug 14^th, 2003, 5:42pm »

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My fear at this point is not that this was a terrorist attack, but it certainly provides a big freakin bullseye for a future attack. Why on earth would we have one vulnerable point like that, that could take out all those cities?

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BlankWillWin
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Re: Major power outage hits New York, other large
« Reply #13 on: Aug 14^th, 2003, 6:12pm »

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Power is generated in few discrete locations, (nuclear power plants, coal-fire plants, hydro-electric plants) while it is used in every home and building, so it has to be sent from the plants to the users via the grid. Power output is pretty constant, each plant has a certain generating capacity, (though they don't normally operate at maximum capacity), and unless a plant is taken offline for some reason, it provides that power continuously. Power usage fluctuates greatly depending on time of day and the weather, so if it's 95 degrees with 100% humidity at 6 pm in Baltimore/Washington/Philadelphia/NYC/Boston and everyone gets home from work and cranks the air-conditioner, those large population centers demand more power than local sources can provide, and power is "shipped in" over the grid from Canada and upstate NY. The grid is supposed to be configured so that a local problem, (like the one at a generating plant at Niagra Falls, which apparently caused this problem), remains localized, but obviously the safeguards didn't work, this time.

Eric.

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Re: Major power outage hits New York, other large
« Reply #14 on: Aug 14^th, 2003, 6:27pm »

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So far, all I've heard about are New Yorkers and Cleveland(ers?). So far everyone seems to behaving well. I hope power is restored before nightfall. I wouldn't want to be in a high-rise when the lights went out, but it still would be better than being in a dark subway. Does anyone know if emergency power would lower elevators?

My first thought was also terrorism, but it appears not to be the case. My second thought was terrorists everywhere had a lightbulb moment. Power plants and grids have always been considered a possible target. Any way you look at it, it's a major event.

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