Blackout

[Ashley Weed]

Wow, sure glad the generator kicked on! Thought I should share.....


Major power failure across Northeast

Toronto, Detroit also affected after fire at NY power plant

BREAKING NEWS
MSNBC AND NBC NEWS

Aug. 14 — A fire at a major New York power plant caused cascading blackouts throughout the Northeast, the Midwest and eastern Canada late Thursday afternoon, knocking out electricity to millions of people in New York, Toronto, Detroit, Cleveland and elsewhere.
FEDERAL POWER REGULATORS did not identify the power plant, but CNN reported that a fire had been reported at a transformer at the Consolidated Edison plant in New York City. Most of the affected cities are linked on the same regional power grid.
Officials of the Homeland Security Department said there were no indications that the blackout was the work of terrorists.
The evening rush hour was just beginning in the East, and NBC correspondents described scenes of pandemonium as thousands of New Yorkers streamed into streets where traffic signals were not operating.
The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey said it was crippled. Buses, trains and subways were not running. WNBC-TV reported that fire crews were heading down into the subways to check on thousands of stranded passengers.
Jim Tsumi of Riverdale, N.Y., was sitting on the shoulder of Highway 495 leading to the Lincoln Tunnel.
“I got no hope getting home tonight,” he said, pointing across the river at Manhattan, where the West Side Highway and a two-mile traffic jam were clearly visible. “It’s like 9/11 again. I hope this is nothing big.”
The blackout stretched from Hartford, Conn., and Syracuse, N.Y., west to Detroit and Cleveland and north to northwest Ontario. The entire city of Toronto was affected, MSNBC television reported.
The Federal Aviation Administration said that its facilities were operating normally on backup power and that planes in the air were in no danger. FAA officials told NBC News that individual airport terminals could be affected, however, and Detroit Metropolitan Airport was temporarily closed.
Much of New England, however, including all of Massachusetts, Rhode Island and New Hampshire, southern Vermont and eastern Connecticut, were unaffected, as were other areas of Canada, including Montreal and Quebec City.

[Mike Schroeder]

wow my computer runs on no power thats kinda cool

[Tytus Gerrish]

BLAST! my e-mail is based in NYC


Beats the noodles out of our little tornado-caused power problems

[Elgin Clock]

My power where I am working in CT keeps flickering here (4 times so far)... Not affecting CT huh?? Yeah right!!!

Well, hopefully everyone and everything will be ok!!

edit: I'm watching a streaming newscast of NYC right now, it looks like a mad house. Lots of pedestrians!!

[Ashley Weed]

I can't imagine the feeling. Especially the people who were in the city almost two years ago. Getting out of work, and seeing a mass exodous. People in the subways must be frantic.

[Ryan Dognaux]

It's crazy that so many cities are being affected.. as far as Detroit... luckily Indianapolis is okay

[Ricky Q.]

Oconomowoc is OK! /me wipes sweat off forehead

[Andy Baker]

At the time of this blackout, I was on the phone with two engineers in Detroit and they were both saying "whoa... the power just went out". They were about 30 miles apart.

Andy B.

[Breanne M]

wow, i've been watching the news for about an hour nowit's crazy how it affected so many areas... i'm over in the LA area on the west coast, so it hasn't affected us, but i have a lot of friends in those areas in the east... i hope they're doing ok with no power...

[DarkRedDragon]

Has anyone ever seen the power schematics of New York? I have, and let me tell u it looks like spaghetti and meatballs. The biggest problem is that it will take a long time to get the power back up. Because if anyone remembers their A/C electricity, you have to have equal frequencies and power coming in and going out. And even then, i think when the power is restored, alot of fuses will blow, and city fuses are the size of humans. So, now it is time to watch and wait. Good thing i get my power straight from Limerick Nuclear Power Plant.

[apk]

I've been watching the news(abc) and they keep puting up two maps showing the area. In one map, im in the blackout area, and in another, im hundreds of miles away from the outage. Hmm... glad to still have power.

They haven't noted an exact reason yet (they say they don't know), but what does everyone think that it is most likly?

[Aaron Lussier]

I heard one of the main stations got overloaded and shut down to save the fuses

[marlon_jbt]

Well, you know, this is coming from someone who is right in the middle of it.

I'm sweaty, I'm bored, I can barely stay online, and, it's totally not safe to be out on the roads.

And could someone please explain how I'm able to get online? I'm not sure how that system works.

Does anyone know when this is going to end?

[Matt Krass]

No fires, just overloaded and shut down. Gotta love the automatic "If I go down they're coming with me" attitude.

Anyway it's back...hope it stays back.

[Madison]

CNBC is now reporting that a lightning strike in Canada was the initial cause.

We have power, but most of LI does not. We're right near the airport and it's open -- I think we're on the same grid.