Blackouts

Power here in Michigan is slowly being restored. Until further notice, we are to boil our drinking and cooking water for 5 minutes.

There are about 100,000 consumers out of power in my area alone. I'm lucky, all I lost was cable. Though ... that meant my internet connection ... started getting withdrawals for a bit there. LOL.

Hope everyone else is safe and making the best of this situation.

Originally posted by Tybalt
before it gets DARK

Click to expand...

NYC is not the same city you seem to fear. And speaking of which, I couldn't help but thnik of 9/11 when I first heard this news.

From CP24.com:

It was the electrical equivalent of an earthquake. A sudden and lengthy power outage hit Toronto and parts of the province, along with several major cities in the Eastern U.S. Thursday. It came without warning, when electricity was lost around 4:15pm.

It stretches from Toronto to Ottawa, Windsor and North Bay. There are reports some power has been restored to certain portions of the Niagara region, but no one's sure when Toronto will get it back.

The loss hit locally, creating chaos on the streets, with traffic lights out everywhere, streetcars unable to move, commuters trapped in subways, cell phone spotty in many areas, and some places – like the airport and hospitals – forced to rely on emergency back-up generators. There was also concern for people stuck on elevators in office towers, and on the subway, with air conditioning out and temperatures in the 30s.

Itâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]s still not clear what caused the outage, which has also turned off the juice in New York, Buffalo, Detroit and Cleveland. U.S. authorities are adamant that terrorism isnâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]t responsible for the blackout, with the Big Appleâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]s Mayor blaming an overload of the Niagara power grid in Ontario for the problem. Other reports blame a fire in a New York City power station, while the Prime Ministerâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]s office claims the fault lies in Niagara Falls, New York.

An earlier check with the provinceâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]s Independent Market Operator by Pulse24.com had one spokeswoman insisting there were no anticipated problems in Ontario due to the heat on Thursday. A spokeswoman revealed power was being imported from Winnipeg and New York. The fact parts of that state are blacked out, too, likely isnâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]t helping the situation.

Areas affected by Thursday's massive power blackout:

TORONTO:

All of Toronto was without power. The city's transit system shut down, grinding rush hour to a halt and stranding commuters in 31 C heat. Those trying to make it home by car were snarled in gridlock; some commuters directed vehicles as traffic lights were out. Hospitals were functioning on backup power systems. Flights at Pearson airport were allowed to land, but only some international flights were allowed to take off, on a case-by-case basis.

WINDSOR:

Windsor dispatched police officers to all major intersections during the rush hour traffic.

NEW YORK:

Much of New York state was without power, including New York City. Mayor Michael Bloomberg said it was likely the blackout started in the Niagara Falls area and quickly spread. Across Manhattan, people poured out of skyscrapers and started trudging home on foot. Traffic lights were out, and subways and buses stopped. New York's three major airports were without power.

NEW JERSEY:

Much of northern New Jersey was affected. Train service was cancelled and the state emergency management office was activated. There were no reported power problems in the eight southern New Jersey counties covered by Conectiv, the company said.

OHIO:

Power was out across a wide stretch of northern Ohio, from Toledo to Cleveland. Other cities reporting power outages included Akron, Elyria, Mansfield, Sandusky and Tiffin. FirstEnergy spokesman Matt Slagle said the company was getting reports of outages from customers throughout its coverage area in northeast Ohio. The company has 700,000 customers.

MICHIGAN:

Power was out from Detroit to the state capital in Lansing. Detroit Metropolitan Airport remained open with some delays. The outage closed the Detroit-Windsor Tunnel between the United States and Canada.

CONNECTICUT:

Power flickered across Connecticut and some areas of the state lost electric service completely. Northeast Utilities said nearly 58,000 customers were without power. Fairfield County and Connecticut shoreline towns appeared to be the hardest hit.

PENNSYLVANIA:

The northwestern corner of the state was without power. Power went out to much or all of Erie, Forest and Venango counties, according to emergency management officials.

VERMONT:

A handful of northern Vermont towns were hit. A portion of the Northeast Kingdom near Sheldon lost power for about an hour, according to the Central Vermont Public Service, which covers about three-fourths of the state. Some customers in Franklin County, including in Highgate and Swanton, also lost power briefly.

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Talk about a wake up call! It's amazing when your in a city of 3 million people and all the street lights go out, traffic lights go out, subways and streetcars stop service, gas pumps are down, ATM's are down. Some people were stuck in the subway tunnels, others were stuck in elevators in the downtown core.

In Toronto this morning, they are requesting that only emergency service staff go to work this morning. I think 50% of Ontarians have their power restored as of right now, by 9am the rest should be up and running.

It kind of felt like the pioneer days, in a 21st century sort of way!

Power went out where I am also. We were one of the lucky villages though. We were without for approximately 4 hours.

I was ready and willing to get the generator out and running. After Ice Storm 98, I really did not want to be without power. The last outage lasted 19 days here.... It was definately no fun... Thankfully, we had the woodstove to keep us warm and cook our meals on.

Oh my.... those poor people stuck in subways and elevators. That must definately be frightening.

Hope everyone is with power soon!

Has it hit anyone here??? It hasn't over here in Arkansas, but I was just curious to all you easterners and some of canada....Here is a link to the info
Blackout Info

I live about 1 hour north of Detroit. My power flickered a few times about 4:20 yesterday. But, luckily, it remained on. My cable went out for a couple of hours due to the power outages. There are about 100,000 consumers in my area without power. The county has placed us on a water ban as our water comes from Detroit So we must boil our potable water for 5 minutes before consuming it. I'm going to boil some today and stick it in the fridge. The cats are drinking bottled water. Everything seems pretty normal around here this morning save the water business.

NH was unscathed. Thankfully!!

Laurie

See my thread that I started below called Blackout.

I'm headed to the cottage right now. Amazingly, my mother said they had no problems with their power.

Luckedly we seemed to come thru unscathed.

Having no problems in the midwest....The magnitude of the blackout is just amazing! I'm on a rural electric co-operative and they send out monthly newspapers to their customers. Last year sometime, they had a lengthy article on the "power-grid", it's general health, the checks and balances in place to prevent an outage, and what it would take to cause a major outage. They're assessment at the time is that there was a sufficient level of older equipment out there that was a disaster waiting to happen. With this assessment, they talked about how they selectively choose power sources that show a high degree of reliability, and won't tie into a part of the grid that they consider risky.

I wish I had kept that article.....they predicted this outage last year!

I can't wish the folks without power the best, as they are probably stranded without their PC's and can't get on the forum right now!

Apparently much of the equipment for the power grids are from the 1950's and therefore way outdated. Hopefully there will be some serious thought and action happening now. It will be interesting to see what comes out of this.

That was fun My power came back on at 4 this morning, and water at 7. We have a boil alert for the next 24 hours. Downtown Cleveland is closed (literally) until 12 noon. I'm still at home, because our building still has flickering lights and all the computers are down. Ivo didn't enjoy it either, she was pacing and calling, but she did like playing in the dark hallway (the power source for our emergency lights drains after a few hours). I'm just glad I can have a cold drink and take a shower!

I merged this thread with the other one we had going on the blackout.

Yup, Cleveland got hit. Luckily, the power is back on and water restored (a good thing too, because it's supposed to be 90 today).

keeping all posts about the black out in one place.

Originally posted by airprincess
I merged this thread with the other one we had going on the blackout.

Click to expand...

That makes 3 merges, do I hear a bid for 4? Going once, going twice, sold!

I'm back on line. I was without power for 20 hours. Fortunately we have enough clean water to supply drinking water for 24 hours, so they should get our water system back to normal soon.

Virtually all of Ontario was out, except for some pockets in the Niagara Peninsula and in cottage country.

They do not know what caused it yet. That analysis will take a while. The fires reported are a result of powering down the power plants as they went into automatic shutoff.

This is not fun. The excitement and sense of drama faded away by midnight. Although the night sky with the almost full moon was really pretty.

Man, someone was fast on this! Less then 24-hours ...

East Coast Blackout

I personally didn't have any power failure last night at all. I'm in Northern Ontario by Algonquin Park.

I'm just wondering if the cottagers or as some people call them "tourists" are going to be coming up here. If so I'm going into hiding!

I just heard on CNN that the first power outage was located in Ohio and continued from there. There was no fire, no bomb and no lightening that struck a power plant.

The only problem that I've had was today, my internet service was DOWN! So I couldn't get ont the internet until now and I came straight here!

Also, it has nothing to do with that Worm Virus and if you own and use a Macintosh, hey, don't worry be happy! Macintosh users don't get PC viruses!

Have a nice day!

April

Any chance you can confirm if Ajax is out for me - thats where my familly live and also in Missasaugua?

Thanks

k