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Jerrek · 15-08-2003, 06:51

WOW.

About 4:30 pm EST today the power at my work went out. We thought it was just some random screwup, but when we saw the people accross the street came out we were thinking hmm... perhaps someone cut a big cable to our area.

I was in a conference call with people from three countries, CEOs and other executive officers, when the power went out. Our PBX was unfortunately not connected to the emergency power. We managed to shut down all the database servers gracefully, and after about 10 minutes I had to contact the people individually to tell them we're having problems with our power.

So I got my cellphone out, and they, in the Grand Cayman Islands, were like "yeah, we saw on CNN you have a blackout."

Apparently the Niagara-Mahawk grid went down. 21 power stations, 10 nuclear power stations, went down in 3 MINUTES at 4:10 to 4:13pm EST. This grid serves the ENTIRE Ontario, including Toronto, Detroit, New York STATE, Cleveland, Toledo, Albany, and other major cities. In fact, most of the north-eastern United States and Canada went down.

NO traffic lights, NO power to the subways of several cities, NO power for the cellular towers, NO power to emergency centers. (Except the emergency power generators of course.)

Going home was a bit chaotic. And I'm OUTSIDE of the major population centers. Can you imagine evacuating all the thousands of people that use subways? New York City, Toronto, etc.? And getting them OUT of the city HOME? More than a million people use the public transit everyday in Toronto.

Can you imagine the powers it caused with networks? Several MAJOR, MAJOR backbone connections come into New England. Just about all telecommunication lines with Europe. All down except those with emergency power generators.

Well, at about 6:00 CBC1, a radio station I was listening for news (I thought it was some terrorist attack, or something bad that happened... And I prayed.), stated that they are now signing off because they don't have any more power. The batteries are dead. 680 News went down, but came back later.

I went home, and then went to a friend that lived close by. Civilians were voluntarily directing traffic at intersections. I think the situation, here in Georgetown area, was handled very well.

Power came back at about 11pm in SOME parts. They are turning the grid back on itty bitty at a time so as not to overload it all at once. Most of the houses were without electricity while the street lights and traffic lights and emergency centers' power were turned back on, and one by one cities were turned back on all over northeastern United States.

*sigh* what a night.

Here are two links, which I can't visit at the moment because there are some network links down at the moment. Grrr.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/3152451.stm

http://www.cnn.com/2003/US/08/14/pow...age/index.html

I'd show more news, but google is down (grr), as well as foxnews and all other newspapers I read... grrr.

15-08-2003, 06:51	#10
Jerrek Inactive Join Date: Jul 2003 Posts: 2,545	Electricity -- Major outage in North America WOW. About 4:30 pm EST today the power at my work went out. We thought it was just some random screwup, but when we saw the people accross the street came out we were thinking hmm... perhaps someone cut a big cable to our area. I was in a conference call with people from three countries, CEOs and other executive officers, when the power went out. Our PBX was unfortunately not connected to the emergency power. We managed to shut down all the database servers gracefully, and after about 10 minutes I had to contact the people individually to tell them we're having problems with our power. So I got my cellphone out, and they, in the Grand Cayman Islands, were like "yeah, we saw on CNN you have a blackout." Apparently the Niagara-Mahawk grid went down. 21 power stations, 10 nuclear power stations, went down in 3 MINUTES at 4:10 to 4:13pm EST. This grid serves the ENTIRE Ontario, including Toronto, Detroit, New York STATE, Cleveland, Toledo, Albany, and other major cities. In fact, most of the north-eastern United States and Canada went down. NO traffic lights, NO power to the subways of several cities, NO power for the cellular towers, NO power to emergency centers. (Except the emergency power generators of course.) Going home was a bit chaotic. And I'm OUTSIDE of the major population centers. Can you imagine evacuating all the thousands of people that use subways? New York City, Toronto, etc.? And getting them OUT of the city HOME? More than a million people use the public transit everyday in Toronto. Can you imagine the powers it caused with networks? Several MAJOR, MAJOR backbone connections come into New England. Just about all telecommunication lines with Europe. All down except those with emergency power generators. Well, at about 6:00 CBC1, a radio station I was listening for news (I thought it was some terrorist attack, or something bad that happened... And I prayed.), stated that they are now signing off because they don't have any more power. The batteries are dead. 680 News went down, but came back later. I went home, and then went to a friend that lived close by. Civilians were voluntarily directing traffic at intersections. I think the situation, here in Georgetown area, was handled very well. Power came back at about 11pm in SOME parts. They are turning the grid back on itty bitty at a time so as not to overload it all at once. Most of the houses were without electricity while the street lights and traffic lights and emergency centers' power were turned back on, and one by one cities were turned back on all over northeastern United States. sigh what a night. Here are two links, which I can't visit at the moment because there are some network links down at the moment. Grrr. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/3152451.stm http://www.cnn.com/2003/US/08/14/pow...age/index.html I'd show more news, but google is down (grr), as well as foxnews and all other newspapers I read... grrr.