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2 Million Without Power in the Southwest

Pinkie

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SAN DIEGO (AP) — A major power outage knocked out electricity to more than 2 million people in California, Arizona and Mexico on Thursday, bringing San Diego and Tijuana to a standstill and leaving people sweltering in the late-summer heat in the surrounding desert.

Two nuclear reactors were offline after losing electricity, but officials said there was no danger to the public or workers. FBI officials ruled out terrorism while power plant authorities struggled to find the cause of the outage that started shortly before 4 p.m. PDT.

San Diego bore the brunt of the blackout; most of the nation's eighth-largest city was darkened. All outgoing flights from San Diego's Lindbergh Field were grounded and police stations were using generators to accept emergency calls across the area.

Power out for more than 2 million across US Southwest, Mexico, including San Diego, Tijuana - chicagotribune.com
 
Well - that explains a lot from today.

I guess without power no one can communicate easily saying 'we don't have power' - oi! *pop a pill for that one*
 
Wait til everyone has to go back to wagon wheel days and there is no more power, period.

Don't think it can't or won't happen. I could and might. Iz you all preepared? I iz.
 
All those windmills aren't taking up the slack?
 
I blame Obama - all those people watching his speech on the TV.
 
I blame Obama - all those people watching his speech on the TV.

Riiiiiiight! Watching Obama's speech uses more electricity than watching anything else.
 
Do they still got wifi ??? /sarcasm

Any indication of the actual cause?

I do! Here in dark as hell San Diego. Actually just cell data, but I'm here. We gotta Rv with a propane fridge and a 6000 watt generator, and a whole bunch of leftover burning man supplies. Livin large.

Best word so far on cause is the heatwave a/c use caused the transmission line from Arizona to drop then the secondary to San Onofre went as it tried to pick up the slack. No physical damage to lines as far as I know.

We live in the caretaker house for the water department here, and they said it could be as long as tomorrow night to get everything back on line. It kicked on for a minute a couple hours ago, but since then, nothin.
 
Think of the deaths this will cause in hospitals, nevermind in regular homes from heat loss, etc.
 
2,000,000 without electricity left in total darkness.

Awesome

20,000 Unseen Illegal bastards flooded across the border into the U.S.
I wonder what nationality that worker is? That (ACCIDENTLY) cut that cable.

Simply Awesome.
 
2,000,000 without electricity left in total darkness.

Awesome

20,000 Unseen Illegal bastards flooded across the border into the U.S.
I wonder what nationality that worker is? That (ACCIDENTLY) cut that cable.

Simply Awesome.

fee fi poe fum

i smell the blood of a trolling one.
 
Sounds like some operator spilled another coke on a control console.
 
Our electrical grid needs to be expanded significantly and immediately.
 
That was a interesting but sorta boring night. I did realize I need to get a battery powered radio, remember to always charge my phone, and have more easy-to-make-without-power food stocked in the house.

Hubby worked last night. The power went out and we didn't really know what happened until my brother got the wind-up radio working about an hour later (lasted about 5 min and we weren't going to continuously wind it all night). Then we read books til dark. It is interesting trying to explain to a 3 year old that the power isn't coming back on and he can't "beat up the bad guys" who attacked it. We ended up having pb&j's last night for dinner.

It was pretty uneventful for us, but I'm pretty sure it was a stressful night for all emergency workers. We heard them for a good part of the night. I think it was mainly due to people having complications without power (a person living near us was apparently on O2 and had to get taken to the hospital) and traffic accidents due to no lights. And they had the military guys out helping direct traffic. My husband had a stressful night on base.
 
That was a interesting but sorta boring night. I did realize I need to get a battery powered radio, remember to always charge my phone, and have more easy-to-make-without-power food stocked in the house.

Hubby worked last night. The power went out and we didn't really know what happened until my brother got the wind-up radio working about an hour later (lasted about 5 min and we weren't going to continuously wind it all night). Then we read books til dark. It is interesting trying to explain to a 3 year old that the power isn't coming back on and he can't "beat up the bad guys" who attacked it. We ended up having pb&j's last night for dinner.

It was pretty uneventful for us, but I'm pretty sure it was a stressful night for all emergency workers. We heard them for a good part of the night. I think it was mainly due to people having complications without power (a person living near us was apparently on O2 and had to get taken to the hospital) and traffic accidents due to no lights. And they had the military guys out helping direct traffic. My husband had a stressful night on base.

Glad to hear you're okay.
 
Glad to hear you're okay.

It was just like 10 hours (I think the power was back on by 2 am) without power. Did the same thing in Hawaii when the earthquake took out power on Oahu for pretty much the same time frame, although that happened early, so power was back on before dark, for us at least.

Heck, my mom lived for 6 weeks without power. I can certainly last less than a day.

I will admit though, I was paranoid about sleeping during a power outage, especially in a big city. My doors were checked locked several times before I went to bed.
 
Our electrical grid needs to be expanded significantly and immediately.

So you're willing to see the current $0.16/KwH average rate in America go to $0.80/KwH (or more)? You're also willing to see a new Nuclear Plant built in your home town? You're willing to have a SmartMeter installed in your home and the SmartGrid system activated on all distribution feeders?

Wow, you're a lot more willing to give in than I am (and I work for a utility company)
 
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So you're willing to see the current $0.16/KwH average rate in America go to $0.80/KwH (or more)? You're also willing to see a new Nuclear Plant built in your home town? You're willing to have a SmartMeter installed in your home and the SmartGrid system activated on all distribution feeders?

Wow, you're a lot more willing to give in than I am (and I work for a utility company)

Considering San Diego almost always has at least 2 nuclear plants (sometimes up to 6) sitting within a mile of downtown every day, I don't see why people complain so much. Seattle also has a dozen or more nuclear plants within about 30 miles or so of it.

Nuclear power is not some monster. It can be run quite safely.

But the real answer is to start building homes and businesses that are much more energy efficient and energy producing. Buildings should be built to be as energy efficient as possible, including ensuring that they are well suited for the environment they are in. And we should be considering adding both solar panels and small wind turbines (where practical) to all buildings to try to create as much environmentally driven power for individual buildings as possible. This would greatly cut back on how much power is used from power plants and even help people when these things happen. People would be able to power their own houses, at least partly, without relying completely on the power plants.
 
That was a interesting but sorta boring night. I did realize I need to get a battery powered radio, remember to always charge my phone, and have more easy-to-make-without-power food stocked in the house.

Hubby worked last night. The power went out and we didn't really know what happened until my brother got the wind-up radio working about an hour later (lasted about 5 min and we weren't going to continuously wind it all night). Then we read books til dark. It is interesting trying to explain to a 3 year old that the power isn't coming back on and he can't "beat up the bad guys" who attacked it. We ended up having pb&j's last night for dinner.

It was pretty uneventful for us, but I'm pretty sure it was a stressful night for all emergency workers. We heard them for a good part of the night. I think it was mainly due to people having complications without power (a person living near us was apparently on O2 and had to get taken to the hospital) and traffic accidents due to no lights. And they had the military guys out helping direct traffic. My husband had a stressful night on base.

The water company property we live on also houses cell phone and some kind of data swithching stations. The guys were in and out all night. Weird and dark in Solana Beach. Let the neighbors with the new baby know we had power and refridgeration if they needed it. Watched some downloaded tv on my phone, cooked by flashlight. LOTS of activity from the fire department down the street.
 
Considering San Diego almost always has at least 2 nuclear plants (sometimes up to 6) sitting within a mile of downtown every day, I don't see why people complain so much. Seattle also has a dozen or more nuclear plants within about 30 miles or so of it.

Nuclear power is not some monster. It can be run quite safely.

But the real answer is to start building homes and businesses that are much more energy efficient and energy producing. Buildings should be built to be as energy efficient as possible, including ensuring that they are well suited for the environment they are in. And we should be considering adding both solar panels and small wind turbines (where practical) to all buildings to try to create as much environmentally driven power for individual buildings as possible. This would greatly cut back on how much power is used from power plants and even help people when these things happen. People would be able to power their own houses, at least partly, without relying completely on the power plants.

Distributed generation is definitely the answer. I'm pretty sure something I read once was from the military that stated that our power systems are too concentrated and therefore pose a national security risk. Wind solar and micro-hydro should all be being used wherever possible. I have a couple friends that are either off grid or working towards it. One is my "bolt hole" in the case of some REAL disaster/crisis. So far out in the high desert no hordes of starving Angelenos would ever think to look there for food and water.

We were kind of amazed at the peace of mind we had from our "emergency backup house" last night. Felt all prepared and stuff!
 
Riiiiiiight! Watching Obama's speech uses more electricity than watching anything else.

I blame the NFL, all that juice used to watch the game......who watched Obama anyway? :lol: Actually I watched him, and it was a horribly delivered speech. Obama was definitely off his game, for a speaker like him. Not presidential at all.
 
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