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Power Outage

PostPosted: Thu Aug 14, 2003 8:40 pm
by Spazmogen
Anyone effected by the power outage today in North America (Ontario, Michigan & New York) ?

I'm @ work right now and things are finally calming down. It was nuts earlier. Hard to believe that when the power goes out, people call 911 to ask why or to complain about it. :roll:

Word I got was it was a lightening strike at the power plant in Niagara Falls (USA side).

PostPosted: Thu Aug 14, 2003 10:53 pm
by aviationwiz
Not here. First I heard the Canadians did something, then I heard the Americans did something. Many finger pointings in the Blackout of 2003 (got the name from cnn).

Re: Power Outage

PostPosted: Thu Aug 14, 2003 11:37 pm
by CDRecorder
Spazmogen wrote:Hard to believe that when the power goes out, people call 911 to ask why or to complain about it. :roll:


That is hard to believe... :o I certainly don't like power outages, but it doesn't make any sense to call 911 about them. :roll:

Re: Power Outage

PostPosted: Fri Aug 15, 2003 12:02 am
by Ian
Spazmogen wrote:Anyone effected by the power outage today in North America (Ontario, Michigan & New York) ?


If they were, they'd have a hard time turning on their computer. :wink:

PostPosted: Fri Aug 15, 2003 5:29 am
by Spazmogen
Even the price of gasoline jumped up during the black out.

The stations that had generators made a killing.

Gas was selling for $2.58 USD per US gallon (at least until the power comes back on).

That's 95 cents a litre folks (in Canadian money)


You can read about it
HERE!

Yeah, I sent the cruiser mentioned in the article there for gas.

In a city of 335,000 not one gas bar had a generator. Damn near everyone had to get gas in a small town like Mt. Brydges (mentioned in the article) and pay a price too.

PostPosted: Fri Aug 15, 2003 7:21 am
by TheWizard
OK, what did Niagara Mohawk screw up this time? For those of you who don't know, Niagara Mohawk is the power company in Upstate New York.

I lived primarily in Upstate NY from 1998-2003, and there was never a major problem with electricity when I was there. Now that I moved out of the state and back into my permanent home, the electricity here flicks off and on every week or so. I never had a problem with electricity here before 1998! It's a conspiracy, I tell you! Maybe I should move back to NY and take my chances with Niagara Mohawk.

PostPosted: Fri Aug 15, 2003 9:47 am
by Phil K
Must admit, we're all having a bit of a snigger on this side of the pond ! ;) :D

PostPosted: Fri Aug 15, 2003 12:52 pm
by socheat
Just got power back this morning. Kind of sad the state of panic most people were in around here. Had to head up about 30 minutes north to the nearest town with power, and there were people there with van's filled with those gasoline jugs. People like me who just wanted to fill their tank had to wait hours just to get a single tank of gas. :roll: Nice thing was that the gas prices hadn't spiked too much (maybe 10 cents more?). Also made a run to the Big Boys in the area. A line was forming out the door, and we were the last group allowed in. Apparently, they were running out of food. :o

Socheat

PostPosted: Fri Aug 15, 2003 2:32 pm
by TheWizard
That would worry me the most during a blackout of this magnitude. Yeah, not having a puter is a bummer, but it's really an amenity. The food spoiling in the fridge is what would piss me off.

PostPosted: Fri Aug 15, 2003 6:35 pm
by dodecahedron
sorry, but i don't get it.
what's all this rush to get gasoline?
OK blackout what's the big deal?

OK, maybe it's showing i'm from a third world country and blackouts are'nt all that rare, not as rare as in the US anyways.

so it's black.
go home, light some candles or just go to sleep.
true, you won't be making up lost TV time, or 'net time, or read a book...
sex if fun!

PostPosted: Fri Aug 15, 2003 9:02 pm
by Spazmogen
dodecahedron wrote:sorry, but i don't get it.
what's all this rush to get gasoline?
OK blackout what's the big deal?


Fuel pumps have electric motors. No electricty means no gas. Even the refineries south of Sarnia are shut down. No one is making gasoline right now. That will change shortly (probably with in 12 hours).

Think about this: you need to make a trip to work (as I do, a 45 minute trip each way) but NO gas station can pump the fuel.

As for the average Joe, stay home until Monday. Leave the remaining fuel for police/fire & ambulance vehicles.

dodecahedron wrote:
sex if fun


Have sex even if it's NOT fun :P

To top it off, it's 32C here today and HUMID.

PostPosted: Fri Aug 15, 2003 10:27 pm
by VEFF
Took me over a little over 4 hours to get home on Thursday night, not bad considering the circumstances and consdering where I work and live.
If I had left my office a bit later (we had our own backup generator),
it might have taken hours longer...

PostPosted: Fri Aug 15, 2003 11:56 pm
by socheat
dodecahedron wrote:so it's black.
go home, light some candles or just go to sleep.
true, you won't be making up lost TV time, or 'net time, or read a book...
sex if fun!


I agree. Everybody rushing to get gas just creates more panic and hysteria. I can understand getting water and ice, since that is essential, and fueling up your car in case you need to leave town, sure. Though, I must admit I sat in my car in my driveway for several hours to enjoy the air conditioning and listen to the news. But mostly for the air conditioning. :)

If the entire state of Michigan (or New York, Ohio, or New Jersey, etc) had lost power, then I'd have been a little more worried.

PostPosted: Sat Aug 16, 2003 12:09 pm
by BurninMan921
Our power stayed on, but apparently, Comcast's 'net servers where in the affected area...just got net acess back on...

PostPosted: Sat Aug 16, 2003 11:39 pm
by TheWizard
Spazmogen wrote:To top it off, it's 32C here today and HUMID.


That also gets my goat when the electricity shuts off and its a hot summer day. No air conditioner can be used, no fan either. So what can people do to cool off? Opening a window won't help as more humid air will enter your house. I suppose you could take a cool shower, but you can't stay in the shower all day long.

PostPosted: Sun Aug 17, 2003 9:14 am
by Action Jackson
Yeah, I lost power but got it back by 6:30 the next morning.

I'm used to driving around in the pitch black night, but it was weird with other drivers on the road.

Didn't have any problem's otherwise. Good people helped direct traffic.

PostPosted: Tue Oct 14, 2003 7:22 pm
by VEFF
Anybody else have equipment fail as a result of the power outage's two or three successive rapid spikes?

My Siemens router died (took a month to die actually).
My brother's girlfriend's family's PC needed a new mobo, CPU and PSU.
My brother's company lost two or three PCs.

PostPosted: Tue Oct 14, 2003 8:44 pm
by aviationwiz
My power went out the other night when I was doing Homework, really pissed me off.

PostPosted: Tue Oct 14, 2003 10:40 pm
by TheWizard
Were you typing your homework on the computer or using a pen and paper? If it's the latter then just light a few candles. It's very...George Washington-esque. :)

PostPosted: Tue Oct 14, 2003 10:50 pm
by aviationwiz
Typing it, luckily I had my laptop, but I needed the Interet for research...

Now I have Road Runner Dial Access, so I just dial up on my phone connection next time.