St. Louis, NY, CA people experiencing power outages

[lonestarnot]

Have you been give explanations that make sense? ST. Louie is probably due to storms, but the underground damage without any explanation for cause for 6 days is just too wierd. And an melting lines in San Diego is just well not a good explanation. Anyone have any real answers?

[valerief]

1. Revenge of Enron, perhaps? n/t

[lonestarnot]

2. Guess no one knows and those without power can't post.

I wondered why I had not seen Madokie. Hope he's ok.

[electron_blue]

3. Yeah, seems weird how the NY outages are described as mysterious

I thought outages were pretty obvious why they happend. But I'm no expert - anyone here work with the power industry who can chime in?

[blonndee]

5. Here's a CNN story on the Queens situation

Sounds pretty bad!

http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/07/22/ny.blackouts.ap/index.html

[lonestarnot]

6. Thanks blonndee. With Con in a name no wonder

"Con Edison's behavior has crossed the line from reprehensible to criminal," said Assemblyman Michael Gianaris, who called for an investigation." Still saying they don't know what caused this.

[DanCa]

4. If people can afford it i'd recommend that they buy a home generator

Our sub division lost power now for three day this week and it worked fairly well. Allthough I confess that I am not sure if it'd work in the st lous ny and californa situations.

[drthais]

7. a generator will work anywhere

we all have them here because we're in Louisiana
and you have to have one, period

they are loud, they consume lots of gas
and really all they're good for
is making sure your refrigerator and freezer stay on
so all your food doesn't spoil
you can't run air conditioning with them, or anything
but you can run a fan
but not a fan, AND the fridge AND the freezer

you have limited choices

but you can run them as long as you have gasoline

[DanCa]

8. Ah

Well the thing is that I am not a heatting and air export. I just know how to run the one that we have. We also used it to keep the fans going. It wasn't a perfect solution, mind you, but it was better than waitting the 12 or so hours until the power kicked backed on.

[Toots]

19. I guess it all depends on how big your generator is

You would think Americans could figure a way to harness the energy from the sun in a more efficient manner. It is the future you know..

[gumby]

9. I have family in the St. Louis area.

At this point, they feel like refugees. But, they are lucky that there are places, and other family members that can take them in.

What they are experiencing is minor compared to Katrina victims/refugees.

Of course, "forces of nature" can never be stopped. However, there has been the knowledge and the technology to mitigate such catastrophic results for a long time.

The way this country has built homes has been disastrous. There are far better designs than "cornfield," "cottonfield," or "whatever" field mansions we see devouring our land.

Were is the "free market" that produces far better results? Where is the "free market" that offers self-sustaining earth ships?

The "free market" is scamming everyone. The "free market" isn't about "progress," it's all about taking an antiquated system and scamming all they can from it. The "free market" isn't free at all. It's very, very worse than "free."

The real possibilities are powerful alternatives, but the "free market" uses its muscle to keep everyone beholden to their hold on power.
:rant:

[lonestarnot]

12. Well people are free not to buy the damn things.

[DinahMoeHum]

10. We had a hellacious thunderstorm/microburst in the NY suburbs

in addition to the ongoing problem in the borough of Queens.
http://www.lohud.com/apps/pbcs.dll/section?category=NEWS09&theme=stormcenter&template=theme
My neighborhood was without the juice for 3 days - got it back Friday afternoon.

And some of the neighborhoods nearby (and very wealthy ones at that) won't get the juice back until tomorrow - even that's not guaranteed because we've had periods of thundershowers all weekend.

Downed trees/telephone poles/wires, damage to houses, roof damage at a nearby high school - well, that's just plain ole Mother Nature there. We had two days of near triple digit temperatures before this.

:bounce:

[lonestarnot]

13. But no sign of global warming I guess.

[DinahMoeHum]

17. Can't really say. Temperatures are back to the 80s, par for this area

this time of year.

:shrug:

[kineneb]

11. hotter than...? in CA

Our AC has not shut off most of the day. NOAA site had heat warnings posted for the two valleys- over 110 F. It was probably close to that here; the automated weather station on Mt. Konocti reached 106 today and it is at 2100 ft. elevation.

[lonestarnot]

14. 113 here today. Normal for this period is 107

[survivor999]

15. And all this just a few weeks

after Ken died... Freaky....

[madrchsod]

16. from what i have read in several power industry magazines

the biggest problem facing the industry is the power lines and grids. the lines need to be rebuilt and new ones need to be built. the realigning of the grid to be able to deliver power where it is needed and faster responce if the grid fails...but alas we have a war on terror to win....

[foreverdem]

18. Astoria's wiring is haphazard at best

I live in Astoria. When we had electrical problems a few years back, an electrician came to our house to do some work and was telling us that Astoria is wired like no other neighborhood in any other borough. He said that the planning was poor, rushed, overloaded and that every house on every street can be hooked up to a different generator, miles away from each other. There is no rhyme or reason to it. Case in point, when my electric went out last week, and 2 days later came back on, while some on my street were still without power or never lost power in the first place. This is nothing new. Every summer there is some kind of power outage in Astoria and we have at least 3 or 4 manhole cover explosions. It wouldn't hurt if Con Edison upgraded the wiring everytime they raise our rates instead of lining their pockets.