heads up Atlanta! - Offline generators caused germ lab outage

[ensho]

http://www.ajc.com/wednesday/content/metro/atlanta/stories/2008/07/18/cdc_power_outage.html


Congressman says agency 'must act now to address problems in its system.'


A critical germ lab at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention lost power last week because the agency had taken two backup generators out of service for upgrades, CDC officials said Friday.

Their absence from a complex, centralized backup generator system created a power fluctuation when the system was activated during a July 11 power outage, causing the whole system to shut down, CDC spokesman Dave Daigle said. The problem is being fixed, he said.

The backup power failure — the second in 13 months — is the type predicted years ago by some CDC engineers. And it has heightened concerns in Congress about lab safety at the Atlanta agency, which experiments on smallpox, Ebola, anthrax and other deadly germs.

"For high containment labs, repeated power failures are repeated safety failures," said U.S. Rep. John Dingell, chairman of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, which has been investigating biolab safety nationally.
-snip-
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accidents happen

[lpbk2713]

1. M - O - O - N ... that spells 'Ohhh shit.'

:eyes:

[NightWatcher]

4. sweet! I'm on my way to pick up Molly Ringwald on my dirtbike

[onehandle]

2. I live five minutes from there.

I was wondering what that cough and rash was caused by.

[emilyg]

5. So do I. Now we know.

[MetaTrope]

3. I've seen this in movies...when the lights go out, all the cages open

and lab technicians start breaking windows and stuff. Because movie audiences will believe anything.

[MadrasT]

6. Misread

I misread that as "sperm lab" and pictured a bunch of cartoon sperm, swimming around all confused in the dark. :rofl:

[PVnRT]

7. That's not an accident, it's shitty maintenance planning

You NEVER take down backup systems without having another backup in place, unless you just shut everything down first. Whoever was in charge of doing this ought to be sacked as quickly as possible.

[spinbaby]

8. Probably a crony in charge

Maybe "Heck of a Job" Brownie went to work there.

[ensho]

9. I was being sarcastic when I said accidents happen

they do happen and regs. should cover them

[DearAbby]

10. "Don't fear the Reaper!"

"baby can you dig yourrrr maaaan!"