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[USMC Sniper 0]

Hi all, my area has has serious problems, I just got power back for the first time since 4:14 PM (16:14) Eastern time, and I think we will be having rolling blackouts as well. I think there is tons of crime around, I can hear police sirens almost non stop. It's pretty hot here, around 30 degrees celsius.

[SpecOp9 0]

Yea, that would be me right now on my laptop,

I am driving down times square with 50 million dollars and the cops are in back of us!  

Sorry gotta go my gun is reloaded cya!

[philmante 0]

well i really dont care about this any more i am not gonna waste my time argueing but hopefully we wont have anymore blackouts

[Dauragon 0]

Hi all, my area has has serious problems, I just got power back for the first time since 4:14 PM (16:14) Eastern time, and I think we will be having rolling blackouts as well. I think there is tons of crime around, I can hear police sirens almost non stop. It's pretty hot here, around 30 degrees celsius.

30 degree celsius? you call that hot? it aint hot till you taste 45°

[Tovarish 0]

Well, power went out here for about 20 minutes again, news reports say much of downtown Ottawa is still blacked out, and we should expect rolling blackouts for the weekend.

What pisses me off is the lack of word from my college. They do just fine in sending me junk e-mail about Student Association Garage Sales, Date Rape Awareness and such, but something like this is happening on the eve of final exams, and not a warning to those who have classes during the evening not to show up, no assurances that it's business as usual for exams, not so much as a mention in the local news. Nada.  

*edit* on the ironic side, I'm studying for a Circuit Analysis exam tonight which I may or may not be writting tomorrow, with some candles handy since someone seems to have forgotten to check his wiring diagrams/check his calculations/check his equipment settings

[Winters 1]

Hey everyone,

I just got my power back after 27 hours of darkness. Wow, what a hectic day its been, i was stuck in NYC and had to walk all the way home in the heat and congestion. At least when i got home my mates had a BBQ going and a ice cold beer with my name all over it. We have been BBQ'ing and drinking almost 20 hours straight now  

*Edit: i like having a day off (no trains so i cant get in to work) and many people in NYC have taken to the streets to have a party, No rampant rioting and looting going on. The only people who need watching out for are the Eldery and people with Asthma, but otherwise its minor inconvience.

Oh yeah one more thing. Bush says he is gonna find out exactly what caused the power outing just as soon as he finds the WMD's in Iraq and Saddam and Osama. Then his people will get on top of this

[The Frenchman 0]

Well this whole thing how the US is blaming Canada might lead to somthing bad:

They better show this on HBO tommarow.

[FSPilot 0]

It was bound to happen sooner or later. We need that precious precious canadian oil.

[Tovarish 0]

Well this whole thing how the US is blaming Canada might lead to somthing bad:

Hey, from what I hear, the problem started on the New York side of Niagra Falls    . Oh and I'm college now, so it looks like for better or for worse, finals are going ahead as planned. Back to cramming!

And yes, Canadian Bacon was a great movie

[USMC Sniper 0]

30 degree celsius? you call that hot? it aint hot till you taste 45°

The temperature itself IS hot, plus it is really humid and the air is thick. And I have "tasted" temperatures above 40, when I was on vacation in Tunisia a few years ago. :P

[Dauragon 0]

30 degree celsius? you call that hot? it aint hot till you taste 45°

The temperature itself IS hot, plus it is really humid and the air is thick. And I have "tasted" temperatures above 40, when I was on vacation in Tunisia a few years ago. :P

Yeah i was in Tunisia once and the temperature was even "killer" in the shadow

[bn880 5]

Yeah Tovarish, I could have told you (well if I had power), don't count on classes when something like htis goes wrong. I've totally ignored the College as soon as power went out, which is mutual.

I figure they should move exams by 1 or 2 days, but probably won't. Don't worry about assignments, everyone has to give extensions now or you beat them.

Anyway here is my gripe about this whole matter from the COC forums:

Quote[/b] ]I've got to REALLY REALLY gripe so bear with me:

I'm not against saving power, but the message from our govt year after year is turn off your AC, which is nonsense. Saving power is done in business, industry, insulaiton and more efficient airconditioners etc.

How would you feel if every year for a decade all you get from the govt is turn stuff off? There is saving power, but there is also sheer stupidity! Is your nation dependent on 30-40% of it's power from the US? Our province is in the summer. That's wrong, we have a demand and are not meeting it.

Anyway, we have a huge problem this year because our government didn't even tell us demand was highest ever, and that we were on the brink of failure, and that they were buying 40% or so from the US. Now I should have power over the weekend since the damn businesses are closed and not using up power that should be going to our freezer and AC.

Local giant supermarkets closed immediately when power went out and kept the food untill it rotted and threw it out next day. That is instead of keeping the store open and giving some away or selling at very low price. There are more rolling power blackouts planned (I know even if most around me don't) as soon as businesses open on Monday, if the heat persists. Unfortunately when they roll power from street to street, they do not inform the citizens in radio before hand = you don't know when to cook, when to set the laundry etc. etc. Fortunately the generators that did NOT fail were for Ottawa's water pump system. Airport generators did fail. ;) Phone generators were inadequate.

I remember back in Poland our power system was inadequate. Fortunately communism being as organized as it is we were never in the dark about how much power our city is using, how much we can have maximum, and when power would be rolled on what streets. It is apalling that a supposed democratic and hi-tech society such as in Canada is 100 times less efficient in handling problems than Poland 20 years ago. There seems to be a trend in Canada and probably N. America in general about keeping people from information, and when information is given it looks like it's given to children under the age of 7.

Furthermore if you walk around the city of Ottawa you are going to laugh at the power and communication poles, the stuff looks like Yougoslavia after the war or something. Quebec our next door French province on the other hand is not as stupid as Ontario. After the ice storm of 1998 they invested 2Billion dollars to insulate themselves from Ontario and US power grid with proper buffers (fuses) and created a backup grid loop. That's why their power remained. Plus they invested in more power plants, today we and some parts of the US get power from Quebec.

And what's with the nuclear plants, they totally shut down in case of overload on the grid, takes a week to get them up to power. Why not come up with a secondary grounding system which grounds the turbine power for the time being before power can be put back on the grid, instead of shutting off the reactors. Maybe there is another issue, but I suspect it's cost only, and we can afford power, trust me.

I'm sorry to say, but this neglegence is apparent all over Canadian policies, for example the mad cow thing. We already saw what happened in Britain, and we knew the resolutions made there, so does the US. Sweden already made the cattle resolutions before any crysis occured. But we just change nothing even though our scientists warn of danger. So, there we go a few years later an infected cow. Woo hoo, what a big surprize for Canada. And it's the same case with the US. Feed laws are improper, meat seperation methods as well.

I'm upset, many people I live with in Canada do not demand enough responsibility from the goverments, and don't demand enough from each other in terms of quality of workmanship. It's silly, for example DND HQ lost a lot of their comms at the start of the blackout. The vournability of Canada to foreign attack is beyond comprehension. And hey, if we ever get bombed, the US power grid will go down, and vice versa. Half the city would probably burn down in the first day of war anyway. hehhe

So that's my gripe, neglegence, complacency, favouring big business, but hey, people do bug the P.M. about his French accent.

I know, every country has it's pluses and minuses, for example I still prefer Canada over Poland 100x. I guess what European nations have is experience with hardship, war, and just generally people are not treated like babies and act responsibly. I doubt stores in Germany for instance would have closed down and thrown out all food in the morning instead of giving it away through the night.

And you missed a quote about traffic, crime and deaths fro mthe day before. It wasn't good at all.

[Winters 1]

They have no idea who's "Fault" it is and quite frankly people don't care, we just want to see it fixed so it does not matter anymore. Hopefully a team will be made of energy officials from both countries so that the findings they make can be believed.

Kudos to the common folk who all pitched in and helped each other out. This blackout (in New York City area) was very tame compared to what happened in 1977 and it proves how much this city i live in and love so much has grown, it also helps when 10K NYPD officers are deployed but even with the majority of them directing traffic, their presence in the area serves as a deterent to would-be looters. Its also a testimony to how well prepared the city was to handle this compared to '77 they had a good plan and everyone knew what they was supposed to be doing. the blackout happened @ 16:11 NYC time and by 20:00 they had announce that 800 elevator rescues had been done and no one else was left trapped and also 600 trains that had been stuck in tunnels and had all be cleared out as well and of the 60 fires that started (the average a night is 10) most of them was caused by people falling asleep with candles burning, there was some looting (as is to be expected in a city of 2million, not eveyone is nice ya know) but it was minor (only 3 stores) and no major damage was caused to the looted stores.

Thats the news here from the scene in New York, and now back to you jim...........

[Winters 1]

Ohh MAN!

If I was in New York during that black out, I would be looting every single store!

INFINITE OFP COPIES!  

You would have been arrested within a few minutes if you even managed to break the front gates down and gained entry. The police were everwhere.

[FSPilot 0]

Thanks winters, power had returned to normal on Saturday in the homes of most of the nearly two-million Northeastern area residents affected by Thursday's blackout, but tensions remained high across the country as lawmakers hastily turned their attention to the task of unearthing the root of the problem.

http://www.foxnews.com.edgesuite.net/story/0,2933,94900,00.html

Meanwhile a giant reptile-like footprint has been discovered pointed in the general direction of New York City. When asked what had caused the footprint a US military spokesperson replied "What? There's no godzilla about to wipe out the city of new york, are you insane?"

[Winters 1]

No problem, better to get news from someone in the middle of the city than from someone 1,000's of miles away who is totally clueless

[bn880 5]

They have no idea who's "Fault" it is and quite frankly people don't care, we just want to see it fixed so it does not matter anymore. Hopefully a team will be made of energy officials from both countries so that the findings they make can be believed.

Kudos to the common folk who all pitched in and helped each other out. This blackout (in New York City area) was very tame compared to what happened in 1977 and it proves how much this city i live in and love so much has grown, it also helps when 10K NYPD officers are deployed but even with the majority of them directing traffic, their presence in the area serves as a deterent to would-be looters. Its also a testimony to how well prepared the city was to handle this compared to '77 they had a good plan and everyone knew what they was supposed to be doing. the blackout happened @ 16:11 NYC time and by 20:00 they had announce that 800 elevator rescues had been done and no one else was left trapped and also 600 trains that had been stuck in tunnels and had all be cleared out as well and of the 60 fires that started (the average a night is 10) most of them was caused by people falling asleep with candles burning, there was some looting (as is to be expected in a city of 2million, not eveyone is nice ya know) but it was minor (only 3 stores) and no major damage was caused to the looted stores.

Thats the news here from the scene in New York, and now back to you jim...........

Yes actually people care a lot whose fault it was, and the work must only begin when power is back up. These power systems need major changes.

Most people agree it was a failure in the US power grid somewhere in north western New York or there abouts. Certainly the only ones to blame Canadas systems so far had no clue at all, like a New York mayor.

[bn880 5]

2million, not eveyone is nice ya know) but it was minor (only 3 stores) and no major damage was caused to the looted stores.

Only 3 stores got looted? Wow, I find that hard to believe, 16 cases of looting in Toronto first day. And a nice armed robbery/shootout here in Ottawwa in the first 50 minutes of the blackout.

Anyway I heard there were 15000 emergency calls handled when power went out in New York City. Too bad those buildings don't have generators or battery backups to at least let people out of elevators eh.

[Winters 1]

The New York Mayor has no clue about anything. Don't get me wrong i want to know what happened myself but people really want to see a more permanent solution than to point fingers, leave that to the pols. The grid system is getting antiquadated and maybe now something serious can be done about fixing it.

BTW: I blame Mexico, they have been too quiet through all of this to NOT be up to something  

Edit:

BN880,

Workers from the elevator companies themselves went to all the buildings they serviced and checked for trapped people which helped EMS and NYPD to do other things. The 3 stores looted where ones that had actually been broken into. there was several other smaller incidents.

[bn880 5]

Yeah it's about finding what went wrong, and if anyone is to blame it's everyone involved with power generation and distribution. Any mediocre electrician can see the problem if he works in that sector of the industry and so anyone can be blamed for not forcing the issue. So, blame doesn't matter, but the cause and fix is very important.

[bn880 5]

Wanna hear more stupidity? Not from me, from this guy

Ontario Premier Earnie Eves in an interview just now, after having his quotes played downplaying our energy problems:

Reporter: so why do we have this big power failure and now this big problem supplyiong enough power to Ontario

Eves: We don't have a power shortage, it is a problem in the delivery system that happened in the states.  And let me advise you that no modern power system, even the best system built yesterday can guarantee a power failure such as this doesn't occur when it's running at extended capacity.

DOH, he said it, it's over it's capacity and a failure can not be contained.  Of course the reporter caught on as well and wasn't happy either.

Well anyway, this shortage was a huge life/death issue for many people in different situations.  So Tex downplaying it doesn't know what he's talking about.  Sure it's fine if you are at home and healthy when it happens.  If you are older, or require special oxygen sustaining equipment, or got stuck in elevators, or got robbed or raped in the dark it's not a minor incoveniance, it's a dead serious issue.  Our cities are modern and dependent, although we should be prepared and it should be a minor issue, it is not, people are ill prepared.  For instance a coal mine here in Ontario had miners trapped in  a shaft elevator for 12 hours here.  Why no generator.  Airfield generator(s) failed, why?  Many cities could not pump water with their generators up hills and into highrise buildings (where most senoirs live).  Thieves had a filed day with cars and bikes etc in the dark.  You won't hear about it.  Gasoline stations run on electricity with no generators as well.  Many people don't have normal phones anymore so once power was out their communications died.  Phone generators were too weak to handle/power all phones on the line so some people couldn't dial.  People got stuck in the subway for hours, which is terrible.  The list is really and trully endless, this is a big problem because of the modernization of the city and a lack of preparedness by people who never experienced hardship before.

As for me it would have been just a normal inconvenience, but because of the nature of my neighbourhood and crime it was a big incovenience. So people made it worse.  

[denoir 0]

How come the mobile phones did not work? Any semi-respectable mobile service provider should have proper USPs.

That should be their first priority now - to make sure that communication does not break down again as it did.

[FSPilot 0]

I wouldn't be surprised if they just got overloaded with calls, like on 9/11

[philmante 0]

yeah thats what they said they said verizon and at & t were the overloaded ones or sumthin

[bn880 5]

Well I think most cell phones did end up working after some short delay.  The problem was mostly in land line phones but got better as less and less people were using the phones. (radio advisory)  The rest of the probems were peoples fault, antenna phones need power to work, and won't work on phone outlet voltage alone. (we have fewer mobile phones than in EU, so it was a big worry)

The scary thing is that national defense communications were also affected.  

EDIT: So yeah, for the most part I can't say there was a communication provider service crisys for most people, everyone did jam the lines or didn't have good phones. the scary hting is the defense comms.