http://www.auburnpub.com/articles/2006/ ... tate04.txt
Queens blackout worse than first reported
by The Associated Press
Saturday, July 22, 2006 12:11 AM EDT
NEW YORK - The misery of a five-day blackout that has darkened large swaths of Queens during the hottest week of the year erupted into fury Friday after Con Edison revealed that the blackout is 10 times larger than it had previously reported.
The development drew an angry response, with residents and city leaders branding Con Ed as incompetent and one state lawmaker even calling for a criminal investigation.
All the while, Queens residents endured another sweltering day with no lights and no air conditioning as rotten food piled up and streetlights remained dark. A firehouse responded by handing out water and dry ice, and the Red Cross was giving away meals.
?It's a total catastrophe. We've been throwing things out for four days,? restaurant owner Louis Panazakos lamented as workers threw out garbage bags full of fresh pasta and sauces. ?This is America. It's not Africa. We came here to make a better life.?
Con Edison originally said the blackout only affected 2,500 customers, but provided a new estimate on Friday of 25,000, saying the initial figure was based only on the number of customers who called to complain.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg said the actual number of people without power was about 100,000; the term ?customer? can refer to more than one household - or even an entire apartment building.
Bloomberg said he was annoyed by the new estimate because ?we might have thrown more resources into the area.?
?The sad thing is, this shouldn't have happened,? Bloomberg said. ?We don't know why, but the most important thing - make sure nobody dies or gets hurt and then help Con Ed to get it back up.?
Others had harsher words for Con Ed.
?Con Edison's behavior has crossed the line from reprehensible to criminal,? said Assemblyman Michael Gianaris, who called for the criminal investigation. ?To know that elderly and sick Queens residents were without vital services for days because of Con Edison's lies is just criminal.?
Con Edison spokesman Chris Olert said the company will ?cooperate with everyone's inquiries.?
?We're trying to get them up as quickly as possible,? said Alfonso Quiroz, another Con Edison spokesman. ?We're working 24/7, and we're hoping that the bulk of the customers that are out will be back on Sunday.?
Con Edison said its revised number followed a block-by-block cable inspection in northwest Queens on Thursday night. That led to the higher number - and escalated the rhetoric against the main power company in New York City.
?Their estimates at the beginning were based on how many people called up and said, ?My power's not working.' ... You can question whether that's an intelligent way to do it,? Bloomberg said.
But the wild variations in the numbers raised questions about why City Hall was relying on a private company's estimates rather than compiling its own figures from the teams of people and municipal agencies on the ground.
City officials said an independent count was not conducted because the focus in the first few days was on preventing the blackouts from spreading further. Bloomberg ordered Con Ed to do a street-by-street assessment late Thursday, after many had been questioning the numbers.
The exact cause of the blackout is a mystery.
A series of heavy-duty circuits that supply the area began to fail Monday evening, just hours after the sweltering state set a record for electricity use. More circuits failed on Tuesday and more again on Wednesday, even after the city's heat wave ended and demand for power plummeted.
Just why heat would have triggered a problem in Queens, but not elsewhere, was unclear.
Evidence of the blackout could be seen around Queens.
On Steinway Street in Astoria, a block was closed to traffic Friday amid lines of Con Edison trucks and workers digging to fix power lines.
In front of a shuttered shop in Astoria, melted ice cream oozed from a pile of plastic garbage bags. An employee said the store had lost more than 500 gallons.
Bobby Collazo, the owner of a clothing store, was attending to a customer in his dark shop.
?In 2003 it took a day and a half to turn on all of the lights in New York City and now this little store here has been closed for three days - with the big Con Ed power station a few blocks away,? he said, referring to the massive blackout of three years ago.
Two LaGuardia Airport terminals were without power Tuesday; the Rikers Island jail complex used backup generators. A number of subway problems around the city this week were believed to be heat or power related.
Bloomberg said the city had expected to restore traffic lights by the Friday afternoon rush-hour, with traffic agents posted at remaining intersections.
Uniformed officers were showing a ?significant presence? and two burglary arrests were made on Thursday night at blacked-out homes, said Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly. The mayor said calls to 911 were down 40 percent because police were on the scene, where residents ?can grab them.?
Bloomberg demanded that the utility investigate and deliver a report on the cause within two weeks.
Similarly, Con Edison said Friday that 35,000 customers in Westchester County - not the 25,000 reported earlier - lost power after Tuesday's storm. About 6,000 were still out on Friday afternoon.
Mike Campbell, a construction employee on disability, attends daily mass at St. Joseph's Church in Astoria, which has had no electricity for five days.
?It's like the days of Columbus, Mass by candlelight,? he said. ?The priest had to use candles to read the scriptures.?
100F = 5 days of blackouts in New York
WHy this is newsworthy and what's really pissing them off is that its gone on for so long. As you say no big deal, just one borough in New Yor effected, but the normal time scale for one of these summertime blackouts is a day and half.MacG wrote:Yahoo say that 100 000 people are affected. Irritating for them, but not THAT big. I think we can expect significant under-reporting about things like this in the future.
5 days without power in the middle of summer in New York is no joke!
Repair crews struggle as blackout in NYC borough enters 6th
Repair crews struggle as blackout in NYC borough enters 6th day
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/artic ... s_6th_day/
Repair crews struggle as blackout in NYC borough enters 6th day
By Verena Dobnik, Associated Press | July 23, 2006
NEW YORK -- A power failure in the borough of Queens entered its sixth day yesterday in the hottest week of the summer, and the mayor said chances were small that the problem could be repaired by the end of the weekend.
As many as 20,000 residences and businesses, or about 80,000 people, still had no electricity yesterday. Electrical crews from as far away as Pittsburgh and Columbus were on their way to New York to help with repairs.
Severe thunderstorms Friday hindered efforts to repair the series of unexplained electrical failures and knocked out some repaired circuits, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said.
Con Edison utility crews also have been finding more and more damage as they inspect underground cables.
``When they've opened these manholes, they've found more damage than they thought they would find," the mayor said at a briefing yesterday.
Power has been out for some residents and businesses since Monday.
A series of heavy-duty circuits supplying an area in northwest Queens failed Monday evening, hours after the state set a record for electricity use.
As temperatures rose to 100 degrees, more circuits failed Tuesday. The same happened Wednesday, even after the heat wave broke and power demand plummeted.
Con Edison has not been able to explain why the power distribution system failed.
On Friday, Con Edison revealed that the outage was 10 times larger than it had previously reported. The utility initially said only 2,000 customers were affected, but it provided a new estimate on Friday of 25,000, saying the earlier figure was based only on the number of people who called to complain.
The utility said its revised number followed a block-by-block cable inspection in northwest Queens on Thursday night.
The utility's acknowledgment that more customers were affected drew a furious response from some residents and city leaders. ``I'm very angry. I'm really mad," said Koi Getbam, who estimated that her food market has lost $30,000 since the power went out.
``Con Edison's behavior has crossed the line from reprehensible to criminal," said Assemblyman Michael Gianaris, who called for an investigation.
Con Edison spokesman Chris Olert said the company would ``cooperate with everyone's inquiries."
The mayor demanded that the utility deliver within two weeks a report on the still unknown cause of the outage.
But the sight of Con Edison workers fixing power lines heartened some residents. ``You got guys working on it," Kevin Wilkins said. ``What are you going to do?"
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/artic ... s_6th_day/
Repair crews struggle as blackout in NYC borough enters 6th day
By Verena Dobnik, Associated Press | July 23, 2006
NEW YORK -- A power failure in the borough of Queens entered its sixth day yesterday in the hottest week of the summer, and the mayor said chances were small that the problem could be repaired by the end of the weekend.
As many as 20,000 residences and businesses, or about 80,000 people, still had no electricity yesterday. Electrical crews from as far away as Pittsburgh and Columbus were on their way to New York to help with repairs.
Severe thunderstorms Friday hindered efforts to repair the series of unexplained electrical failures and knocked out some repaired circuits, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said.
Con Edison utility crews also have been finding more and more damage as they inspect underground cables.
``When they've opened these manholes, they've found more damage than they thought they would find," the mayor said at a briefing yesterday.
Power has been out for some residents and businesses since Monday.
A series of heavy-duty circuits supplying an area in northwest Queens failed Monday evening, hours after the state set a record for electricity use.
As temperatures rose to 100 degrees, more circuits failed Tuesday. The same happened Wednesday, even after the heat wave broke and power demand plummeted.
Con Edison has not been able to explain why the power distribution system failed.
On Friday, Con Edison revealed that the outage was 10 times larger than it had previously reported. The utility initially said only 2,000 customers were affected, but it provided a new estimate on Friday of 25,000, saying the earlier figure was based only on the number of people who called to complain.
The utility said its revised number followed a block-by-block cable inspection in northwest Queens on Thursday night.
The utility's acknowledgment that more customers were affected drew a furious response from some residents and city leaders. ``I'm very angry. I'm really mad," said Koi Getbam, who estimated that her food market has lost $30,000 since the power went out.
``Con Edison's behavior has crossed the line from reprehensible to criminal," said Assemblyman Michael Gianaris, who called for an investigation.
Con Edison spokesman Chris Olert said the company would ``cooperate with everyone's inquiries."
The mayor demanded that the utility deliver within two weeks a report on the still unknown cause of the outage.
But the sight of Con Edison workers fixing power lines heartened some residents. ``You got guys working on it," Kevin Wilkins said. ``What are you going to do?"
Anyone got any idea why some major web sites went down earlier today? I heard yahoo was down, ubuntu was definitely down, myspace was down, the list continues...
And no it wasn't my internet connection
There were reports of this all over digg too (once I stopped wondering why I couldn't reach ubuntu!). Power outages maybe? I'd have expected more resilience from data centres though, maybe the staff siphoned the fuel from the generator for their cars.
And no it wasn't my internet connection
There were reports of this all over digg too (once I stopped wondering why I couldn't reach ubuntu!). Power outages maybe? I'd have expected more resilience from data centres though, maybe the staff siphoned the fuel from the generator for their cars.
[quote="rushdy"]Anyone got any idea why some major web sites went down earlier today? I heard yahoo was down, ubuntu was definitely down, myspace was down, the list continues...[/quote
Quite a lot of power cuts going on in the States at the moment, mainly due to high temperatures. North and South California - which probably explains some on yourlist, and Queens in New York
Also some other cuts due to extreme thunderstorms - St. Louis.
Quite a lot of power cuts going on in the States at the moment, mainly due to high temperatures. North and South California - which probably explains some on yourlist, and Queens in New York
Also some other cuts due to extreme thunderstorms - St. Louis.
Skeptik said:
And California's imminent too http://www.cnn.com/2006/WEATHER/07/23/h ... index.htmlQuite a lot of power cuts going on in the States at the moment, mainly due to high temperatures. North and South California - which probably explains some on yourlist, and Queens in New York
Also some other cuts due to extreme thunderstorms - St. Louis.
Might explain MySpace failing as I think it's based in CA.Triple-digit temperatures covered much of the Southwest. In California, the power grid manager warned the state might declare an emergency for the second-straight day due to soaring electricity use.
State electricity officials warned of possible power emergencies if demand remained high and a power plant that went off-line Saturday isn't fixed.
"Today's going to be close," said Gregg Fishman, spokesman for the California Independent System Operator.
Yeah, here we go.Might explain MySpace failing as I think it's based in CA.
http://www.digg.com/tech_news/Myspace_d ... wer_Outage
A similar thing happened to Oracle a few years ago during the last Californian power crisis.
- - -
Yup, seems to be some power cuts in the LA area!myspace wrote: hey everyone! there's been a power outage in our data center. we're in the process of fixing it right now, so sit tight. hopefully we'll be back online within the hour. its 6:40pm PST now. wanna place a bet? -Tom
I've never experienced a power cut before. What's it like?
No power - at all. Pretty intersting for the first few minutes with people just waiting for it to come back... after 10 minutes or so everyone goes outside to talk to the neighbours (the best bit) to see if it's local or everywhere. After half an hour it's more than a curiosity and getting a bit annoying as it gets too dark to read, TV shows are missed, the oven doesn't work, the shower doesn't work, computer doesn't work... people start to wonder about the freezer. Luckly I've never experienced a power cut lasting more than a few hours. Several days with no power must be really bad.bigjim wrote:I've never experienced a power cut before. What's it like?
I've always thought they were quite "cosy" in a way. All the family converged on my grandparents house, where they had a gas oven, so we could drink tea.bigjim wrote:I've never experienced a power cut before. What's it like?
I've never experienced days long blackouts though.
I found this gem by chance on the web a while ago:
Auckland 1998 outage
(Oh, and btw have you read Dmitry Orlov?)
Yes imagine several days without a computer.clv101 wrote:Several days with no power must be really bad.
I would die.
That or turn back into a normal human being,
either way it would be painful.
Even worse though is having no fans or air-conditioning in 100F+ heat. That must be a bit of a nightmare.
- - -
Day 7 - Calls for a declaration of a Federal Disaster Area
Power outage has Queens residents demanding aid from Pataki
http://www.newsday.com/news/local/newyo ... -headlines
"If a hundred thousand people anywhere in this country were without power for a week, it would be declared a disaster," Rep. Joseph Crowley said at a news conference yesterday in Sunnyside.
"Why not Queens?"
{more}
http://www.newsday.com/news/local/newyo ... -headlines
"If a hundred thousand people anywhere in this country were without power for a week, it would be declared a disaster," Rep. Joseph Crowley said at a news conference yesterday in Sunnyside.
"Why not Queens?"
{more}
Thousands still powerless in NYC - day 8
Thousands still powerless in NYC - Day 8
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/200 ... outs_x.htm
"Thousands of New Yorkers like Hidasi had no power Monday, along with more than 200,000 in the St. Louis area and more than 50,000 in California as hot weather, storm damage and malfunctions took their toll on the nation's power grid."
{more}
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/200 ... outs_x.htm
"Thousands of New Yorkers like Hidasi had no power Monday, along with more than 200,000 in the St. Louis area and more than 50,000 in California as hot weather, storm damage and malfunctions took their toll on the nation's power grid."
{more}