Power Outage in the Northeast

[Mrwurm]

OK, here is a psychology question. There are about six gas stations within eight miles of my home. Our area has had the power restored since about 7pm on thursday. Why do all the gas stations have a line about 1/4 to 1/2 mile long. Does everyone just happen to need gas today? Did everyone run low at the same time? Or, is this a 'panic reaction' to some unknown peril that I don't recognize?

 

[fivestring]

Sounds like panic. /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif When the s*** word is said down here, you can forget going to the grocery store. Why is it people buy milk and bread when they expect s*** or power outages? /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif It seems to me that without power, the milk can't be kept in the fridge, it would have to be kept outside in the s***. /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif If it's summertime and no power, then what? /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif

 

[mwechtal]

We were lucky here in Corning, NY too. There was a short loss of power, then a brown out, then another short loss. Finally, when I got home there was about a whole 1 minute power outage. My parents who live 15 miles away were without power for 2 or 3 hours. I hear that Binghampton which is about an hour away, was off for quite a while at least in parts of it. I heard a rumor of a local factory that may have lost a lot of electrical motors during the brownout phase. That could be $$$$$$. /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif
Mike

 

[Von]

We lost power about 4:20 and it came back on sometime after 3:00am (that was the last time I got up to put gas in the generator.) At my antique shop, lost power at 6:30 and it came back on around 9:30, so it was only out for about 3 hours. Then some areas did not lose power at all! Makes no sense to me, how one town can have it and a few streets over it dark. Just saw on the news that they want you to conserve use today, so as not to have any repeats.

 

[lonesome]

I read and heard on the news that as far as they know there have been no deaths directly related to the power outage, PTL for that. Here in Omaha they said the power company saw a hit on their meters, but did whatever they do and no impact here. The news was showing the power grids in the US. There is an Eastern grid, Western grid and Texas grid...HUMMMM. They did say there are very few problems from the Texas grid. Anyway, glad all you TBN'ers in the northeast are getting your power back.

 

[knucklehead]

<font color="blue">Makes no sense to me, how one town can have it and a few streets over it dark.</font>

For what it's worth, it's the same as your house. You may have the kitchen circuit off and the living room still works. New York was out, but Vermont was on. Same idea, different scale.

 

[_RaT_]

I saw that lonesome. There was a followup on it locally. The Western grid is actually pretty sophisticated. I think about 1/2 of it is utilized to feed California. It feeds 10 Western states as well as some of Mexico and Canada. In the attempts to make it more modern, they have a computer control facility in Sacramento that shows all the grid, whats flowing, whats generating, whats down etc. One huge problem everywhere is getting new transmission lines installed, it's a problem because of the NIMBY's which is understandable since they are pretty ugly. Going underground is incredibly more costly because of the larger wire size needed as well as the increased insulation to protect the high voltage, as much as 100K volts. Here in CA, theres no question we will be looking for more power, with more folks and each household consuming more power, it's a huge issue. The grid back East must be incredibly massive, the shear number of people living there must make it a monumental task to keep things up and going. It looks like we will be seeing some effort being put into it to make it less vulnerable. Rat

 

[Boondox]

It didn't hit us here in northern VT. In fact, between backhoeing and mowing during a break in the rain, it wasn't till a day and a half later that I even found out about the problem! (The only TV station we get is CBS, and let's just say Dan Rather is not my favorite source of information! Not much incentive to turn on the tube. /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif)

Remember the big Y2K scare? We were all set with wood heat, gravity fed backup water, propane stove and hot water, food on the hoof outside, etc. Our friends in the cities were not so confident, and a few of them from Baltimore came to stay with us till it was all over. Y2K sure turned out to be a non-event!
/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif
Pete

 

[F350Lawman]

Why do all the gas stations have a line about 1/4 to 1/2 mile long. Does everyone just happen to need gas today? Did everyone run low at the same time? Or, is this a 'panic reaction' to some unknown peril that I don't recognize?

Well for most it is just panic when the lights went out. For some they needed the gas to run generators. I know that when my neighbor came home with his new generator he had little gas. I offered him a hand pump to get gas from his and my cars.

Granted the power was back on in my area but some places in the Northeast are going to be out until the end of the weekend. Considereing the power went out on Thursday at 4pm that will be at least 72 hours without power. To run the generator all the time it will take 72 gallons of gas or 36 gallons if you only run 1/2 the hours of the day. All these people with economy/midsize cars only have between 13-20 gallons in their cars tank so siphoning isn't much of an option for them.

Why after the power went back on they wer still scrambling is a real good question. Guess they figured they better get the gas before theother idiots buy it all /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif Sort of a chain reaction.