The Great Eastern Power Outage

I'm seeing reports of 3.5 million total without power from Indiana across the Eastern seaboard; anyone reading this affected?

I got sent home early tonight from work in Columbus, Ohio. Trees down power lines down everywhere 60 to 70 MPH winds what a storm!!

Thankfully, everything so far is fine in NYC. (Key words being "so far.")

We missed it here but a portion of our state got hammered pretty badly.

StarHalo said:

I'm seeing reports of 3.5 million total without power from Indiana across the Eastern seaboard; anyone reading this affected?

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It may be hard to tell how many people are actually without power. Utilities always try to minimize the negative press by giving the number of customers out of service. Of course, to them a customer is an individual service. A power companies 'customer' could be a house lived in by a family of six or for that matter an apartment building housing 130. Each service would be one customer to the utility.

I really feel for those affected by this outage. It's so hard on everyone -- not just the old and infirm. From my reading I'd guess that power outages are harder on the young today than it was in decades past. Lots of Cold Turkey from Facebook and Twitter withdrawal.

Sub_Umbra said:

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From my reading I'd guess that power outages are harder on the young today than it was in decades past. Lots of Cold Turkey from Facebook and Twitter withdrawal.

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Ehhh, it'll be good for them to come back to reality for a while! They might even discover what a book is!

Power outage numbers as of 9:15 p.m. Sunday:

Pepco:
D.C.: 65,079
Montgomery: 166,125
Prince George's: 80,837

Dominion:
Northern Virginia area: 221,904
Shenandoah Valley/Western Piedmont: 59,314

SMECO:
Calvert: 848
Charles: 6,800
Prince George's: 1,200
St. Mary's: 43

MonPower:
Allegany: 5,551
Carroll: 502
Frederick: 3,521
Garrett: 2,397
Howard: 353
Montgomery: 4,156
Washington: 85

BGE:
263,568 without power (as of 9 p.m. Sunday)

Hope all is well for all that are affected!! That is a lot of people..

I have power here but there are various pockets without power in the area.In a neighboring town some homes have power others do not.Seems to be really sporadic and sadly those without power are stuck for as many as five days or more! Not sure what all the problems are that have caused outages but there are many trees down in the area.I was a little surprised that the outages are going to last so long but I suppose it was just too much damage at one time.Tough too be without power in this heat I am sure quite a few people will lose their freezer stores.You can't even find a generator right now if you didn't already have one.It always pays to prepare ahead of time!At least I was able to supply some family members and a friend with decent lights.

As inconvenient as this power outage is it pales in comparison to the lost homes in Colorado's wildfires.My heart goes out to those who have lost everything!

..

Heat index forecast until July 8th + no AC =

add: looking at my local forecast, the numbers below could be somewhat low...scary!

I'm visiting Columbus OH on business and there are still a number of communities around here without power. The city is reopening some closed rec centers to operate as cooling centers.

I spoke to a clerk at a gas station who described one affected area as "lawless." Very sad.

We really don't appreciate electricity until we're suddenly without it.

PhotonWrangler said:

I'm visiting Columbus OH on business and there are still a number of communities around here without power. The city is reopening some closed rec centers to operate as cooling centers.

I spoke to a clerk at a gas station who described one affected area as "lawless." Very sad.

We really don't appreciate electricity until we're suddenly without it.

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Very true. And yet, to this day, Con-Ed has done nothing to improve the situation. Nothing at all. I used to work inside the giant Con-Ed complex in Astoria. I can honestly say, Con-Ed has taken zero measures to prevent blackouts from taking place.

Monocrom said:

Very true. And yet, to this day, Con-Ed has done nothing to improve the situation. Nothing at all. I used to work inside the giant Con-Ed complex in Astoria. I can honestly say, Con-Ed has taken zero measures to prevent blackouts from taking place.

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From what I've read over the last few years the three grids (East, West and Texas) have not received much more than emergency maintenance since deregulation. The way high voltage transmission lines are utilized today there is nearly no incentive to put more money into them.

When they were first established power companies were vertically organized so they pretty much generated their own power and shot it down their own HV lines, keeping as much of the job as possible in-house. There were connections to other regions but they weren't used for much except emergencies.

Since deregulation power companies buy power from wherever it is cheapest at any given time of day. The grids weren't designed to be used the way we use them today and it would seem that todays style of usage offers disincentives to the types of care they got in the old days.

Consumption continues to rise every year and to make matters worse, for decades now nearly all big business seem to think more about quarterly earnings than the future. The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) has given the grids very poor marks when they've issued their Infrastructure Report Cards.

Unfortunately, the grids are becoming more brittle as time goes on.

A thunderstorm just started outside -- I'm going to post this before MY power goes down.

That was close. 45 seconds after I posted we lost power. And some say there's nothing you can count on any more...

Sub_Umbra said:

That was close. 45 seconds after I posted we lost power. And some say there's nothing you can count on any more...

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Death, taxes, and darkness.

I read a few reports after THE GREAT EASTERN BLACKOUT, not this much smalelr version and the numbers I read from Elcon.org made it a loss of the power which supplied up to 50 million people. Most lost power for two or more days, and the economic impact was between 4 and 8 billion dollars, depending upon sources quoted.

Think that would have gotten some eyes open and really started some moves toward a real solution, but so far changes seem to be minimal.

Hope you all the best, I have a lot of outages, in summer and winter and none of them are fun nor convienient.

Here's a couple tips from some of my own powerless experiences -- which are many.

Lots of times when you lose power you still have water. Even if your muni water is contaminated with bacteria and undrinkable without further treatment you still might have an ace in the hole.

If you've still got water, late in the day when the shadows get long use your garden hose to wet down your roof and any exterior walls that get sun. It really doesn't take that much water. Also wet down any hot concrete (or asphalt) adjacent to your house. Wait a half hour and do it again. (Water evaps quickly on a hot roof) A Half hour later do it a third time. This will dissipate a surprising amount of heat. It may make your night a little cooler (maybe I should say less hot) and when the sun comes up again you'll be just a little bit ahead for the next brutal day. It will stop more heat from entering your house after the sun goes down. Take whatever incremental relief you may get. If you have a rain barrel and a cheap, hand operated plastic bilge pump you're good to go with this one even if the muni water is off.

Here's another one: I had lots of drinking water put up before Katrina but the muni water was contaminated (and sometimes nonexistent). I filled the tub with muni water and added twice the bleach normally used to make it safe to drink but I never drank any of it. Whenever I got really hot I'd jump into the tub for 10 min, submerging all but my head and hands. You can really shed some BTUs that way. 10 min in the tub and I was cool enough to fall asleep without AC throughout the hottest September New Orleans has had since accurate thermometers were invented. When I woke up hot in the middle of the night I'd just plop back into the tub. After ten min I'd get up and go back to bed without even drying off. That way I could go right back to sleep.

I hope y'all have some bleach on hand.

Also, if your gas stove still works, don't cook inside if you have a BBQ, Rocket Stove or a camping stove of any kind that you may safely use outside.

Be very careful as fire/medical help may not be just minutes away.

If all else fails, do like you'll see dogs do and get down on the ground in a shady spot, when it's cool dig out a bit of earth to get below the baked topsoil and down to the more conductive mineral layer. Also two tarps with an air space between them is a lot better at blocking the heat than a single layer, the air in between will heat up and convectively move upwards, being replaced by cooler ambient temperature air. Talking pure survival here, people die when they are acclimated to AC and suddenly lose it.
Above all, if you are dehydrated your body can't regulate it's temperature properly, stay hydrated.

I slowly and methodically work in 100+ F temperatures, but I stay acclimated, AC makes me feel chilled and once I've been in AC long enough to feel comfortable, going out into 100+F and high humidity seems hellish...
Reframing my circumstances: I went to a sauna and here I am, I am disappointed with the sauna, it is lame, I want my money back, can't be more than about 102F and 95% humidity, (drinks more water).

eh4 said:

people die when they are acclimated to AC and suddenly lose it.

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Its more than just behavior that gets acclimated. People used to take more care, moving to places with running water, growing natural shade, having basements, porches, and sleeping porches - non energy ways of living in the summer. But like scuba equipment at the bottom of the ocean, AC's have enabled us to move places that before we ignored, build cheaper and more square footage efficient houses (porch/basement space doesn't get counted in the sq/ft total of a real estate ad), and living further away from natural support systems.

The greater the benefit from having the artificial support systems, the great the loss when we lack the energy to power them.

ElectronGuru said:

Its more than just behavior that gets acclimated. People used to take more care, moving to places with running water, growing natural shade, having basements, porches, and sleeping porches - non energy ways of living in the summer. But like scuba equipment at the bottom of the ocean, AC's have enabled us to move places that before we ignored, build cheaper and more square footage efficient houses (porch/basement space doesn't get counted in the sq/ft total of a real estate ad), and living further away from natural support systems.

The greater the benefit from having the artificial support systems, the great the loss when we lack the energy to power them.

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Or, "The higher we climb up the ladder, the harder the fall". We lost internet for a few days, and my wife and teenage daughters started getting irate about it...I'm thinking to myself "For real??? What did we do BEFORE the internet???" I remember when I first got dial-up...I was 23-24??? But, yeah, the same goes for AC. When I worked nights, on cool(er) days, I would sleep outside in the hammock. Wake up, eat dinner, and go to work.