[Leanan]

Governor sends Guard to evacuate St. Louis residents after storms

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'S')T. LOUIS (AP) — The governor sent in the National Guard to evacuate people from their sweltering homes Thursday after storms knocked out power to more than half a million St. Louis-area households and businesses in the middle of a deadly heat wave.

With forecasters expecting another day of 100-degree heat, utility crews raced to restore electricity, and Gov. Matt Blunt declared a state of emergency, granting the mayor's request to send in nearly 300 troops to take people to air-conditioned public buildings and to clear debris.

"We can't overemphasize the danger of this heat," Mayor Francis Slay said. "The longer the heat goes on and the power is out, the riskier it is."

The heat has contributed to at least 20 deaths across the country in the last week.

[Fergus]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Leanan', '[')url=http://www.usatoday.com/weather/storms/2006-07-20-st-louis-storms_x.htm]Governor sends Guard to evacuate St. Louis residents after storms[/url]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'S')T. LOUIS (AP) — The governor sent in the National Guard to evacuate people from their sweltering homes Thursday after storms knocked out power to more than half a million St. Louis-area households and businesses in the middle of a deadly heat wave.

With forecasters expecting another day of 100-degree heat, utility crews raced to restore electricity, and Gov. Matt Blunt declared a state of emergency, granting the mayor's request to send in nearly 300 troops to take people to air-conditioned public buildings and to clear debris.

"We can't overemphasize the danger of this heat," Mayor Francis Slay said. "The longer the heat goes on and the power is out, the riskier it is."

The heat has contributed to at least 20 deaths across the country in the last week.

[KhanCEO]

Word to the wise, don't stay around any large hot cities when the oil shortages happen.

[ritter]

I find it funny (in a sick sort of way) that those fat asses that are dying of the heat expect someone else to go labor outside in the same heat to get their electricity back on or come evacuate them (the old and infirm are excused from this commentary).

[emersonbiggins]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Fergus', '
')Again I blame poor foresight in city designs for this issue. Its another case of 'we made our bed and now we dont wanna lie in it no more'.

[SoothSayer]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('KhanCEO', 'W')ord to the wise, don't stay around any large hot cities when the oil shortages happen.

[quizz]

Add Queen's New York to the picture of Grid dependencies. The Olduvai Gorge Theory seems spot on. Loss of power leading to loss of life, loss of business activity, and loss of food requiring refrigeration. This is a very scary scenario being proved before our eyes. Yahoo:

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'N')EW YORK - A blackout affecting an estimated 100,000 people in Queens — which entered its fifth day Friday — is worse than the power company had previously reported, Con Edison said.
...
Hundreds of businesses have since been idle, and the city's jail complex on Rikers Island had to operate on backup generators. Some building elevators were not running and traffic lights at some intersections were not working.

"This is outrageous," City Councilman Peter F. Vallone Jr. said. "When is this going to be fixed? If it's going to be days, they should tell people it is going to be days."

The blackouts were at their worst on Wednesday, when 10 of the 22 feeder cables that supply the area with power were down simultaneously. The temperature had hit 100 degrees in the neighborhood the day before.

Consolidated Edison spokesman Chris Olert said the power company was making every effort to get the situation fixed but couldn't estimate when that might happen. He said the company didn't know why things went wrong.
...
That was little consolation for Gianni DellaPolla, 26, a baker at Gian & Piero Bakery. "We probably lost $25,000 in business in three days," DellaPolla told the Daily News. "Everything like wedding cakes, eggs, creams, we had to throw all that out."

[jupiters_release]

Firedrills for TPTB?

[TheTurtle]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('ritter', 'I') find it funny (in a sick sort of way) that those fat asses that are dying of the heat expect someone else to go labor outside in the same heat to get their electricity back on or come evacuate them (the old and infirm are excused from this commentary).

[jaws]

The electric grid has been a duct-taped mess for years. It's not really oil-related.

[BrazilianPO]

I will tell you guys a story about Brazil, when in 2001 we had rationing of energy in the entire country. Brazil's energy was supplied 90% by hydroelectrical powerplants and 10% nuclear and gas thermoelectrical. The summer of 2000-2001 was very dry and the reservoirs were very low, triggering the decision.

Suddenly everybory had to reduce their power consumption by 20% or would have to pay VERY high fines or even have their energy supply cut. Brazil is very warm in summer (40+C or over 100F in the majority of the country most of the time), and the rationing went on until March 2002.

So, you had people turning their freezers off, leaving just the fridge on. Replaced the air-con by a fan. Changed light bulbs for fluorescent lights. At the end, the country as a whole reduced its consumption by the 20% needed and the next summer was very rainy. So, happy ending.

Industries had to reduce their shifts or install gas turbines to generate their own electricity, so the economic impact was NOT small. Many people complained but understood that it was a temporary sacrifice. Actually, many kept their low consumption habits even after the rationing ended a few months later, because they enjoyed their lower bills.

So conservation will become an issue very soon in the US, just like it became in Brazil in 2001. People are more flexible and adaptable than most of us think, at least while they see light at the end of the tunnel...

[gg3]

Good to hear we still have enough National Guard in the US to handle something like this. There was a time when we could take that for granted, but no longer.

What's interesting about the NYC situation is that the engineers & techs can't track down the source of the trouble. Bad jokes about Con Ed are a crock of poo, the fact is that the engineering & technical people are competent. I have no doubt they're dealing with something that we have a slang term for where I work: "spiderweb" and "string & glue." That means cable & cross-connect infrastructure that has been built "expeditiously" without adequate planning at every stage, and looks like a God-awful mess, and is a royal pain in the arse to troubleshoot.

Over the past hundred years that those cables have been under the street, no doubt there have been times when documentation wasn't updated and un-used segments weren't pulled back out. The entire thing grows more and more fragile over time, until it takes only a nudge to push it over the edge.

What I think is going on: the heat jammed breakers that otherwise would have gone open under excess load, and this in turn led to cable segments melting & fusing at various points under the street. If you knew what was happening when you were on the scene, you'd have noticed a faint rubbery or burning-plastic smell in the air at about the time the power cut out to a given area.

If you were on the field crew going after these to fix 'em... see my posting in the blackouts topic.