Feds Launch Probe of Southwest Power Outage

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission is investigating the recent massive power outage in the Southwest. The outage was caused by a solitary maintenance worker doing regular maintenance on a system which led to a catastrophic domino effect power failure.

Thursday's outage raised new questions about the condition of the nation's electricity grid.

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so the outage lasted 12 hours? kinda scary that people flocked to the gas stations that quickly, but at least we haven't heard about any rioting.

wow... the end of the article made me cringe. People were seriously that upset about not having air conditioning?

WTF people grow a pair... oh wait, we are talking about California...

Just more big guvment, we don't need them poking around and trying to find out why the power grid failed.

It only lasted 10 hours where I live in San Diego, it was getting kinda sketchy people were drunk and milling around in the street at 1 in the morning. The next day I saw my local grocery store had been looted, the took all the canned food and water and alcohol. Sad times, really when the power is off for barely 10 hours and people loose their shit.

H@RD5 said:

It only lasted 10 hours where I live in San Diego, it was getting kinda sketchy people were drunk and milling around in the street at 1 in the morning. The next day I saw my local grocery store had been looted, the took all the canned food and water and alcohol. Sad times, really when the power is off for barely 10 hours and people loose their shit.

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People these days have no character at all.

People are stupid.

People are dependent. People throw a fit theses days and act like internet is a right. How the hell did you think they would act over electricity?

That our infrastructure is so horribly defenseless to nearly everything, including and in between, incompetence and malice, should be common knowledge by now. Not saying the government needs to step in and take over, but something should be done to encourage electric companies to clean it up.

In any case I have a Generac. I don't have power outages that last more than three minutes.

Yep, I live in this shit box state, I hate it but I am stuck here for a while longer. I did a stint in law enforcement, So Cal. There was a time the kids would throw wire over Edisons fence and try to short the transformers. If they hit it just right, nice big flash.

They did it with the train tracks also. Short the rails and the crossing arms would go down. Lots of fun, yes.

The major problem I see is that if you blow the transformers, the big ones at the power station not the cans on the poles, It takes a year an a half lead time to get another one built. We don't do that here anymore, it is all off shore. Same with Nuke reactors, all replacement parts are made off shore. WASS.

GORANKAR said:

People are dependent. People throw a fit theses days and act like internet is a right. How the hell did you think they would act over electricity?

That our infrastructure is so horribly defenseless to nearly everything, including and in between, incompetence and malice, should be common knowledge by now. Not saying the government needs to step in and take over, but something should be done to encourage electric companies to clean it up.

In any case I have a Generac. I don't have power outages that last more than three minutes.

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I'm just amazed that people are so ill prepared. I probably have enough food in my house to last at least a month, not because i'm preparing for anything, I just like pasta and soup. The last thing I want to do during a black out, is drive into a city and try to buy something. You have crazy idiots that don't know how to pass through a intersection without a traffic light, and morons that try to use their credit cards at the store. The food in your freezer will keep the refrigerator cool for a few days if you avoid leaving the door open for extended periods of time. You can get a small 1000W generator for ~$100. There really is no reason to go into a panic over a short 15 hour outage.

Thursday's outage raised new questions about the condition of the nation's electricity grid.

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really? new questions? fuck, i dont even work in the industry and i thought this was pretty common knowledge.

and 12 hours? im in the NE and we were without power for a week after Irene. i didnt even buy milk or batteries or prepare in any way and we were all perfectly fine. it was an inconvenient week is all. no riots, no mass panic. grow up California.

ghost6303 said:

really? new and 12 hours? im in the NE and we were without power for a week after Irene. i didnt even buy milk or batteries or prepare in any way and we were all perfectly fine. it was an inconvenient week is all. no riots, no mass panic. grow up California.

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I'm from NH, and outages are common in the winter. 1-3 days is pretty normal, and 5-7 days every year or two is not unheard of. Heck, some places have lost power for 7-10 days straight in the past 5-10 years. It sucks, but people figure out how to live with it.

Fortunately, my dad installed a generator 5 or so years back, so we do pretty well without power. The well, furnace, water heater, sump pump, fridge, stove, and microwave all have dedicated power, along with certain room lights and outlets.

I live in San Diego and experienced the outage. People did not go nuts. The article even states:
"The San Diego Police Department told KNSD that there were no major incidents overnight despite the blackout.
"There was nothing that was blackout-related that was anything more than normal," said SDPD Lt. Andra Brown. "We did not see an increase in violence or activity due to blackout."

That's what I experienced. There was no rioting. No mass panic. The roads were a mess because there were 4 way stops at every freeway offramp. You think we were running around like chickens with their heads cut off. That was not the case.

What was interesting was that, without computers, television, phones, etc., neighbors were out and about and actually having a good time.

I agree that air conditioning is not a necessity, although it does get very hot the further you move inland.

Didn't this outage occur in conjunction with NY's mayor announcing "credible threats for a major terrorist blah blah blah" ?? Probably had a few people freaked out, one of my students did... worried they couldn't get home, *sigh* I swear people are such pansies sometimes.