Blizzard Exposes The Perils Of Attempting To ‘Electrify Everything’

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About 20 years ago when that huge transformer farm along the 303 Loop and El Mirage road went up in smoke, it eliminated about 1/3rd of the electric switching capacity here in the valley, right at the beginning of summer. The huge transformer that exploded was of the type that are so large, they can't be flown on even the world's largest plane, so they must be trucked. And it takes weeks of slow careful travel on custom trucks over carefully selected roads to get them from across the country to here.

For those of you here at the time who remember, the entire metro area was trying to ration their use of electricity to keep from over-stressing the remaining transformers keeping the grip barely up and running. There was legitimate fear that if one of the other gigantic transformers blew,...people would dies. Grocery stores would lose perishables. Ice would not be able to be made. Air conditioning would be gone. All in the middle of a Phoenix summer. It was a tense time that felt like it could become an apocalypse any day. The replacement transformer finally made its way here and was installed, and things returned to normal. But it showed how vulnerable we all are.
 
I was in a particularly nasty part of Brooklyn during the 1977 blackout in NYC.

https://www.google.com/search?q=1977+NYC+blackout&client=firefox-b-1-d&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiQnLabrPnuAhWACjQIHeGdBmIQ_AUoA3oECBcQBQ&biw=1536&bih=722&dpr=1.25#imgrc=QAV65yYMo5G-fM

https://time.com/3949986/1977-blackout-new-york-history/

Tons of fun riding out of there on a motorcycle in the dark while people were tearing out gates, dancing and setting fires in the streets. Meh ... life is full of little surprises.

I worked at a local grocery store. They pillaged it and then tried to set it on fire. Half the store burned and being a young kid me and they other young guys had to clean up the mess. Took weeks. People were taking the half burnt food and diapers out of the dumpster as fast as we could put it in.

Dont really worry about much anymore. Bring it
 
New Year's Eve 1974, a ship coming into the harbor at Anchorage Alaska accidentally dropped their anchor and it ripped the power line coming across the water in half. The power station is on one side of the bay, the town on the other.

So, they turned on the spare power line and it popped immediately....evidently it was defective.

Then they came on the radio and said they were going to try the third.....and last.....power line and it was the one that was installed around 1950. They asked everyone to turn off everything nonessential before they switched it on. If it blew, Anchorage wouldn't have any power for 6 months or so.

It held, but it's something you never forget. I had food for 3 months or so and a fireplace for heat but of course businesses would probably fold and Anchorage would become a ghost town.
 
If any of you want to get rich, invent and market a backup handpump to operate gas pumps when the power goes out.
 
Goes to show how woefully unprepared most people are.
No alternate heating, water, or food source, no pre planning even with a weeks notice, and the expectation that the government will save them.

Had it gone on, it would have really gotten ugly as far as civil unrest goes, most up to the end were willing to just record themselves bitching about how they were at the mercy of whatever the storm threw at them.
They blamed it all on everyone and everything other than their own inability to take care of basic needs.

I felt bad for the geriatric community that depends on others, but most of the crying was from younger perfectly able people with no idea of how to even turn off the water at the meter to keep their house from flooding.
 
Suck My Glock said:
About 20 years ago when that huge transformer farm along the 303 Loop and El Mirage road went up in smoke, it eliminated about 1/3rd of the electric switching capacity here in the valley, right at the beginning of summer. The huge transformer that exploded was of the type that are so large, they can't be flown on even the world's largest plane, so they must be trucked. And it takes weeks of slow careful travel on custom trucks over carefully selected roads to get them from across the country to here.

For those of you here at the time who remember, the entire metro area was trying to ration their use of electricity to keep from over-stressing the remaining transformers keeping the grip barely up and running. There was legitimate fear that if one of the other gigantic transformers blew,...people would dies. Grocery stores would lose perishables. Ice would not be able to be made. Air conditioning would be gone. All in the middle of a Phoenix summer. It was a tense time that felt like it could become an apocalypse any day. The replacement transformer finally made its way here and was installed, and things returned to normal. But it showed how vulnerable we all are.
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Holy bajeezus was that 20 yrs ago? I rember that they high centered on a hill because of bad route planning. Anyway, to the original post. GENERAC. Unless your ac unit takes a poop and it takes a week to get fixed, go to a motel.
 
Holy bajeezus was that 20 yrs ago? I rember that they high centered on a hill because of bad route planning. Anyway, to the original post. GENERAC. Unless your ac unit takes a poop and it takes a week to get fixed, go to a motel.
[/quote]

Actually, it just SEEMED like 20 years ago. After looking it up, it was only 17.
 
Yes. We have a generator to keep the fridge and freezer going. Won't run the house ac, but it will run a window unit that's in the garage; which I can setup in the master bedroom.

Have some water stored but mostly for drinking. Above ground pool is on the to buy list. I've lived in places where the municipal water supply is not constant nor consistent. We could easily go a week with maybe an hour of water total. A few times not even that. Rough having flush toilets and no water to flush them; much less maintain personal hygiene, wash dishes, etc...
 
I had this conversation with a family member which is all up on the electric car bs and exited about the push from the government to get more on the road. With our current and near future infrastructure there is no way we can support all these vehicles sucking off the power grid. We cant even handle a storm related event like what’s happening now, imagine if we all had electric cars?! What a joke!
 
How long ago was the gas pipeline break?
Metro Phx was begging folks to just get 5 or 10 gallons when stations had any gas.
A coworker lived in Wikinberg and they had plenty.
He would bring in full jerry cans for some of the folks that were having trouble finding some.
APS had a 4 hour shut down in our area last Tues. Even with plenty of warning it makes one think how dependent we are for these services.
 
They had a chance to winterize last event like this they did not. Ted taking off to messico may cost him some votes, big big PR fk up. Used to think a lot better of Texas.
 
OH-MAN said:
How long ago was the gas pipeline break?
Metro Phx was begging folks to just get 5 or 10 gallons when stations had any gas.
A coworker lived in Wikinberg and they had plenty.
He would bring in full jerry cans for some of the folks that were having trouble finding some.
APS had a 4 hour shut down in our area last Tues. Even with plenty of warning it makes one think how dependent we are for these services.
Click to expand...

Yeah, that was 2002. I remember gas had been $1.33 the week before,...then people were following fuel trucks hoping to get some whenever they arrived to disgorge. One gas station at 7th Street & Indian School had full bunkers when the schit started, and they priced their gas at nearly $4 per gallon. The public was nearly ready to go there with torches and pitchforks. But one guy interviewed on the news filling up his tank there said he was extremely happy for the $4 price, saying that because of it, there was no line and more importantly actually gas available on hand. For him, it was more important to be able to keep moving and keep his schedule, and the high price allowed for that, so he was actually supportive and appreciative of the gas station for jacking price to the point that someone like him could do that.
 
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