h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I saw this on the TV the other night and was absolutely shocked. I couldn't believe that a powercut that HUGE was possible. Seeing everybody milling around in the streets was really bizarre.

What amazes me is that all of the power stations are linked up like that. You know what happens whwen 1 Xmas tree light blows- why base the country's power network on the same principle?

The power stations are linked up to avoid something like this in one city. They are supposed to borrow power from others, but if one stops working it isn't supposed to subtract from another's power. It did though.

When this happened in 1965 (Not sure about the date) they built the current system. In the blackout in the '70s, they tried to stop 'cascading power outages', but it didn't work.

All the infastructure is terribly outdated.

But it *did* keep it from spreading further (or farther, take your pick) as far as it could have! That part of the grid is much larger, and the system finally kicked in and did it's part ... it could have been worse.

Being awed and terrified by the mere idea of something as big and populous as NY I was surprised and impressed that there was no panic.

Shea's right about the system working after a point...

The lights were out to the east, north and west of Pennsylvania, but only the tiniest sliver of the northwest corner of our state was ever in the dark.

I work for a large computer firm, and we were taking calls from people stateside about disaster recovery. All their callout numbers were on cellphones and guess what - they weren't working.

The people I spoke to all seemed remarkably matter of fact about it, their only worry being when the generator packs up how will they get here to pick up our system dumps ?