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Post by papaof2 on Apr 4, 2020 22:16:29 GMT -6
Sunny day, no wind, temp around 75, humidity around 30%. What could possibly go wrong?
For 500+ Georgia Power customers on the East side of Atlanta, power went out around 6PM. At midnight, about half had been restored and the rest have an ERT (Estimated Restoration Time) of 3AM.
But people will tell you that you only need flashlights and generators during storms.
The cause? Apparently someone enjoying the nice day. A vehicle accident did time-consuming damage to some power distribution equipment.
Nothing on any internet news source and I haven't been near a TV.
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Post by papaof2 on Apr 5, 2020 1:22:35 GMT -6
It's a little after 3AM and those remaining 200+ people now have an ERT of 4:30AM. Makes you wonder just what that vehicle accident looked like...
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Post by 9idrr on Apr 5, 2020 19:46:26 GMT -6
Sounds like a pro, to damage that much equipment. Amateur would have to be really lucky to wipe out that many poles/transformers/lines. Or, maybe there just wasn't enough stuff around with which to do repairs.
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Post by papaof2 on Apr 5, 2020 20:16:26 GMT -6
I can see a large vehicle (truck, construction vehicle on trailer) taking out one of the metal poles used for the high voltage distribution lines but that would likely have affected more people. For 500 people who are restored in basically two groups, I'd suspect damage to a distribution transformer or two - maybe something happened at a large apartment complex? Be nice to have video of the cleanup...
Not having "enough" repair parts has popped up a time or two in my stories but it's no less likely than the grocery store being out of bread or bleach in specific circumstances.
Texted one daughter with a picture of me with my new-this-year beard. Her response was "You look like Hemingway." Now if I could just figure out how to make my books sell as well as his did... and maybe some movie rights?
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Post by papaof2 on May 12, 2020 17:24:43 GMT -6
Another nice day. Sunny, about 72 degrees. Georgia Power has two widely separated (about 60 miles) outages, each affecting about 200 meters and both from vehicle accidents. One has an estimated restoration time of 8PM and the other has midnight. Have some people been home so long they've forgotten how to drive? ;-)
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Post by papaof2 on May 12, 2020 22:54:37 GMT -6
It's almost 1AM and the vehicle-caused outage that was to be restored by midnight now has a 2AM restoration time. Meanwhile, there's been another vehicle accident about 15 miles from that one and another 250 meters are out until 3AM.
Maybe my thought about people being inside too long to be able to drive is accurate?
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Post by papaof2 on May 14, 2020 7:45:00 GMT -6
At 9AM today, Georgia Power has an outage in Atlanta - 508 meters - from yet another vehicle accident. Restoration estimated at 2:30PM today. Sounds like the driver did a number on whatever he/she hit.
That's 4 power outages from vehicle accidents in about 48 hours. Is this stuff contagious?
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Post by papaof2 on May 14, 2020 19:00:09 GMT -6
Less than 12 hours later, Georgia Power has another large outage (600+ meters) in Atlanta, caused by a vehicle accident. This one has an estimated restoration time (ERT) of 10PM.
This might be a storyline for a terrorist organization taking out power in one area at a time, trying different methods to evaluate their effectiveness - hitting various targets with different vehicles, speeds, angles of attack - then having a mass collision day where hundreds of these events take place within minutes of each other and take out power to half the city. The traffic jams alone might be a rich source of story material (pregnant women 10 minutes from delivery, heart attack victim in grid-locked ambulance, etc) and possibly all of the outages are cover for the biggest group of simultaneous bank robberies ever. Whether terrorists or bank robbers, the premise should be good for a novel-length book - with the little bits of how different people outside the traffic jams are affected, from some Gen Y who can't use the Keurig to kids scared of the sudden dark to someone struggling to breathe because his CPAP lost power to someone stealing his neighbor's solar panels (useless without the rest of the equipment but the thief isn't that smart) - plus another book covering the pursuit of the criminals.
OK, that's all my inspiration for today.
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Post by papaof2 on May 23, 2020 2:16:34 GMT -6
The electric co-op has finally updated the base map they display outages on. More place names, more secondary roads shown and much better road signage.
They still haven't added back the "Outages by County" list which was dropped when they had so many outages the third party server couldn't keep up and provide current status - maybe they just decided to save a few $ by not adding it back in? That list was useful because it almost always showed outages that didn't appear on the map. Maybe the new map will include the substation with one meter on it?
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Post by papaof2 on May 25, 2020 21:58:21 GMT -6
Just a little rain today and one substation in Atlanta has 400+ meters out from a vehicle accident. I think people truly have forgotten how to drive while being in isolation/lockdown/quarantine/whatever.
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