Massive power outage affects 70, 000 homes across 7 counties (Texas)

[Catherine Vincent]

June 15, 2005, 9:48PM

Massive power outage affects 70, 000 homes across 7 counties
Copyright 2005 Houston Chronicle

More than 70,000 homes across at least seven counties were without power Wednesday night following a transmission failure at Conroe's Lewis Creek Plant.


After the plant was tripped off, the entire system shut down, said David Caplan, an Entergy Texas spokesman. "At this point, we don't know if it's storm-related. There are a lot of people inspecting the lines to determine what exactly is going on," Caplan said. "We're working feverishly to open up additional lines."

Caplan said he did not know when power would be restored. He said not all of the Louisiana-based Texas customers were affected by the power outage. The outage affected to customers of Louisiana-based Entergy , which serves an area stretching from the Texas-Louisiana border to north of Houston. The company serves about 373,000 customers in 24 counties.

Affected counties included Montgomery, Trinity, Liberty, Waller, Polk, San Jacinto and Grimes.


more...
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/topstory/3227719

[Hobarticus]

1. Oh yeah, that crumbling infrastructure...never got around to that...

Nevermind that...TERRA! TERRA! Social Security going to collapse today at 3 pm! More tax cuts! Terra!

[no_hypocrisy]

2. Another swell example of why *'s Energy Bill MUST BE PASSED ASAP

instead of the democrats jerking around with their arguments and democracy. Bet you we'll hear about it from the WH tomorrow.

[oscar111]

5. DEFEAT energy bill

perhaps you post was sarcasm/

that bill ends FDR's regulation of utilities, which keeps them small.

FDR regulated them after massive messups in the twentes and thirties.

PUBLIC CITIZEN.org says NO to this energy bill. see the site
Nader did set them up, yes, but he has been gone from the group for many years. Site has massive research on many topics.

Poor at prefab emails to congress {they make you compose your own from prefab paragraphs, instesad of the one click letters of other advocacy groups} , but research is the best nonetheless.

www.publiccitizen.org

is it i think

page might be called CMEP critical mass energy project

PUHCA is the name of FDR regulation that GOP is set on ending. Public Utility Holding Company Act.

Email your senators NOW! CA and Northeast blackouts are a hint of what is in store with this bill.

[no_hypocrisy]

6. Yes, you recognized my ill-disguised sarcastic irony.

[Catherine Vincent]

3. Those poor people. No air conditioning.

[Jane Austin]

15. Whew! I was just out on our porch grooming dogs

and there wasn't a breath of air. Usually the wind chimes are clanging in the evening in a beautiful country breeze.

If I hadn't had the AC to come back inside to, I think I would have croaked.

[oscar111]

4. "serves" customers? dont you mean "rules" customers?

own the language, dont use the GOP language. Edit it when you can, please.

just like when they say "Senator X served for forty years". Served?

[oscar111]

8. Trees not trimmed, 2 years, no utility cutters 2 yrs

they used to trim yearly.

It was a branch that caused the NE blackout three yrs ago.

email Senators now to defeat the Energy Bill. It repeals the regulaton that makes them do upkeep!

www.publiccitizen.org

CMEP page

[Catherine Vincent]

9. I can't edit that.

I didn't write it.

[ninkasi]

7. Lights for us just came back on...

Our lights went out a little before 7pm, and came back on around 15 min ago. According to Channel 2 news, about 100,000 customers were affected. I live between Woodlands and Conroe. We are in a M.U.D., municipal utility district, and we still don't have water. Guess their power is still off.

The news says that some customers have been restored, and the outage doesn't seem to be weather related. We've heard thunder in the distance, and seen some lightening, but it's all southeast of a lot of the area affected.

I pity the little ones, the elderly, and anybody with health problems. Our temp here is supposed to bearound 97 tomorrow, high humidity, and the chances of rain the rest of the week are at 20%. That's mostly afternoon thunderstorms, due to the heat.

I sure hope the others get power soon!

[Catherine Vincent]

10. Thanks for the report.

[ninkasi]

13. You're welcome...

I hope the others get power soon. One thing I thought about, though, as my husband and I sat outside, trying to catch a breeze...this is the way the majority of Iraqis live, thanks to Bush. Not only that, but they face the bombings, the shortages, more heat, no medical facilities...it must be a powder keg ready to erupt there.

Anyway, that's what I thought of, waiting for the lights. They are still waiting. God bless America? God forgive America.

[oscar111]

16. neocons dont understand a need for electricity, nor even that our troops

that went in with the orig invasion get burnout because B. not giving them rotation and R AND R.

just as bosses here do not understand burnout.
Which is why we need co-ops for jobs.
employees run a co-op. Not a tyrant.

[ninkasi]

23. They don't care...

Oh, and Oscar, sorry to respond so late, I had to be offline for awhile, but our power went out at around 6:45 P.M, Central time, came back on a few minutes after 10...thanks.

[Catherine Vincent]

18. You are right.

When something like this happens, we should reflect on how others around the world live like this all the time. America takes what it has for granted that's for sure.

[obxhead]

20. exactly.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

17. Glad you're back on!

:hi: Keep cool!

[Name removed]

11. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Catherine Vincent]

19. Hey now!

Remember there are blue folks in these areas.

[LiberallyInclined]

32. that's their problem.

nt

[maddezmom]

34. gosh, it's not like the NE or CA ever have power issues

:hi:

[LiberallyInclined]

36. i wouldn't know anything about that-

seeing as me being from neither.

[maddezmom]

37. oops, guess there's never an outage in the mid-west either?

:eyes:

[maddezmom]

12. back on here, too

:D

[Rainscents]

14. Ummmmm... interesting.

[still_one]

21. i hope those affected were republicans

[oscar111]

22. RECOMEND for Greatest Page: get the word out on infrastructure crumbling

and email Senators on energy bill.. nix it

[Dogmudgeon]

24. Did they exceed their capacity?

You know, some of those loony libbruls say that we're going to run into a Pee Coil any year now. It sounds like some perverted pagan lesbian socialist abomination, and I'll bet you dollars to donuts that elitist Hollywood leftists are involved. Especially that Tom Cruise fellow.

--p!

[truthisfreedom]

25. last year i installed a 15KW natural gas generator just in case of stuff

like this. i'm in Minnesota... imagine if this happened mid-winter with temps below zero? no water circulation for my boiler? my water pipes frozen and cracked? the damage could be unthinkable. what a disaster!

[Dogmudgeon]

26. How close are you to your natural gas supplier?

Perhaps a (bio)diesel generator is next on the list.

I've had a few friends from Minnesota, though, and more than half of them have had generators, or their parents did.

--p!

[woodsprite]

27. Guess they won't be watching or listening to CSPAN today. n/t

[fasttense]

28. ENRON still at work? n/t

[BiggJawn]

29. We lose our power regularly here.

About 7 hour's worth of outages this summer. First time, we were off for 2 hours in the middle of the day. No storm, never heard an explanation. Last week, we were down for 3 hours at midnight. Heard it was one of those "We don't know WHAT happened" things at the sub that feeds the town.

We stock candles and oil lamps here. Just common sense in this age of maximized profits/minimized maintenance.

[soup]

30. morning update and an explanation from the power co.

June 16, 2005, 7:50AM
Power back after massive outage
By ROSANNA RUIZ
Copyright 2005 Houston Chronicle

Repair crews restored electricity overnight to 150,000 homes that lost power across seven counties when storms blew down power lines that triggered an emergency shutdown at a Montgomery County power plant.

Mike Rodgers, a spokesman for the Louisiana-based power company Entergy, said this morning that that those whose lights went out around 7 p.m. had their power back within about four hours.

High winds from East Texas storms apparently knocked down 16 transmission lines last night, Rodgers said, causing a voltage imbalance that sent the company's Lewis Creek plant in Willis into emergency shutdown and damaged two generators. The shutdown caused an insulating blanket to catch fire at the plant, but it was a small blaze that was quickly extinguished, Rodgers said.

Power was restored when 15 of the 16 lines were fixed, but the generators at the plant north of Houston remain out of commission this morning, and Entergy is asking customers to go easy on their electricity today to avoid overloading the system.
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/topstory/3227773

--
Temps in the mid 90's and humidity sitting at 94% - ugh - sounds like Florida - miserable without a.c.

[maddezmom]

31. it seemed like a brown out to me

We had half power working for a while before it shut off completely, The ceiling fans were going really slow and the lights were dimmed.

Hope it doesn't happen again.

[Catherine Vincent]

35. Thanks for the update Soup!

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

33. 100 degrees and no power.

Sounds familiar.

[gate of the sun]

38. I was in a power outage last week

on Staten Island NY for 2 days taking care of an Alzheimer Patient. It was no fun.