CNN Oct 30, 08 12:50 PM CDT
(Newser)
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A mini baby boom in the Netherlands has dark origins: The 44% jump in births in September came nine months after a 2-day blackout left most of the 24,000 residents of a small area in the eastern part of the country freezing. "They went to bed early to keep warm,” said a government spokeswoman. The Maasdriel area gained 18 newborn residents in September 2007, CNN reports. In September 2008: 26.
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4 dead, 140,000 need help
Dallas Morning News Sep 14, 08 7:25 AM CDT
(Newser)
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Hurricane Ike has weakened to a tropical depression over Arkansas, but rescuers are struggling to reach survivors in the furious storm's path of destruction in Texas, reports CNN. Some 140,000 who stayed home despite evacuation orders are now dealing with massive flooding, wrecked homes and power outages. Nearly 1,000 people have been saved so far in what Texas Gov. Rick Perry describes as the biggest search-and-rescue operation in state history, the Dallas Morning New s notes. Four deaths have been confirmed.
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CNN Sep 13, 08 10:22 AM CDT
(Newser)
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Galveston’s historic district is under 7 feet of water, and 4 million Houston area residents are without power after Hurricane Ike’s rampage through the region. Ike, which hit Galveston as a Category 2 hurricane, has since been downgraded to a Category 1, CNN reports. Officials warned that the storm will retain hurricane force through this afternoon.
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Thousands call for rescue; millions lose power
Associated Press Sep 13, 08 5:59 AM CDT
(AP)
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Hurricane Ike battered the southeast Texas coast today with driving rain and ferocious wind gusts, the eye of the storm powering ashore at Galveston at 3:10am as a strong Category 2 storm. Thousands of homes and government buildings flooded, roads were washed out and several fires burned unabated as crews could not reach them. More than 2.9 million lost power, and suppliers warned it could be weeks before service was restored.
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States suffer power loss, some flooding
CNN Sep 6, 08 7:35 AM CDT
(Newser)
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Tropical Storm Hanna hit the shores of the Carolinas this morning, bringing big waves and some flooding, wind damage, and blackouts, CNN reports. Some 22,000 homes in the two states lost power while nearly 2,000 residents entered shelters. “Large and dangerous battering waves” as well as tornadoes could be on their way, forecasters warned. But “it's actually going fairly well,” said an emergency spokesman.
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But blackouts and shortages await returning evacuees
Washington Post Sep 3, 08 6:25 PM CDT
(Newser)
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All Hurricane Gustav evacuees are being allowed back into New Orleans after Mayor Ray Nagin abandoned a more drawn-out reentry plan, the Washington Post reports. Those returning had trouble locating supplies, and officials warned power outages would add to difficulties. "We'd like to say welcome back, but it's not the way we'd like to do it," one local official said.
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Blames orbs on blackouts; opponents vehemently rally to helium-filled cause
Wall Street Journal Jul 15, 08 8:55 AM CDT
(Newser)
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A California lawmaker is pushing to ban helium-filled foil balloons, blaming the globe-shaped menaces for flying into power lines and causing more than 800 blackouts in the state last year. The bill easily passed the state's senate, but it’s facing an uproar from balloon artists and balloon lovers alike as it awaits an assembly vote, the Wall Street Journal reports.
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Cat-mouse battle leads to blackout in parts of Albanian capital
Reuters May 16, 08 6:42 PM CDT
(Newser)
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It’s an unlikely reason for a power outage: A cat and mouse engaged in a chase accidentally ran into high-voltage cables at the main power station in Tirana, frying themselves and causing a 72-hour blackout in some districts of the Albanian capital, Reuters reports. Outages are relatively common in Albania, but they usually result from the Soviet-era infrastructure, not the law of the jungle.
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A third of residents lose electricity; bakeries close
Haaretz (Israel) May 12, 08 3:41 AM CDT
(Newser)
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A fuel delivery delay from Israel has shut Gaza’s only power plant since Saturday, cutting electricity to about a third of the Strip’s residents, Ha’aretz reports. The shortage shut down area bakeries yesterday.
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State of emergency declared as storm watch continues
CNN Mar 15, 08 8:02 PM CDT
(Newser)
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Waves of thunderstorms clobbered the stunned city of Atlanta today, killing two and wounding at least four others, CNN reports. The storms leveled more than 20 homes and downed power lines, leaving 40,000 people—including 10,000 in Atlanta—without power in northern Georgia. Authorities are warning people to stay home as a storm watch continues overnight.
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Worker disabled
two levels of protective backup systems
Miami Herald Mar 1, 08 10:31 AM CST
(Newser)
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One engineer's blunder shut off the power in Florida Tuesday, the Miami Herald reports. Florida Light & Power says a field engineer diagnosing a faulty switch disabled two levels of safety backups—against company policy—as he worked. In a bit of extremely unfortunate timing, a fault then occurred that knocked out dozens of transmission lines and substations, including one that served the Turkey Point nuclear reactor.
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Blackout hit 4 million people
Miami Herald Feb 27, 08 5:15 AM CST
(Newser)
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Floridians saw the light again last evening when power was restored after equipment failure at a single Miami substation caused a blackout which dominoed across South Florida, leaving millions without power for several hours. Most homes were back on the grid before nightfall, but why a single substation's failure could have such a devastating impact remains a mystery, reports the Miami Herald .
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Authorities rule out terrorism but disagree on cause
St. Petersburg Times Feb 26, 08 4:40 PM CST
(Newser)
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A blackout that cut off millions of Florida residents today is ending, authorities say, but they disagree on the cause. Florida Power & Light blames a substation west of Miami for sparking the outage, and a state emergency office says a station south of Miami suffered a mechanical failure that triggered two nuclear plants to go offline, the St. Petersburg Times reports.
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UPDATED
Cause uncertain; 8 plants offline
Miami Herald Feb 26, 08 2:30 PM CST
(Newser)
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Power outages concentrated in the Miami area struck across Florida just after 1 this afternoon, the Miami Herald reports. The lights started coming back on within 2 hours, but the cause of the blackout still wasn't known. Both nuclear reactors at the Turkey Point plant south of Miami automatically shut down, blacking out hundreds of thousands of customers, "but we do not know why at this point," said an NRC spokesman.
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In cities outside the US, hackers shut down grid for blackmail
PC World Jan 20, 08 8:38 AM CST
(Newser)
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Foreign extortionists have managed to hack into US power grids and shut them down, PC World reports, citing a CIA analyst speaking at a security conference this week. "In at least one case, the disruption caused a power outage affecting multiple cities. We do not know who executed these attacks, but all involved intrusions through the Internet," the analyst said.
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