Power Outage
credit: MANDEL NGAN/AFP/Getty Images
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21.12.2012 |
Power Outage |
USA |
State of Maryland, [Annapolis region] |
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| Description |
| The lights went out in the Annapolis area Thursday night as BG&E lost two main feeder lines, according to a BG&E spokesperson. As a result, some 50,000 customers lost power at around 9 p.m. The areas affected were the city of Annapolis, Westgate and Cedar Park. BG&E has crews investigating the cause of the the incident but as of 10:45 p.m., had not determined what caused the problem. BG&E did not make an estimated time of restoration of power. The feeder lines that failed feed several substations in the Annapolis area, according to the BG&E spokesperson, who said that it is possible that when the power failed, the substations also went offline. Because some equipment in the substations makes what sounds like an explosion when the large fuses blow, residents may have heard the noise when fuses blew, which also causes light as well as noise, the spokesperson said. |
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3 fire stations worked on backup generators until power restored
The outage occurred just before 9 p.m. Thursday in an area west of Annapolis. Anne Arundel County fire officials said the power outage extended from Crownsville to Annapolis.
Baltimore Gas and Electric said Friday that a 115-kilovolt transmission line leading into a substation in the Best Gate area apparently fell at about the same time as all the sightings, causing the huge flashes of light and knocking out the power.
“With high voltage lines such as the transmission lines we saw last night, you will see a rather large flash in the sky,” BGE spokeswoman Rachael Lighty said.
While it may seem like a major fix, BGE crews actually had it fixed within hours.
“It’s very rare for us to experience an outage on a transmission line. It’s something we take very seriously. We were out there immediately and we got our customers back by 1 a.m.,” Lighty said.
BGE estimated roughly 50,000 to 70,000 customers lost power as a result of the incident. By 7 a.m. Friday, a majority of customers had been restored, with only about 1,700 outages still reported.
Fire officials said three county fire stations operated on backup power during the outage. No injuries were reported. Officials at Anne Arundel Medical Center in Annapolis said the hospital was operating on generator power.
Because of the timing of the outage, some people literally thought it was the end of the world. (End of the world apocalypse on Dec. 21)
Bill Fritz and others in the Best Gate and Cedar Park areas saw a bright light in the sky at about the time the power went out.
“The sky lit up like I’d never seen before — very bright, different colors,” Fritz said.
Fritz explained seeing flashing blue, white, green and yellow lights before total darkness that left some to wonder if they Mayans had it right. Others, like Brian Rose, thought science fiction was becoming reality.
“Of course, my son had been joking about the Mayan calendar all week. So, I knew it was in the back of his mind, and I’m trying to keep it together, but in my mind, I was waiting to be vaporized and turned into a pile of dust like in a cartoon,” he said. “(The light) kept on getting brighter and brighter, different colors and the humming noise was getting closer. I was thinking UFO.”
Despite the actual cause, the light show was quite a scare and something no one who saw it will ever forget.
“We’re all laughing about it this morning, but a lot of people just, it was amazing, unbelievable,” Rose said.
Heading into the weekend, BGE is warning of more possible power outages due to high winds.
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