http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/23/books/review/24cnd-heat.html?ei=5065&en=420f6383586b777d&ex=1154404800&partner=MYWAY&pagewanted=print
California Warns of Rolling Blackouts By RANDAL C. ARCHIBOLD LOS ANGELES, July 24 — Unrelenting tropical heat and humidity has driven demand for electricity to record highs in California and other states. If people could not take the weather anymore, neither could transformers and other equipment, which sputtered and shorted out and left tens of thousands of people without power today. Authorities in California warned that the high demand could lead later this afternoon to an emergency order for rolling blackouts, a dreaded term here that brings reminders of widespread blackouts in 2003 during an energy supply crisis. Officials declared a power emergency earlier this afternoon, cutting electricity to some businesses that had voluntarily agreed to reduce power use in exchange for lower rates. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger ordered state agencies to reduce electricity consumption by 25 percent, acting on a prediction from the state’s power grid managers that demand would peak at 52,000 megawatts, a mark they had not expected to reach until 2011. Unlike a few years ago, the culprit this summer is aging equipment unaccustomed to running high over such a long stretch, nearly two weeks in some places, of hot and humid days. Meanwhile, lighting from thunderstorms have compounded problems in other parts of the country, leaving more than 200,000 people in the St. Louis area without electricity since Wednesday. Utility officials in Missouri said they expected to restore power to most customers by the middle of the week. The power failures have hit Southern California’s valley areas, normally the hottest spots around, particularly hard. More than 40,000 people remained without power since Saturday. The blackouts occurred in Los Angeles as well, and in some cases had the skipping effect of tornado: in some cases only a few houses on a street went dark or even just parts of houses — while others continued to blast air conditioners. Relief appeared on the way here, with temperatures expected to fall back to the normal 70’s and 80’s for the rest of the week. Still, the National Weather Service said an excessive heat warning would be in effect through 7 p.m. Pacific time in several areas of Southern California and high temperatures with high humidity would continue to oppress the entire region. The Associated Press said today that at least eight deaths in California over the weekend might have resulted from the heat wave. The popular MySpace social-networking Web site went off line over the weekend because of power problems at a key data center in Los Angeles, the company said. MySpace, which is the second busiest Web site in the United States behind Yahoo, lost power for six hours on Saturday and about 12 hours Sunday night and into this morning. Reply with a "Thank you" if you liked this post. _____________________________ MEDIANEWS mailing list [email protected] To unsubscribe send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
