Sources Energy

Here we go again.

Palo Alto - or at least, the Midtown neighborhood where I live - has gone dark for the second time this month. The culprit this time is a downed high voltage wire at the corner of Colorado Avenue and Greer Road. For reasons unknown, the wire seems to have come uncoupled from a utility pole, and fallen into a couple of trees, where as of a few minutes ago it was still sparking and causing smoking in several large trees. The incident started around 8:30 or so with a power brownout; but in the last 15 minutes, we lost all remaining power, and all is dark. (I’m on line via a Verizon 3G wireless card and my laptop battery.)

The downed line is a few blocks from my house; a Palo Alto Fire Department officer on the scene said the City of Palo Alto Utilities crew has been called, and is supposed to be on the way. How long will this last? Well, as of 9 p.m. or so, the fireman said it could take an hour for the utility crew to show up, and then who knows how long for it to be fixed.

I’d note, by the way, that the downed line was not due to adverse weather; it was sunny and warm here today; there is no rain, and no wind.

For now, time to break out the candles.

On February 17, Palo Alto suffered a city-wide power outage that lasted nearly 10 hours after a small airplane crashed into some power lines in East Palo Alto, killing the three Tesla Motors executives aboard the plane.

Update: My friend Larry Magid, tech reporter for CBS News (and fellow resident of Midtown) reports via Facebook wall post that a utility worker on the scene told him power could be back at 1 a.m.

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Global warming - Nobel Prize - Climate change - Environment - Climate

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