Tuesday 6 April 2010

Total 6 Hour Blackout Tonight – Eastern Ontario

The power just came back on a few minutes ago – it’s just after midnight April 6, 2010. Power was lost just after supper yesterday – around 6:30 pm in the Metcalfe, Vernon and Osgoode area of Eastern Ontario. No reason from Hydro One so far. Living in the country one is prepared for these events. I have a good Honda generator, battery backup on my sump pump and ample deep cycle batteries to keep some of the ham gear on the air. I was a bit low on gas so I headed out two hours into the blackout to get an extra 5 gallons. All was well in the VE3MPG household. Enough candle power to light the shack and living quarters and the Blackberries were fully charged earlier in the day. The RIM network was still functioning. The Honda 2000i used up just a little over a gallon of petrol during the 6 hours of non-alternating current on the mains. It’s been a great little gen set and made it through an even longer blackout several years ago – about 13 hours that time.

Below are photos of the big blackout of August 15, 2003, courtesy of NASA’s Earth Observatory. That afternoon I hurried to a Honda dealer to purchase the last generator on the shelf – a demo model – the City of Ottawa had purchased their entire inventory. More tomorrow.

NE_US_OLS2003227

Blackout Leaves American and Canadian Cities In The Dark

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