Posted on 04/29/2002 2:27:02 PM PDT by pitinkie
BREAKING NEWS
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- A fire at a power plant at Talleyrand, along with two major transmission lines going down, has resulted in a major outage of electricity throughout the city. JEA spokesman Bruce Dugan told Channel 4 just before 5 p.m. that a fire at the Kennedy Generating Station occured simultaniously as two major transmission lines connecting Jacksonville to the power grid went out.
Dugan said that the whole city was out initially. He said about 15 percent of service has been restored, and most should be back up in two to three hours.
Jacksonville's Emergency Operations Center was activated, and is operating at a level two. Sharon Ashton of the mayor's office said the the fire department is battling fires at the generating plant and in three other places around town.
Police report traffic lights throughout the city are out, and police ask that people only call 911 for emergencies other than to report outages.
The Jacksonville Sheriff's Office just called in their midnight shift, and is holding the day shift over, so that the maximum amount of officers are on the street until all power is restored.
"If you don't be on the road, don't. If you don't need to be on your phone, don't," Ashton said.
Jacksonville International Airport is running on emergency power, and arriving flights are being allowed to land. Departing flights are not taking off, and there are backups in ticketing and securty. Passengers are asked to call their airlines 800 number before before heading to the airport.
Baptist Medical Center is running on emergency power. Channel 4 has been unable to reach the other hospitals.
Telephone service -- even some cellular service -- is affected. Channel 4 understands that power is out in Orange Park, northern St. Johns County and parts of Nassau County as well.
The mayor is expecting to make a statement about the situation at 6 p.m. Channel 4 plans to carry that live.
Posted on 4/29/02 8:01 PM Eastern by Notwithstanding
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CRISIS IN THE CHURCH (60:00) Monday April 29- 8:00 pm ET LIVE
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1 posted on 4/29/02 8:01 PM Eastern by Notwithstanding
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Coverage by journalists and commentators who love the Church and are mad as hell.
http://www.jacksonville.com/tu-online/stories/042902/met_blackout.html
Monday, April 29, 2002
Last modified at 9:09 p.m. on Monday, April 29, 2002
Massive power failures hit First Coast
From Times-Union staff
Much of Jacksonville is without power. The city and some surrounding areas were hit by a major power failure around 4:30 p.m. today. After roughly 60% of the area had been restored from the original outage, a second major outage occurred around 6:20 p.m.
Because of a drop in water pressure, all residents in Duval county are being asked to boil their water and to reduce their water usage, says JEA Spokesman Bruce Dugan. JEA is also asking residents to set their thermostats warmer and to reduce their use of appliances and non-essential electrical equipment.
The boil water alert is a safety precaution. As water pressure drops, water can fall back into the main system of pipes. If there are contaminates in someone's house, they could go back into the system as well. "Personally, I think the likelyhood of an illness is very slim," says Mayor John Delaney.
As of 8 p.m., power to 25 percent of the county had been restored. It will likely be after midnight before the JEA is able to get power restored to the majority of the county.
Dugan explained the reason for the delay in restoring power is that as circuits have been brought back online, additional problems have been discovered, including minor damage to the 500 megawatt Northside generation plant. "We've sustained a little more damage than what we first anticipated," he said. "We're learning as we go."
At an 8 p.m. press conference, Sheriff Nat Glover reported no law enforcement crises resulting from the outage. He said auxilliary staff has been called in to help support the existing staff.
As of 7:20 p.m., our First Coast News partner reported that power had been restored at Jacksonville International Airport.
According to JEA Managing Director Walt Bussells, the problem began at roughly 4:30 p.m. when two major power transmission lines on the Westside of Jacksonville detected a fault and shut down.
Shortly thereafter, an explosion occurred and a fire broke out at the Kennedy Generating Station at Talleyrand.
Computers then shut down the entire electrical system to prevent it from being damaged.
The fire at the generating station was reportedly extinguished by 5:30 p.m.
According to Bussells, the two transmissions lines that had tripped earlier in the day tripped again, causing the second interruption. The St. Augustine Record reported that this may have been the result of overuse by customers.
Power failures have also been reported in Nassau County and Clay County. The city's Emergency Operations Center is active.
Now, at least you know the real story so you can get it right the next time.
Oh, and as for the guy who asked if I was still around, yes I am still around, still posting and still active on FR. I don't give up that easily.
Yeah. Gilligan is pedaling as fast as he can, so he can power up his computer and confirm just another isolated, just another isolated incident on FR.
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