26. December 2007 by admin.

Gusts of up to 102 mph cause outages to thousands of households and heighten wildfire concerns. Several counties are on alert into the evening.

Gusty winds are expected to return today to the region’s mountains, valleys and coasts, but to a lesser extent than the warm, dry Santa Anas that downed power lines and marred some Christmas celebrations.

The National Weather Service issued a high wind watch from this afternoon until Thursday, saying northerly winds could reach 15 to 20 mph from Hollywood to Leo Carrillo State Beach.

The watch includes portions of Los Angeles, Ventura and Santa Barbara counties, said weather service spokesman Bill Hoffer.

Winds gusted up to 102 mph Monday night and early Tuesday morning atop Whitaker Peak, and 78 mph in Malibu Hills, prompting high wind and red flag warnings across Southern California. Those warnings expired Tuesday night.

Downed power lines left more than 13,000 households and businesses without power for stretches of time — many in the western San Fernando Valley and the Inland Empire.

Parts of North Hills, Porter Ranch and Northridge lost power around 2 a.m. Tuesday, and outages affecting about 4,000 customers continued through the morning, according to Kim Hughes, a spokeswoman for the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power.

The affected area traditionally takes the brunt of winds blowing forcefully through the Santa Susana Pass, she said.

About 2,000 DWP customers were without power in late afternoon, including 1,200 in the Crenshaw area who were affected by a circuit outage, another spokesman said.

Southern California Edison, which covers most of the rest of the region, reported early Tuesday that about 9,000 customers were without power, mainly in Fontana, San Bernardino and Redlands.

That number was reduced to about 1,600 later in the day, according to company spokesman Paul Klein.

More than 100,000 homes and businesses in areas from San Diego to Santa Barbara experienced brief blackouts, but most of those lasted less than 30 seconds, he said.

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16. December 2007 by admin.

A Sacramento County computer technician has pleaded guilty to trying to shut down California’s power grid by pushing a button marked “Emergency Power Off,” authorities said.

Lonnie Charles Denison, 33, of South Natomas, admitted Friday in U.S. District Court in Sacramento that he went into a room at the Independent System Operator’s data center in Folsom (Sacramento County) on April 15, broke a glass cover and pushed the button, prosecutors said. Denison, a contract employee at the data center, was upset with his employer, authorities said.

The ISO oversees electricity purchases and distribution. Denison prevented the data center from communicating to the electricity market for about two hours, leaving the electrical power grid vulnerable to shortages, Matthew St. Amant, a California Highway Patrol officer assigned to an FBI task force, wrote in an affidavit.

No blackout occurred because the incident - which cost $14,000 for 20 computer specialists to repair - happened on a Sunday, investigators said.

Denison was also originally charged with sending an e-mailed bomb threat the next day that read, “Hey, at one point I respected you … you have a new kid. So this is only because of him. Get out before the timer expires. Not long now. Take care,” court records show.

Denison was identified by surveillance-tape footage and his security-access code, the affidavit said. He pleaded guilty to attempted damage of an energy facility, a felony. He is to be sentenced Feb. 29 by U.S. District Judge Garland Burrell.

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11. December 2007 by admin.

The Toronto Transit Commission was fined more than $200,000 Monday, after pleading guilty in a case where maintenance workers were overcome by carbon monoxide while repairing a subway tunnel last year. Eight TTC staff were working in the northbound tunnel between Eglinton and Lawrence stations early in the morning on Feb. 7, 2006, according to a Ministry of Labour news release. The crew was using two gas-powered machines, a generator and power-washer to remove material to repair concrete in the tunnel as part of a $15.7 million project.

About 75 minutes into the job, the foreman called TTC control to say the workers were overcome with fumes. It took 84 minutes to get the workers out at Eglinton station.

Fire crews reported a carbon monoxide level of more than 1,000 parts-per-million when they arrived, 10 times the short-term exposure limit in Ontario. The level had dropped to 550 ppm by 5:30 a.m., still well above the 100 ppm short-term limit.

The TTC pleaded guilty in court Monday to failing to properly ventilate the carbon monoxide produced by the gas-powered equipment. The court imposed a $165,000 fine, with a 25 per cent premium to support a fund for the families of victims of crimes. The fine totals $206,250.

A TTC supervisor will appear in court next year in relation to the same incident.

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11. December 2007 by admin.

Ice Storm Causes Blackouts, 18 Deaths

Storm Ices Roads From Southern Plains to Northeast, Causing Blackouts and 17 Traffic Deaths
The Associated Press
DES MOINES, IOWA

Much of the nation’s midsection was in the icy grip Tuesday of a tree-snapping, flight-canceling, roadway-closing deep freeze that spread from the frozen Plains.

The National Weather Service posted ice and winter storm warnings Tuesday for parts of Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa and Illinois.

About an inch of ice was expected over parts of Iowa, followed by up to 5 inches of sleet and snow. “It’s a pretty good ice-maker,” said Frank Boksa, a weather service forecaster.

The waves of frozen rain left at least 18 dead in Oklahoma and Missouri, with 15 of them killed on slick highways. Officials in Kansas and Oklahoma declared states of emergency.

Rain that started falling Monday evening was causing slushy conditions in the Kansas City metro area and farther south, where temperatures hovered around freezing.

“The predictions were pretty grim, and they’re still not good at all,” said Noelle Runyan, a weather service meteorologist. “With ice accumulations of more than half an inch, that could easily cause limbs to break, power lines to come down. It’s going to be across a fairly wide area.”

At Kansas City International Airport, most incoming flights scheduled after 8 p.m. Monday were canceled, as were a few dozen departures.

Westar Energy, Kansas’ largest electrical provider, said outages started spiking as temperatures dropped after 10 p.m. Monday. Some 25,000 were without power.

Spokeswoman Gina Penzig said the company was prepared for the worst, calling in hundreds of line workers from states like Colorado and Nebraska - farther away than the utility normally goes to get additional help.

Oklahoma utilities said Monday that 500,000 customers were blacked out as power lines snapped under the weight of ice and falling trees - the biggest power outage in state history. Utilities in Missouri had more than 100,000 homes and business without power.

“This is a big one. We’ve got a massive situation here and it’s probably going to be a week to 10 days before we get power on to everybody,” said Ed Bettinger, a spokesman for Public Service Company. “It looks like a war zone.”

Schools across Oklahoma were closed and some hospitals were relying on backup power generators. The Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Army Corps of Engineers sent 50 generators and three truckloads of bottled water from Texas to distribute to blacked-out areas of Oklahoma.

Tulsa International Airport had no power for about 10 hours and halted flight operations for the day, and most morning flights at Will Rogers World Airport in Oklahoma City were canceled because of icy runways. Greyhound bus passengers were stranded overnight at a shelter in a church in Tulsa, and were joined by some local residents who had no heat.

Portions of Interstate 35 and Interstate 44 were shut down early Monday afternoon in Oklahoma City after ice-laden power lines collapsed and fell into the roadways.

The sound of branches snapping under the weight of ice echoed through Oklahoma City neighborhoods. “You can hear them falling everywhere,” Lonnie Compton said Monday as he shoveled ice off his driveway. A large elm tree in his front yard had crashed onto his wife’s sport utility vehicle.

At O’Hare International Airport, about 200 flights were canceled by late Monday, with delays of up to 45 minutes, said Chicago Department of Aviation spokeswoman Karen Pride. Fewer than a dozen flights were canceled at Midway Airport, and a handful of flights were delayed for up to an hour, she said. — Associated Press writers Marcus Kabel in Springfield, Mo., and Sean Murphy in Oklahoma City contributed to this report.

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7. December 2007 by admin.

CSA International, in cooperation with Outillages King Canada Inc., announces a voluntary recall of gasoline and diesel-powered generators

TORONTO, Dec. 7 /CNW/ - CSA International, in cooperation with Outillages
King Canada Inc. of Dorval, Quebec announces a voluntary recall of
approximately 3,000 gasoline and diesel-powered generators. The affected
models were produced with some uncertified components that do not meet the
applicable CSA standards. In addition, these units were inappropriately marked
with the U.S. designation. The uncertified components may pose a shock and/or
fire hazard. Furthermore, some generators may have circuit breakers bearing
counterfeit (unauthorized) registered trademarks belonging to CSA
International.
No incidents or injuries have been reported related to the affected
generators.
This recall affects gasoline models KCG-950G which may be bearing a
cCSAus mark with or without file number 223771, KCG-3000G, KCG-6500GE and
diesel model KCG-5000DES which may be bearing a cCSAus mark with or without
file number LR 76429 or 174325.
These generators were sold in Canada for $160.00 to $1,700.00.
Owners of the subject generators are advised to stop using them
immediately and should contact Outillages King Canada Inc. toll free at
1-866-444-2580 between 9:00 am and 4:00 pm EST, Monday through Friday.

About CSA International

CSA International is a provider of product testing and certification
services for electrical, mechanical, plumbing, gas and a variety of other
products. Recognized in the U.S., Canada and around the world, CSA’s marks
appear on billions of products worldwide. CSA International is a division of
CSA Group, which also includes: CSA, a developer of standards and codes;
OnSpeX for consumer product evaluation services; and QMI, a leading North
American management systems registrar. CSA International can be found online
at www.csa-international.org

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