There is something gnawing at the back of my head so guess I will throw it out to you. It seems like there has been an over abundance of explosions involving power plants lately. I realize this could very well be the red truck syndrome. However........some months back there was a letter on the web to the militants in this country saying now was the time to do their thing to bring down the system. They encouraged everyone to think small and do what they could. IOW, don't blow up Hoover dam, just shoot up a transformer every now and then. I can't help but wonder if some of this red truck syndrome is small time terrorism? Just a thought....and a worry!

Got night scopes? We.. the people... may have to set up our own martial law and start guarding our neighborhoods after New Years.

-- Taz (tassie@aol.com), March 07, 1999

Answers

What's the red truck syndrome?

By the way, our power in Raleigh has been real buggy the past week with one outage of an hour (this was a localized outage) and several others of just a few seconds. That's unusual for this time of year.

-- Puddintame (dit@dot.com), March 07, 1999.

when you buy a red truck you become very aware of ALL red trucks on the road. Sheeeesh! You mean I know something (I think) that you didn't know 'Tane? Got red paint??

-- Taz (tassie@aol.com), March 07, 1999.

Ok, I get it now.

By the way, most of what I know, I learned on this forum.

-- Puddintame (dit@dot.com), March 07, 1999.

I was living in LaGrange, Georgia, in 1988-89. One of the locals put a few rounds into a substation transformer about a mile from us. About 1/4 of the town was blacked out for several hours. There was no explosion. The transformer was a goner, that was all.

-- Tom Carey (tomcarey@mindspring.com), March 07, 1999.

I've been saying for a long time all it would take was a few transformers down! All I got was flamed! Not saying this isn't the red truck syndrome..but yes, there should be some concern over terrorist activity.

-- Moore Dinty moore (not@thistime.com), March 07, 1999.

Does anyone know how to attach some real numbers to this so we can demonstrate or refute statistical significance?

I agree that the 'appearance' of unusual numbers of these types of events are there but is this due to a true increase in these events or is it only our heightened state of awareness which causes this perception?

Does any group (OSHA, etc) maintain a historical record that is easily accessible and could be used as a basis for such an investigation.

I'm not ready to dismiss these events as totally unrelated but feel if there truly is a pattern of increased numbers, then that should be easily verifiable by those who study and record these events.

-- Arnie Rimmer (Arnie_Rimmer@usa.net), March 07, 1999.

Puddintime, One possible reason for your power problems is that the nuke by you was audited last week. My brother-in-law was there helping do it.

Got Candles?

-- (donna@home.now), March 07, 1999.

With the possibility of nuclear plants being taken offline .. is this merely a report of the past .. or possibly a subtle way of introducing the populace to the possibility of even greater energy shortages if/when the nuclear generating facilities may be shut down due to Y2K??

Just a thought...

Dan

-- Dan (DanTCC@Yahoo.com), March 07, 1999.

Arnie, I agree with you. I would like to see numbers.

-- Linda A. (adahi@muhlon.com), March 07, 1999.

Early morning explosion destroys city homes

3/7/99 -- 4:10 PM

PHILADELPHIA (AP) - An early-morning explosion, the second in as many days in the city, destroyed three homes Sunday and injured eight people.

The blast happened shortly before 7 a.m., waking neighbors with a noise like thunder, scattering blankets, sheets and other debris into trees. Neighbors were frightened but made sure everyone was all right. ``Everyone was coming to help. They were great. They were wonderful,'' Lillian Rogers said.

Homes on the block were evacuated and Red Cross officials set up a shelter nearby.

Investigators believe natural gas was involved in the explosion. Crews used heavy machinery to remove large rubble and then dug through smaller debris with their hands.

Members of two families, one visitor and an emergency worker were injured, said police Capt. Linda MacLachlin. Hospitals said most were in stable condition.

On Saturday, a gas leak in an oven caused an explosion that blew apart the top floor of a three-story apartment building and injured five people. One of the injured was listed in critical condition Sunday.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
xxxxxxx xxxxxxx xxxxxxx xx

-- Leska (allaha@earthlink.net), March 07, 1999.

I would imagine the electrical utilities will have 24-hour patrols on every substation they own. But what about those towers that the wackos will be aiming at with their AK's and so forth? Some will feel if they don't have power, no one else will. I'm not concerned with foreign terrorism, I'm concerned with terrorism from fellow Americans.

-- hope4thebest (hope4thebest@hope.com), March 07, 1999.

Hope4the best, you're at least partially right. Carolina Power & Light has stated to me that they will have employees manning every substation at rollover. I never connected it to terrorism or vandalism, just on-the-spot problem solvers.

-- Puddintame (dit@dot.com), March 07, 1999.

i didn't know this was a large problem. i live in maryland. shortly after new year's, a local substation had an explosion (big cloud and e'reything) that shut down that plant AND 8 others. the pr from the company said they thought it was just a short somewhere...

-- sarah meadows (qubr@aol.com), March 08, 1999.