http://www.tribunereview.com/news/rbrief29.html

Link

Back to Headlines...

Regional News - October 29, 1999

News Briefs

By The Tribune-Review

Electric breaker explosion burns 2

An electric breaker exploded Thursday at a water treatment plant in Beaver County, badly burning two men, an official said. Mark Calden and another man whose name was unavailable were in serious condition last night in the burn unit at West Penn Hospital in Bloomfield. David Brooks, superintendent of the Vanport Township Municipal Authority, said that around 9:30 a.m. the men were installing transfer switches so the River Avenue water treatment plant could operate by generator in case of a Y2K power outage. The men, working for electrician Van Calden, were in the vicinity of the breaker when it exploded. They suffered severe burns on their hands and forearms, and lesser burns on their faces, Brooks said. The cause of the explosion was still unknown as of yesterday afternoon, he said. The water plant was still without power in the afternoon. Brooks said water service to the authority's customers was not interrupted because reservoirs were filled to two-day capacity.

http://www.msnbc.com/local/KSNT/23108.asp

Link

Squirrels cause problems Heather Holeman (TOPEKA, KS) Oct. 28 - Theres nothing worse than waking up late after a power outage.

Weve seen an increase of outages in Topeka recently. Did you know the the culprit could be in your backyard right now? Sure, squirrels look innocent, but they can black out a whole neighborhood. KPL spokesman George Norton said This year, as a result, I can tell you that probably close to 50 percent of our outages have been associated with animal contact. This time of year squirrels are as common as a household pet, but its not because their numbers are increasing, its because theyre all out trying to find as much food as they can to store for winter months. Roger Wolfe is with the Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks and said As winter approaches, they look for a place thats secure and out of the wind and warm for a nesting site. But many of them look in the wrong places. Power line transformers seem like a warm spot, but that warmth can create a shock leaving animals dead and homeowners without electricity. The incidents are increasing right now. The only deterent is a plastic squirrel guard. Norton said We put these guards on top of the bushing to prevent the animal to make contact with the hot link coming into that bushing. The covers are lifesavers to some squirrels, but not all. New transformers get the covers, but older ones only get them after an animal-related power outage. So, the next time your electricity fails, your backyard neighbor could be to blame. Electricians say most of the outages in winter months wont be due to squirrels. They should already have a warm nesting spot by then.

-- Homer Beanfang (Bats@inbellfry.com), October 29, 1999

Answers

Is the Squirrel King implementing his Kamakaze Mission phase? Or are his soldiers all snug and smug in their warm acorn bunkers already, setting off their decoys, snickering and frisking and planning?

O Great Vigorous King Conqueror, what have you been up to? ;^)

-- Ashton & Lady Leska in Cascadia (allaha@earthlink.net), October 29, 1999.

This post is purely Scare Tactics. Nobody ever said fixing Y2K would be easy. People read this drivel and all they see is:

"...install...switches...Y2K...explosion..."

Nice way to calm the masses Homer. That is the point of educating people about y2k right? To calm them and show them the truth so that they don't act irrationaly?

Didn't think so.

-- (_@_._), October 29, 1999.

Why, lookkee folks, a new shill trill pill! A new polly disinformation misinformation disrupter. How cute. -- (_@_._), real cool addy there too.

OOooooo, scare tactic to post facts! Ooooooo, news articles about Y2K problems that are accumulating and can't quite be swept under the rug as easily. OOOOOooooooooooo, studies indicating these facts will ramp and escalate and avalanche us until the lid blows on 1/1/000000000.

Terrible terrible dangerous doomers -- they read the newspapers, they read senate reports, they watch C-SPAN, they read *gasp* technical papers. OOooooo, round them up! They THINK!

-- must prohibit (subversive@mental.activity), October 29, 1999.

King Squirrel King you are managing your Plan well, can you go give Kosky some tips? He says Y2K is the biggest most serious management job in history, and he is not doing too good a job. Recently he even bemoaned maybe people had gotten too complacent, but he doesn't know how to change his spin. Can you help unstick him?

-- Delegations Squirrel Ambassador (Mission@Kosky.Training), October 29, 1999.

" ... reservoirs were filled to two-day capacity."

They need more water before Rollover.

Sorry about the men who were burned. Burns are terribly painful and disfiguring and often must be tended to for the rest of the lifetime.

-- jennifer (jennifer67@aol.com), October 29, 1999.

Its just 1999 stupid. These squirrels are just all excited because they know the year 2000 is just around the corner. More "squirrel outages"in 99 than in the last ten years. Boy are we ever dumb.

-- thinkIcan (thinkIcan@make.it), October 29, 1999.

Well the squirrels in Maine will not be blamed for any power outages on New Years eve...no sir the power company representitives on PBS said" Now don't forget folks on New Years eve a lot of people will be on the roads and the roads might be slippery, if they hit a telephone pole and the lights go out....not to worry. Yeah right.

-- rmoose (hybrmoose@ctel.net), October 29, 1999.

Kill the squirrels,eat the squirrels.NEVER TO FORGIVE,NEVER TO FORGET!!!

-- zoobie (zoobiezoob@yahoo.com), October 31, 1999.

"rmoose (hybrmoose@ctel.net)"..... Hmmmmm..... Moose? Squirrel? OH, NO!!! BORIS, IT IS MOOSE AND SQUIRREL!!! (Getting flashbacks to "Rocky and Bullwinkle" is NOT the way to start a Sunday morning, believe me!)

-- I'm Here, I'm There (I'm Everywhere@so.beware), October 31, 1999.

Slippery Roads make the lights go out (adding to *not Y2K* blame list)

-- drunk terrorist squirrel woodchuck watch (squirrels@take.over), October 31, 1999.