About 50,000 homes have lost electricity today due to the warm weather. Winter in Minnesota means lots of salt on the roads. The last few days have been in the 40's and 50's with a lot of thawing and severe fog. The salt spray from cars has been carried by the fog putting a conductive solution over the ceramic insulators on the electrical poles. Individual homes and whole neighborhoods have been shorted out.

-- JOHN (LITTMANNJ@AOL.COM), February 23, 2000

Answers

Wow. I learn something new here every day. I never knew fog could carry salt.

-- Lucy (lifeisgoodhere@webtv.net), February 23, 2000.

Salt water? Salt fog? Water is a transport medium!

-- Helium (HeliumAvid@yahoo.com), February 23, 2000.

Weird stuff happens. Being prepared is a good thing.

-- h (h@h.h), February 23, 2000.

In view of the climate, one would have thought they install more efficient conduit. If this is, the true story.

-- Numb Skulles (working@here.com), February 23, 2000.

Here is a partial section of a story on the fog today from The Star Tribune:

"Power failures

For thousands of Minnesotans, Wednesday also was a day for electric-power interruptions, ranging from momentary to lengthy.

Northern States Power Co. and Dakota Electric Association reported shorts caused by a combination of moisture in the air and salt buildup on porcelain insulators.

NSP counted 16,000 customers affected between midnight and 10:15 a.m. in the Twin Cities area. "Most of these [failures] are of momentary variety," spokesman Ed Legge said. "It's all kind of spotty and all over the place."

In St. James, power went out with the failure of both NSP feeder lines that supply the town's municipal utility.

Generators supplied essential city services in the town of 4,400 people, such as fire, ambulance, water and sewer, said City Manager Mac Tilberg. But the power failure shut down schools and businesses, including a meat-packing plant, he said."

http://www.startribune.com/stOnLine/cgi-bin/article?thisSlug= FOG24

-- PA Engineer (PA Engineer@longtimelurker.com), February 23, 2000.

Oh yeah - i spent years on the west coast where wet moist winds and fogs from the Pacific Ocean would deposit enough water (on occasion) dripping off the camp ground trees that you would think it was raining.

And yeah, power lines constantly blow on the beach cause of all the salt in the air. Same thing happened when I lived off the beach in British Columbia for several years.

Yeah.

Check out all the pipeline breaks, refinery fires, man. plant explosions, gas shortages, plane problems. Salt in the FOG? The excuses are wearing real thin.

Of course the Pollys are sucking it all down. Believe a stupid excuse like this and then call a Y2K doomer a moron.

Being a computer guy I never expected the world to end in a day, but I did expect a million little bombs going off for months, causing.....who knows what kind of result.

later

-- dragonslayer (yaright@idoubtit.com), February 23, 2000.

Dragonslayer, I think a lot of us wanted the whole system to come tumbling down a liitle faster than it has...just so we could sleep out the trash and start at zero again... but you are correct in your perseptions, all these things are not all y2k, but many of these are y2k... when will the system fall? Nobody knows...and especially the people do not know all that the government is lying about and patching to keep the show lookin good... its almost like watching a mint 65 impala go down the road... the exterior looks real good... and the driver looks real good, and there is a great muffler system so you can't really hear all the bad stuff rattlin away...and inside the motor the freeze plugs are ready to corrode thru and the leaky valve gaskets are about to come to their final end as they crumble brittly, and the head gaskets are about to blow and the oil pump is intermitently failing, and the radiator is leaking, the fuel pump and filter are faultering, and...well you get the picture... its not at all what the government is painting... the picture is a lie...and the system is collapsing... and the deceptive, scheming, lying, elite is about to make their move for power and the ultimate wealth take over...

no...you right about all these things happening...and it is true that all the trolls and pollys are swallowing the lie that will break them in the end... but y2k is only part of the whole problem...the bulk of the problem is a nation that is too lazy to wake up and go to work and make it a great place for our children... we have been duped to believe that government will take care of us whether we work or not...welfare or paycheck...government will take care of us and all we need to do is trust them... and we have sold our right to the elite for pleasure and comfort...and the elite have the wealth and the power... the trolls and pollys are only part of the problem in this country... they swallowed the lie... we are the other problem in our nation... we know the truth and are to afraid to do anything about it! ... warm wether causes power outages... yeh, power from the people to traitors like McCain, Bush, Clinton, Dole, Bradley, Gore...

-- S BRyan G III (sbrg3@juno.com), February 24, 2000.

S BRYan III,

Sorry you're disapointed that the system did not come crashing down. How sad it must be for you that millions did not die and you are not "sweeping out the trash".

I don't think "a lot of people" here who prepared agree with you.

I believe the majority of people here are very glad not to have their world turned inside out by Y2K. To prepare and stay prepared for bad times is just plain commonsense. To wish for calamity to further your own twisted view is sick.

I would not call you a Doomer because that would be a slap in the face to the people here who are called that. They care, they are successful and do try to make this Country a better place for everyone.

-- Chief (bmc@sealret.com), February 24, 2000.

You have misinterpreted the true meaning of what I have said: I don't wish that no innocent person be harmed... but the system is collapsing! and the government has made the innocent unaware that there are serious problem coming...it is too bad that the government reliebility from their coverup has cause many to abandon preparedness and cause the poor and innocent to trust even more a government that will eventually carryout the death penalty for them like not a quick shot to the head but like a tormenting cancer that drives one insane! I care for many in my community...especially the woman with small children and the widows who have no one else...I help them to prepare and they were mocked at and told they were stupid and the day came that the government said would prove their integrity... they even lied about that! y2k is not one day! well in a nut shell, if the system had collapsed... there were many ready to help... it could brought this country back together again...but it didn't like some thought...as a matter of record I didn't think it would collapse in a day either but over months...like it is...but some thought y2k was just a day... now these poor innocent unsuspecting people will be eaten away little by little until it becomes like a cancer in their lives. So...I'm sorry that you feel I am an embarrassment to you and preparedness... I think you should not poke at anyone who wished to see the end of a cancerous system...and the beginning of a people to rise again to be strong under the morals, ethics and traditions I grew up with. I hope I have made myself clear...I wished no harm to the innocent...just the fall of the vicious, cruel lying slimeballs that have robbed the people and their children of life liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

-- S BRyan G (sbrg3@juno.com), February 24, 2000.