Chain Reaction Transformer Failure
May 15, 2011, Submitted by: Ken Tweet
Immediately following a recent strong thunderstorm and lightning in Dallas, this video was recorded by someone in the right place at the right time, showing many multiple transformers exploding in the night sky forming a chain reaction failure leaving thousands without power.
This is the very thing that could happen if a strong-enough solar storm were to persist over the Earth, quite possibly sending us back to the dark ages for a time. Imagine what you see in this video, but spanning an enormous range. This scenario is one of those that scientists are certain will happen at some point in the future. The Carrington event of 1859, a Solar Superstorm, will happen again, except next time it will affect a world filled with electrical systems whereas in 1859 we barely had the telegraph.
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Wow that was freakin crazy!
Was in an earthquake years ago in which several transformers blew, and on top of being disoriented from being awakened from the intense shaking, having those transformers sparking and blowing really throws off your equilibrium. People are truly not ready to have an EMP pulse that would destroy the electric grid and it could happen without warning, all of a sudden.
Was reading that article about protecting your radio from EMP pulses and I agree with you over the fact that just some of the world might suffer from such a catastrophe and someone in the U.S. could still receive life saving information from say New Zealand, Asia, Europe, etc. I did not even know that Modern Survival site had this article, it shows good detail on how to protect your shortwave radio.
I was thinking the other day about what life would be like without electricity and the one thing that worries me the most would be the pumping stations that get fresh water to our homes and let toilets flush. I think that people could survive awhile and ‘rough it’ without the modern conveniences, but not without water.
Many cities in dry zones such as LA, Phoenix, San Diego, Las Vegas, etc. have no rivers or large lakes within walking distances of millions of individuals. What happens to all of those that cannot get water that are confined to the concrete jungles of these cities with dry taps? What happens to all the raw sewage that has nowhere to go? Dehydration and rampant disease go hand in hand to something horrific. An EMP pulse is going to be a lot worse than anyone can truly imagine, especially to those that have to depend on electricity to literally survive.
These storms are worldwide?
We are having storms and lightning here at Portugal too…
Nearly 2000 thunderstorm cells are estimated to be present over the planet at any given time. It is estimated that globally there are 16 million thunderstorms each year.
I watched something similar with my first hurricane, except they went in a row like dominos, and we could hear the explosions. Now I live on a dead-end, so when our transformer was struck, it didn’t travel down the line, since ours was the last one. Took a few days for them to replace that single transformer, and it wasn’t even a tropical storm!
Well, I used to play online board games, and found out my opponent lived in Florida – this was a few months after their busy 2004 hurricane season. I asked her how long she was without power, and she said she only had a few flickers, but then the power stayed. I asked how far inland she lived, and although she was somewhat inland, other neighboring towns were without power after hurricanes passed over.
So how come she didn’t lose power? Because the developers of her tiny neighborhood had the power lines placed UNDERGROUND!
I forget where I read it, but before our most recent hurricane, I read of some theories or maybe studies about how if power companies would turn off power when the weather got really bad, the theory was that there’d be less damage to the grid afterward. I believe I read that it was discussed before our recent hurricane, but they caved, because they worried about complaints and massive phone calls. Well sorry, you’re most likely going to lose power in a hurricane anyway, so until we have power lines underground, turn off power when weather goes bad to decrease grid damage. It took almost 3-4 weeks to get everyone’s power back on after Ike, and more than a month after Rita side-swiped the area to my NE.
I have no idea if underground powerlines would be safe from solar storms though.
Ken, I was watching the news today and they had this one tornado survivor talking about the aftermath of the Joplin disaster and how he could hear the heavy equipment and knew that help was coming. This really got me to thinking about the “mind set” of people and how they just “know” that help is coming no matter what. This way of thinking is positive but also can be extremely unrealistic.
This is what this Modern Survival site is about, preparing for when there is NO ONE there to come to the rescue, when there is NO ONE to help you or those people around you for a long time IF ever. People have this ingrained in there thoughts that why prepare and why store up anything, everything will be okay within a week or so because the government is going to come to the rescue no matter what. This has to do with all over the entire world and why so many people are caught off guard when disaster does strikes.
I really feel that there is a real mental barrier that has to be breached within people to actually feel that the worst can and does happen and people have to plan and be prepared for it. People also have to feel that they might be totally on their own and the calvary is not going to come to save them. I choose this article to express myself over this because electricity everyone is so dependant on and something everyone expects with be there forever along with fast outside help no matter what.