Power outage affects some 800,000 households in Tokyo

Appears to be due to a nasty choke point.

-- Ron Schwarz (rs@clubvb.com.delete.this), November 22, 1999

Answers

Humm. Thanks Ron.

Not Y2K... but most unexpected.

Sad for the pilots.

Diane

Power outage affects some 800,000 households in Tokyo

http://news.excite.com/news/r/991122/00/japan-power-outage

[Fair Use: For Educational/Research Purposes Only]

Updated 12:54 AM ET November 22, 1999

TOKYO, Nov 22 (Reuters) - A power outage in Tokyo on Monday left a wide swathe of the city, including part of the city centre, without electricity.

Jiji news agency reported that a military jet had crashed and severed a high-voltage transmission line. An official at Tokyo Electric Power Co Ltd (TEPCO) said some 800,000 houses in central and western Tokyo were affected.

Tokyo Stock Exchange halted trade in bond futures and options due to the outage.

A TEPCO spokesman later confirmed that the outage had been caused by a plane hitting a transmission line.

The Defence Agency said a Japanese military jet on a training mission had crashed in Saitama Prefecture, northwest of Tokyo. Police in Saitama said the two people on board the plane were killed.

Electricity had been restored to a number of city centre areas shortly after they lost it, TEPCO said.

-- Diane J. Squire (sacredspaces@yahoo.com), November 22, 1999.

Not *directly* y2k related, but indicative of a single point of failure, which is exactly the sort of thing that can cause all sorts of grief in a few short weeks.

Whether it's an airplane or a PLC, if the net result is a major outage due to a critical single point of failure, it won't be pretty.

-- Ron Schwarz (rs@clubvb.com.delete.this), November 22, 1999.

It might be more directly related to Y2K than we think. Perhaps those cascading power defaults that were happening on the cinematic masterpiece that NBC had the courage, adacity and business sense to air accidentally jumped from a t.v. screen right into real life and took Tokyo with it.

Now that's scary!

-- Butt Nugget (catsbutt@umailme.com), November 22, 1999.

Personally, *I* think it was "Godzirra". (insert corny monster roar here)

-- Dennis (djolson@pressenter.com), November 22, 1999.

No, It was not the Honorable Godzilla!!!This was but Another Brave Assault by one of My many Minions, The Kamakazi-Squirrel-san!!!The Rodent Revolution is almost Apon You!!!Surrender Now!!!Swear fealty to Me and My Mighty Army!!!We Rodents are everywhere!!!In the Trees!!! In the Cities!!!In the Air even!!!Surrender Now!!!Your Situation is Hopeless!!!Long Live the Rodent Revolution!!!

-- The Squirrel King (StillNuts@upina(Bonsai).Tree), November 22, 1999.

It was Rodan going head to head with Godzilla.

-- Rasty (Rasty@bulldoggg.xcom), November 22, 1999.

Pre-Killing sabotague-prone squirrels are we now - how unique! .... But isn't it rather expensive tokill a bonsai squirrel by diving jets at it through power lines?

-- Robert A. Cook, PE (Marietta, GA) (cook.r@csaatl.com), November 22, 1999.

oooh, Squirrel King, you're back !!!!!!!!!!! Long live the Rodent Revolution !!!!!!!!!!!!

-- flutter (swoon@King.back.finally), November 22, 1999.

Robert, I think you meant to say "a KAMIKAZE squirrel". A bonsai is a type of tree kept small by planting in a tiny pot, a horticultural technique (requiring a fair amount of skill) which is something of a long-standing tradition in Japan.

Kamikaze is a term meaning "divine wind" whose origin is from the storms that sank or drove off a Mongol invasion fleet in the pre- modern era (don't recall the year -- pre 1000 C.E.?), but better known as the name for Japanese suicide aircraft (and their pilots) during the latter days of WWII.

www.y2ksafeminnesota.com

-- MinnesotaSmith (y2ksafeminnesota@hotmail.com), November 22, 1999.