Blackout last night?

[hauntmeister.livejournal.com]

Anybody know what caused the blackout last night? It seemed to take out Ball Square and Rogers Av from about 10:00 PM to 2:00 AM. How far did it extend?

Comments

[ukelele.livejournal.com]

We're on Rogers; my husband couldn't see lights on Josephine or Highland, either.

[cos]

It took out Willow & Hawthorne until about 3am. I wasn't there, but one of my servers is at someone's house on Willow near Hawthorne and he said it was dark all around, but that Highland had power. Someone else I know who lives on Willow down near Morrison said he had a brownout, but no extended power outage.

Happily, the UPS kept my server up until it got network again.

[gosling.livejournal.com]

We're on Prichard. We were without power, and we couldn't see lights anywhere from our house.

[mud-puppy.livejournal.com]

http://www.wickedlocal.com/somerville/archive/x1575047035

From the Somerville Journal: "NSTAR spokesman Michael Durand explained that they use a safety feature called a recloser that is designed to interrupt power if there is a problem in the supply. "But in this case it was the recloser that was the problem," he said."

[cos]

That sounds like another outage, then? The one last night started sometime around 9 or 10pm, IIRC, and it seems like power was restored around 2-3am, but this article refers to an outage "this morning" which makes it sound like it started much later.

[mud-puppy.livejournal.com]

yeah, that article is from August. *sheepish grin*

[m-b-w.livejournal.com]

The article you linked to was from August 1.

[mud-puppy.livejournal.com]

*grin* You mean it's not August! Sorry about that.

[surrealestate.livejournal.com]

Not the same side of Davis, but since it gives me the opening to mention it: While walking home from Johnny D's last night (Entrain!!!), I noticed that Wallace Street was absurdly dark, in a way that made me think power outage. I'm not sure if there actually was one, though, or if it was just that everyone was asleep and all the street lights were off? I don't know. It was a fairly localized phenomenon.

[m-b-w.livejournal.com]

No, Wallace Street didn't just go to sleep early - definitely was a power outage for several hours.

[secretlyironic.livejournal.com]

Yup. Wallace, Park, etc. And right in the middle of the 8th inning! we had to go across to Orleans to watch the end of the game!

What he said

[wallacestreet.livejournal.com]

The power was out on Wallace St. from about 9:30 or 10 until 4am. The streetlights along Holland, along with Orleans and other businesses on Holland had power throughout as did, I assume, Irving and beyond. The square itself was out and apparently all the way to Ball Square. That's a lot of folks!

[jbsegal.livejournal.com]

I know Jered posted about it, and he's on Cherry, on the Porter-side of Summer…
Here on Willow, on the Broadway side of the bike path, we just saw a brief flicker…

[cos]

Yeah, that was you and he I was commenting about :)

[pandaposse.livejournal.com]

Traffic lights were (luckily) working at Willow and Summer, but all the street and house lights from that part of the street (between Summer and Elm) to somewhere past Cherry were out. Though on Burnside Ave I could see a street light that was the envy of all other neighboring sidestreets last night.

[pandaposse.livejournal.com]

I called the NStar Report Power Outage number at around 10pm, and through the automated system they said that the outage was due to a "high voltage power outage" or something and that it was scheduled to be fixed by 12:30am. Nothing too specific and I don't think they post info about outages on the NStar page.

[hauntmeister.livejournal.com]

That could be a useful number to know! Could you tell us what it is?

[pandaposse.livejournal.com]

The NStar Report number is 1-800-592-2000. I keep it on my cell phone, just in case. There's separate numbers to call to report things like a burnt out streetlight or a downed wire, but I don't know what it is. If you call this number, though, the recorded voice tells you the proper number to call for that.

FYI the NStar website is: www.nstaronline.com (http://www.nstaronline.com)

[ron_newman]

Just www.nstar.com now.

[hissilliness.livejournal.com]

The outage was due to an outage. I love it.

[dylanesque29.livejournal.com]

It didn't get too much of Willow. I was coming home from the QOTSA show last night, and while most of the area between Ball and the T was out, Willow seemed ok up to 200 or so.

[prunesnprisms.livejournal.com]

I live on Willow at Highland and walked out to get an idea of it, and a delivery guy said it was out all the way down to Somerville Ave, and "damn near to Union Square". I could see lights on in Davis proper at the ends of Summer and Hawthorne, but didn't go to check it out.

More range data

[hissilliness.livejournal.com]

At 10:30, Josephine was completely dark, but Soundbites, one building over on Broadway, had power. We got power back sometime around 2 AM, I believe.

[fangirl715.livejournal.com]

I'm down at the dead end of Highland Road, and our lights went out a little after 10. After taking a shower by candlelight and reading w/a flashlight for a bit, I went to bed around 11:15; when I was awakened by one of the cats at 5:15, the lights were back on. I did step outside briefly last night, and saw that the only lights visible from my front step were the ones on the bike path--I assume they have some alternate power source? Anyway, that's the story from here.

[spatch]

College Ave was dark from Store 24 all the way on up; the Tufties I asked on the street said it pretty much went all the way up to Powderhouse. Hall was completely out. Morrison had power about halfway up, though, which gives an idea of the borders of whatever grid it was what went out.

Anyway, last night was one of the nicest nights of sleep I'd enjoyed in quite some time because it was pratically pitch black. Before bed I went out and saw more stars off the back porch than I've ever seen from that vantage point. Rather nice (though knowing that the flashlight was within reach was reassuring too.)

[elements.livejournal.com]

That was my response as well. I took College up to Kidder, and ended up spending a good 10 minutes at the top of the mini-hill on Kidder just looking at the stars, before I went on into the areas that had streetlights again.

It seemed to me that most streets that were hit had lost streetlights, but not lights within houses and in many cases there were porch lights. It made me realize how little night we actually need, even in a city, to get around. Went from slightly freaky/concerned about walking alone in the dark to oooh very fast.

[masslibrulgirl.livejournal.com]

On Lowden, we didn't lose power. I was out at night, and when I got off a bus in Powderhouse Square around 12:30, Broadway was creepily dark between Powderhouse and Ball Square. But there were a few streetlights on in Ball Square itself.

what she said

[cthulhia]

as I wonder if I am looking at her house while I type this from my porch.

Re: what she said

[ayelle.livejournal.com]

We's on Lowden too. Lost cable (though not power), but with the score at 10 to 2 we figured it was okay.

[gookalockgeek.livejournal.com]

I was walking home from a friend's house near Powderhouse when the power went out - he had power, but after we got about 2 blocks from his house we were plunged into total darkness. I was actually pretty terrified - it was pitch black and totally silent. Surreal.

[ron_newman]

No outage on my side of the square (Day Street).

[lyonesse.livejournal.com]

kidder and the bit of morrison visible from my house were out.

[aki.livejournal.com]

Walking from the T around 11:30, College was out from Davis to Powederhouse and there wasn't a glimmer of light from any of the side streets. Power was functioning normally up and down Broadway, though.

[gilana]

Around midnight, I walked from Lowden and Kidder to Powderhouse Blvd, and it was dark up to the Davis side of Broadway, but the Tufts side had power.

[righteousness-1.livejournal.com]

It was nice to wake up at 2am and not have the neighbor's lights that are always on blasting into my bedroom.

[elements.livejournal.com]

I really don't understand why people use so much outdoor lighting. Porch lights, yes, but these lights illuminating yards and stuff is just wasteful and annoying all round, and doesn't actually contribute to safety anyway. Is there anything you can do about the neighbor's lights?

[yakshaver.livejournal.com]

I went out to look at the dark, and from the corner of Francesca and Liberty there were no lights visible on either street. It was pretty bright to the southeast — looked to me like Bay State Rd was fine. A friend suggests that circuits have been branched kind of haphazardly over the decades as demand has grown, which would explain the apparent patchwork, which I suspect properly mapped would look more like a river system.

[mihmo.livejournal.com]

not sure if anyone still cares at this point, but the pole on the corner of park st and college ave seemed to be part of the problem - i saw two nstar trucks there in front of that pole, and a worker up on the ladder working on that pole, and shortly afterward the power came back...

[mihmo.livejournal.com]

oh and um, also interesting i guess to know in case it happens again - the chinese place on college by deli-icious was STILL OPERATING through the power outage, they had candles lit and folks picking up food - uh they have propane grills i guess maybe?