This just in!! heard on local(capital) radio at 12.00 gmt in Romford ,England."London Underground lost all power to run it's trains today" reason given(ppllleeeaaase do'nt laugh)leaves and twiggs from a recent storm somehow got clogged in the generating system, they are currently running on backup!" OK one question...why did'nt the great storm(Hurricane) of 87 cause the same effect or for that matter any other bad storm(and we have had a few over the last severall years)

-- Mike Collins (nufsed@falcon4.co.uk), December 26, 1999

Answers

Sounds like a Y2K problem.

-- (daveG@trestor.net), December 26, 1999.

Sounds like a rat or squirrle nest to me.

-- (...@.......), December 26, 1999.

paris, de gaulle airport closed due to high winds, not allowed to check in ??????.

BEST WISHES.

-- bob (bob@ghoward-oxley.demon.uk), December 26, 1999.

Clearly a squerill time bomb planted by their insidious London Brigade.

-- Bill Solorzano (notaclue@webtv.net), December 26, 1999.

It might just ne true. Here on Lawn Guyland the LIRR does have occasional problems with leaves on the tracks, making trains harder to stop. Difficult to sell that excuse to an employer.

-- Mr. Mike (mikeabn@aol.com), December 26, 1999.

Yep, get ready for everything out of the ordinary to be blamed on y2k. My friend Jimmy's car battery was dead. Is that a y2k failure?

-- Butt Nugget (catsbutt@umailme.com), December 26, 1999.

Leaves on tracks affecting braking (a simple traction issue) and leaves "clog[ging] a generating system" are two entirely separate issues. One of them does not strain credulity.

Ockham is whispering two phrases in my ear. One is "last minute panic testing/remediation" and the other is "clock drift".

From his tone of voice, I think it's a "take your pick" situation.

-- Ron Schwarz (rs@clubvb.com.delete.this), December 26, 1999.

Fret not - nothing will be blamed on y2k since the insurance companys are not covering anything y2k related. My commercial insured (Scottsdale) sent out letters last May regarding this. They regard y2k at forseable and preventable, therefore, no coverage.

buying more tuna, Bob P

-- Bob P (rpilc99206@aol.com), December 26, 1999.

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STORM DEBRIS HALTS TUBE SERVICES

Sunday, December 26, 1999 10:20

Parts of the London Underground were brought to a standstill today because of a power failure caused by storm debris.

The transport system's main electricity generator at Lots Road, Chelsea, west London, became jammed up with leaves and twigs floating in the River Thames as cooling water circulated through the machinery, a spokeswoman said.

For the first time ever, the filters used to sift out material during the water cooling process were inadequate because of the sheer volume of storm debris and high tides.

At 8.24am the generator started to falter, affecting both the signal mains and the traction current on the tube.

The Bakerloo, District and Victoria lines shut down completely and the Jubilee, Piccadilly, Northern and Metropolitan lines were partially closed.

The spokeswoman said: "This has never happened before. The filters could not cope because there was so much debris in the Thames after the appalling weather.

"When the power failed a lot of trains stopped in places where they weren't supposed to be, so it was chaos."

The Underground has now switched to a back-up power source supplied by London Electricity and is gradually getting back to normal, the spokeswoman said.

However, delays were expected on most lines for much of today, she added.

-- Charli Claypool (claypool@belatlantic.net), December 26, 1999.

Pick any random past year during your lifetime. Look up everything that failed, broke down, had problems, etc. Assume y2k had happened that year and blame it all on y2k problems. Sure enough, y2k was terrible that year. The proof is undeniable.

-- Flint (flintc@mindspring.com), December 26, 1999.

Big sales today, everywhere. It's starting, oh no!

-- (shop@tilyou.drop), December 26, 1999.

Flint....you've taken the words right out of my mouth. Some of you people are in dire need of prozac.

-- Cin (Cinlooo@aol.com), December 26, 1999.

Europes' had winds over 100 mph today, that's hurricane strength. Saw shots of trees blown over in Paris. I know here in VA widespread outages of up to a week can result from widespread winds at that strength.

-- Hokie (nn@va.com), December 26, 1999.

Storms in Europe Kill More Than 50 People

Mother Earth is showing us again, how she must struggle to bring the biosphere back to equilibrium, because we continue to throw it out of balance. There is still a lot of "correcting" to be done, and the pace is accelerating.

-- Hawk (flyin@high.again), December 26, 1999.