If you’re having issues with your power today, don’t worry too much! While it can be frustrating to experience an outage, they’re actually quite common and occur in most places on the planet every day. In fact, given that there are billions of people on the planet and tens of thousands of utilities providing power, it’s not hard to see why these outages occur so often. Luckily, there are many things that you can do in order to keep yourself safe if your home or business loses power unexpectedly. So, how to deal with the power outage?
Just how widespread is the power outage?
If you’re experiencing an outage, and you live in a region where blackouts are common (the U.S. Northeast or California, for example), then it’s likely that your outage is localized and affects only your area. If your entire neighborhood is without power, call your utility company to report it—and be prepared to be put on hold while they attempt to assess its source. If other areas of the town appear unaffected, then it might be due to a transformer issue; if so, there should be a good explanation as to why you’ve been affected but neighboring areas haven’t.
Either way, prepare yourself for some waiting. If your home doesn’t have electricity right now, don’t panic—it could be hours before service is restored to your house or days before larger outages are resolved. Relax, take a deep breath, and turn on some music while you wait! You can spend that time catching up on e-mail or making breakfast…or simply lounging around until everyone else gets back online too. In any case, try not to jump to conclusions; remember that minor issues aren’t necessarily emergencies! Above all else: Stay calm! Blackouts happen sometimes, especially during high heat advisories when our electrical usage rises above normal levels.
Why was there an explosion at a substation?
Before explaining why there was an explosion at a substation, let’s go over what a substation actually is. Essentially, they act as a hub between high-voltage lines and lower-voltage lines in order to transport electricity around a city.
A power outage occurs when there is some sort of malfunction in any part of that process—whether it be in your home or further down on low-voltage lines. For example, an overloaded transformer could lead to an explosion, or something could be wrong with equipment like transmission wires. In either scenario, those problems need to be fixed so that you can have power restored. But more often than not, those fixes aren’t quick; if you ask anyone who experienced Hurricane Sandy in 2012, their biggest frustrations came from power outages and waiting for someone to fix them.
If there is an outage, it’s always a good idea to know where and how it occurred.
Why did it happen?
Most outages are preventable and caused by equipment failure or operator error, though sometimes they have nothing to do with either. It’s important to understand what happened so you can assess if your home will have service as soon as possible.
Where are all these non-emergency calls coming from?
Many non-emergency calls have a simple solution, like resetting a circuit breaker or restarting your computer. It can be tempting to try and fix these problems yourself but often you’re just delaying an actual repair person from getting onsite. Instead of wasting precious time, call your utility company and let them know about your issue. Be honest about whether it’s an emergency or not and they’ll get someone out there to help as soon as possible. If it turns out that no one is available in your area, switch off unnecessary appliances until power is restored. Don’t risk fire by leaving things plugged in that don’t need to be! And always keep a flashlight nearby in case you lose power during an outage; it’s easy to hurt yourself if your surroundings are suddenly pitch black. Non-emergency situations like power outages are never good—but they are easier to handle when everyone follows the procedure. Knowing what not to do helps everyone stay safe and minimize disruptions! Keep calm and carry on…that means staying inside and waiting for utility crews rather than trying DIY fixes for non-emergencies!
Are there too many traffic lights downtown now?
When planners and traffic engineers design a new intersection, they often try to optimize it. That means identifying ways to reduce congestion, lengthen green lights and shorten red lights, etc. In doing so, they are also changing a lot of people’s commutes in hopes of making them better. In most cases, that works out fine — but sometimes those changes backfire by creating new bottlenecks. Traffic lights are becoming more complex as well. Gone are simply days of four-way stops or timers counting down to an endpoint for a green light. More cities are now using cameras and radar systems to change traffic light patterns depending on real-time vehicle volume at certain intersections throughout town.
Oh, they want us to get out of town on long weekends now. How do I know if I should go or stay home?
If you need to run errands, you probably don’t want to be stuck driving around all day. (Or if you do, you should take some time off.) There’s not a universal answer as to whether it’s better to go or stay at home—it depends on your schedule and your circumstances. If there’s something important going on in town (like a big conference), then staying home might make sense. But if it looks like everyone will still be pretty distracted from their work and not out running around too much, then leaving is probably best. Either way, plan to give yourself extra time during busy traffic times and consider public transportation where possible. Remember: just because someone else tells you they’re taking public transit doesn’t mean that they really are! Take it easy on Sunday evening so that your body can recover: Driving back into town Monday morning can be especially painful since people get a second wind after returning from vacation or end-of-week decompression at hotels/spas/cabins/yachts.
What else can be done?
What else we can do to deal with this power outage. Other than turning everything off and waiting, you should contact your local power provider. Most major companies have a 24-hour hotline for reporting outages, but you can usually find that information on their website or by looking at your most recent power bill. Be sure to give them a call as soon as possible; if there’s an outage in your area, it could affect many people and disrupt service for hours or even days—for everyone. That means your job isn’t just to figure out what happened; it’s also to keep clients informed about what caused it and when they can expect things to return to normal.
