Harford County Power Surge Part 1

[fl0r1svdk]

in Belgium we don't ever have problems. the onely time power goes out it is to change somthing on the wireing

[bloodfox0]

What caused the surge?

[GeneralPurposeVehicl]

Son: Ma, why is the gutters sparking?

Mother: What are you talking about?

Son: Look!

Mother:  Holy...

[jchambers2586]

I would shut the main breaker off to prevent any more damage.

[ApolloWasReal]

@penguin848 Do you know of any reports on this incident? I'm still trying to figure out how those gutters arced like that. The fault must have somehow lifted the neutral to the house well above ground potential, but the electrical distribution system has many redundant grounds intended precisely to keep that from happening. Each house bonds the neutral to a cold water pipe and/or ground rod, and I think each pole with a transformer also has a ground rod. That fault current must be huge.

[kc5cxu]

thats why you should get a surge protecter on your house.

[c0rrupts3ct0r555]

@kc5cxu with power that powerful, it wouldnt stand up, it would just fry, and everything plugged into it would be toast.. its like having lightning hit your pole outside and everything in your house frying, its too powerful.

[kc5cxu]

@c0rrupts3ct0r555 did you get any of your wireing fryed from that.

[c0rrupts3ct0r555]

@kc5cxu no i dont live in that state, i was stating a point.

[ApolloWasReal]

@c0rrupts3ct0r555 A lot depends on the details. With modern "single point grounding" methods plugged-in equipment can often withstand nearby lightning strikes that lift all the voltages on internal house grounds, outlet pins, etc equally. Although this fault probably lifted each house to some kilovolts, appliance damage was probably from the line/neutral voltage going to 33/13 = 2.5x the normal 120V; a good surge protector plus fuse might well have worked.

[c0rrupts3ct0r555]

@ApolloWasReal then explain why every pc that gets hit by lightning ( outside pole ) has internal damage like in the Ethernet port, or in the power supply? they had surge supressors, and the electronics still died, massive internal damage.

[ApolloWasReal]

@c0rrupts3ct0r555 There are no guarantees with lightning, but you can greatly reduce your risk with proper single-point grounding. If you have cable, code requires a grounding block where it enters the house; the block must be bonded to the ground/neutral point in your main electrical panel. If you have a phone line (including DSL), the phone company must install a similarly grounded protector block. The main panel ground should be bonded to a copper water pipe (NEVER gas!) and a ground rod.

[ApolloWasReal]

@c0rrupts3ct0r555 The theory behind single-point grounding is NOT to keep the lightning surge out of your house; it's to ensure that when lightning strikes, everything in your house rises and falls together. Only voltage *differences* are bad; that's why birds can sit on power lines unharmed. If all three pins in your wall outlet plus the water pipe, phone and cable line all go to exactly 5,384 kV and back to 0V in 534 microseconds , then there's much less likelihood of damage or injury.

[strathmann2007]

Please tell me that the volts didn't travel to house to house?...

[Darian157]

we had that happen to us the poles from the transformer were knocked down by a storm and when the power went back on it fried everything and some of our stuff had sparks flying out it

[Zyworski]

I hope your computer wasn't booted up at the time.

[bigdady2700]

those people don't know what their doing up their peoples houses could of started on fire or something

[Kanoee64]

I saw this footage 15yrs ago I think Baltimore Power and Electric bought about fourty houses that day.

[layne3376]

someones ass is FIRED !!! - no one shot.

[bobadavet]

what are they doing

[HoneycombAgent]

Cascading failure.

[Jemalacane]

May I ask what the fuck?

[disableddogowner]

The POWER COMPANY'S circuit breakers should have tripped before it got this far ! Bet they had several circuits parallel so the trip rate was insanely high......

[Nivicoman]

3:00-3:35 '73 Buick Lesabre/Centurion

[xsasukaxuchihax]

@Thunderbolt1000T Maybe they didn't have them during that time? o.o

[michaelsassjaws]

dam grow- opps lol

[basspig]

Reminds me of a story "An Electric Nightmare" that I read in a March 1973 Reader's Digest.. a high voltage transmission line falls in a thunderstorm at 6:52am, waking the occupants of a home that was undergoing electrification much like the one shown at 2:00 in this video.

It's dangerous when high KV lines are co-located with residential distro lines.

[Jadama0]

Did the gutters on that house light up? OMG

[coolguyarispejames]

THAT COOL

[rex69265]

NORMALNO!

[Dillon1108]

i dont think my xbox would survive this if this happened now.

[MrBrad123456789]

pwity fireworks 2:10

[RegistrationCop]

How much you wanna bet the guy who cut the fuckin tree down was drunk or drugged up?

[ntrudr800]

LOL at Dockshund.

[PrestonTimmons]

I had to re check the date on the video cause i saw a nice ass old car XD

[MegaLibra1979]

yep a tree company will be buying me a new house plus furniture and appliances and aswell as a new location

[elgavilan2000]

@MegaLibra1979 not to mention paying for the damage to the power company's lines and equipment and putting that whole neighborhood up in hotels.

That tree company probably went out of business as a result of this.

[guitaristguy20]

@elgavilan2000 Not with insurance.

[shawnkquinn]

@elgavilan2000 Asplundh? They are still in business. Now the employees involved may be working elsewhere now.

[ApolloWasReal]

@shawnkquinn Everybody blames the tree trimmers but I don't. At least not that much. Power line accidents do happen. If that tree hadn't come down while being trimmed, it could have come down in a storm. It or the line could have been struck by lightning. Ice and snow can weigh down trees and wires. Cars can hit poles. Hardware can work loose and let wires fall for no apparent reason. The utility is supposed to take precautions to limit the resulting damage.

[cutterschoicenotmine]

i would have beat the shit out of the tree feller.

[Turbocharge1000]

more like it shoulda ball lightning arced the boy from the truck smokin through the ground to him if he ran away from it? LOL not really HAHA

[wlfee1969]

@cutterschoicenotmine Never ever fuck with a guy holding a chainsaw!!!

[biggdaddy2001]

a wire must have been layin on the gutters and u can tell that their alumnium by the way they spark

[dividebyN]

LOL at 1:40-2:00!! Amazing stuff!! Metal gutters eh!! Fascinating video!!! 5*'s!!

[RubiRubisimo]

Shit...all that made that house look like a roman candle. O.O

[enigma800]

I'll bet that was LOUD! I've seen these before. Never look directly at an arc like this because it can fry your retina.

[SippRider89]

same as a welding arc.

[gannonscrub]

What? They had video cameras in the 80s?

[67tr876]

@gannonscrub they had video cameras in the 60s lol

[agentfazexx]

Faulty BGE crap.

[Saviour86]

I wish my house looked this cool on xmass :(

[FirefighterEmt4Life]

is that humming from the lines!!!! look at go! DAMN!

[aurora990]

it was from a tree branch that fell onto the power lines.

[aurora990]

let us hope everybody's electronics got replaced for free after the power surge since it takes a small change in voltage, more or less, to cause damage.

[freddydaddy69]

i think i can smell the wires burning.

[torontomapleleafer]

Jesus, look at that eaves trough on the house just light up from all the extra electricity, I never seen anything like that in my life, I didn't know it was possible.

[KristinIsAPirate]

omg I live like 5 min away from here

[a1rh3add]

@KristinIsAPirate lol me too

[peckiledorf]

DAM 1:52

[VREDFOX]

Christ!!!

[Dockshund]

Our records indicate you used 5 Billion dollars worth of electricity last month. Please remit.

[jd1048]

gee, i wonder if that tree service will see a few lawsuits!

[brettslawnservice]

NO they are a contracted service through the power company there is a typo in the description it is aspludh tree expert company they are an excellent tree company in the US

[creedrulz6000]

you must work for them

lol

[mickisdaddy]

Gotta love BGE!