MA - As many as 17 house explosions in different locations, Lawrence/Andover, 13 Sept 2018

[Brubeck]

I would hope the security services will take a long hard look at this incident. Needless to say the overwhelming likelihood that this is a up rather than a conspiracy BUT [...]

Me too, and but is right - I was driving around today thinking a despairing What if about the technology that binds these many outlying cities and their power grids, and it unfortunately is very true: Bringing the terror home may mean no more than hacking into the technologies which control our infrastructure.

Then I resumed working up a mild road rage as our heavily settled areas teemed with traffic and drove home thinking, If I continue to be paranoid about these many possibilities, the terrorists have already won.

 

[CARIIS]

I would hope the security services will take a long hard look at this incident. Needless to say the overwhelming likelihood that this is a up rather than a conspiracy BUT there's a very strong feeling that the next major conflict will include cyber attacks on infrastructure designed to cripple the opponent at home. I would want the authorities to look into and (preferably) rule out any possibility that this has been a test attack by Russia, China or Iran.

the sad reality is that just ain't gonna happen

 

[Elley Mae]

Indiana-based NiSource linked to deadly Massachusetts natural gas explosions

Gas explosions in Massachusetts linked to Indiana natural gas company

Mansfield said investigators suspect “over-pressurization of a gas main” belonging to Columbia Gas of Massachusetts is what led to the explosions and fires, Reuters reported.

.....

Incident in Lawrence

https://m.columbiagasma.com/MoreInfo

 

[CARIIS]

Me too, and but is right - I was driving around today thinking a despairing What if about the technology that binds these many outlying cities and their power grids, and it unfortunately is very true: Bringing the terror home may mean no more than hacking into the technologies which control our infrastructure.

Then I resumed working up a mild road rage as our heavily settled areas teemed with traffic and drove home thinking, If I continue to be paranoid about these many possibilities, the terrorists have already won.

My dear

Putin could shut down our nations entire power grid, crash airplanes, mess up our drinking water in a day or two already.

We can do the same. So can China and Israel.

That reality has been here for a while.

In different times, when things were balanced , all participants knew what the others can do -- that was the deterrent.

As things fall apart that equilibrium is eroding. But the real risk nowadays is a an outside entity not caring about retribution and doing it anyway.

The reality here however, is it won't matter. It is a long miserable death - but most of us would die. There are not a nation worth of transformers sitting in some warehouse!

there are not warehouses full of polls to restring the nation

Even if there were no power - no way to move these resources around -- there is no gas

Takes us half a year to do a full restore after a hurricane in one state.

Nationwide messing with grid - forget it

Our grid is all interconnected across the entire nation. When they did that back then that was good. Power companies regularly "lend" or sell each other power for peak times.

But that also means that all one has to do is assault several major sections and the whole (nationwide) system cascades OFF. That was a protective thing. Now days that reality is fatal.

saw incredible documentary about how we die

There is no ability to pump oil. 18 wheelers run out of gas - trains die planes cant fly ( ATC is gone) there is no way to box ship etc etc anything and everything we need to remain alive.

Kinda simple really

No sewage - no way to bury bodies /no hospitals/ no emr/ no fire/ no way to restock / no medicine / no water /no way to communicate with anything / no heat / no way to manufacture food /no tractors to harvest fruit/no way to transport anything anywhere

put simply each of us are are stuck where we are after everything runs out to slowly die

a dash on the grim side (!) but the truth is if one takes a step back and truly imagines no electricity for lets say a year it pretty clear

now on the brighter side of things...................................................

How safe is the U.S. Power Grid? Russian hackers are targeting the network, intelligence officials warn

 

[Brubeck]

My dear

Putin could shut down our nations entire power grid, crash airplanes, mess up our drinking water in a day or two already.

We can do the same. So can China and Israel.

That reality has been here for a while.

Not to mention take our country offline and in one fell swoop crash the internet for weeks or months.

Seems easy to believe foreign powers have tampered with our very ballot boxes and will do so again.

 

[Elley Mae]

Columbia Gas owner's stock dives as feds examine 'Armageddon-like' explosions


Columbia Gas owner's stock dives as feds examine 'Armageddon-like' explosions

 

[Elley Mae]

NiSource's stock tumbles after Massachusetts gas explosions, to pullback from record close

NiSource's stock tumbles after Massachusetts gas explosions, to pullback from record close

Shares of NiSource Inc. NI, -10.92% dropped 7.2% in premarket trade Friday, paring earlier losses, after customers of one of the company's seven regulated utilities, Columbia Gas of Massachusetts, were asked to evacuate following gas-related explosions in Merrimack Valley, Massachusetts.

 

[Elley Mae]

Infrared camera helps state police catch new leak last night

Infrared camera helps state police catch new leak last night

“The crew of MSP Air 5 likely prevented another catastrophic event. The photos show the gas leak underground as detected by the Air Wing. The strange shape is the gas leak, seen in close up and from a wider angle. In the third photo, a firefighter stands over the leak," state police state in the department's Facebook post.

 

[whitelilac]

Infrared camera helps state police catch new leak last night

Infrared camera helps state police catch new leak last night

“The crew of MSP Air 5 likely prevented another catastrophic event. The photos show the gas leak underground as detected by the Air Wing. The strange shape is the gas leak, seen in close up and from a wider angle. In the third photo, a firefighter stands over the leak," state police state in the department's Facebook post.

Oh wow.....very frightening to wonder what's going on underground. Stuff of nightmares. Fortunate this this leak was detected.

 

[Elley Mae]

Lawrence mayor slams Columbia Gas, state of emergency declared

Lawrence mayor slams Columbia Gas, state of emergency declared

Lawrence Mayor Daniel Rivera, in the wake of gas explosions that put the city in a state of emergency, bashed Columbia Gas today saying “the last to act has been Columbia Gas.”

Rivera told the Herald, “I’ll be damned if we are going to wait another 6 hours for them to get off their .”

“They have promised hundreds of teams of technicians and none of them have materialized,” said Rivera, adding, “they wasted last night calling the other utilities to come in.” He said Columbia Gas is “hiding” and it “seems like there is no one in charge.”

He declared a state of emergency in Lawrence, Andover and North Andover and said that allows him to put Eversource -- "the organization that we want to have manage this effort.”

.....

Eversource placed in charge after explosions in Massachusetts

Eversource placed in charge after explosions in Massachusetts


Columbia gas may go out of business over this.

 

[MelmothTheLost]

Columbia gas may go out of business over this.

I would like to know what level of public liability insurance they have. As a utility with thousands of customers it's likely to be high, but may not be high enough to cope with a catastrophic situation like this one.

 

[Oregonmama]

I would like to know what level of public liability insurance they have. As a utility with thousands of customers it's likely to be high, but may not be high enough to cope with a catastrophic situation like this one.

The gas company will be involved with litigation for a very long time and it will cost them!

 

[Betty P]

Oh wow.....very frightening to wonder what's going on underground. Stuff of nightmares. Fortunate this this leak was detected.

Looks like Columbia Gas does have a problem with it's own gas transmission infrastructure. It's not a homeowner's problem, as officials were suggesting last night. Sounds like a lot of CYA and the local elected officials are having none of it.

 

[Betty P]

I would like to know what level of public liability insurance they have. As a utility with thousands of customers it's likely to be high, but may not be high enough to cope with a catastrophic situation like this one.

They may be self-insured. Even though they may be privatized now (instead of being a public utility), they still have the ability to pass all of the costs of a lawsuit on to customers. Many states would allow that and gas utility companies like Columbia spend a lot of money making donations to state politicians.

Also looks like it's possible Columbia Gas was using untrained, low-paid "scabs" to do most of their upgrade work. National Grid of Mass had locked out all their skilled union workers a couple months ago. National Grid is the local electric utility company.

https://www.bizjournals.com/boston/news/2018/06/26/national-grid-locks-out-more-than-1-000-gas.html

Union busting and replacing skilled workers with unskilled, lower cost temp workers is unsafe.

AG seeks probe of National Grid lockout

http://www.bostonherald.com/business/business_markets/2018/09
/ag_seeks_probe_of_national_grid_lockout

Sept 12, 2018

Maura Healey is calling on regulators to investigate alleged pipeline safety violations, service quality issues and potential added costs of National Grid’s lockout of 1,250 United Steel Workers since late June.

In a letter sent yesterday to the Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities demanding the investigation and public hearings, Healey’s office says oversight is needed into how the company is getting by with its workforce on the sidelines.

 

[onslow]

X

 

[onslow]

That is what can happen with you have substandard labor trying to do the job of the professionals.

 

[EmmaRose]

Infrared camera helps state police catch new leak last night

Infrared camera helps state police catch new leak last night

“The crew of MSP Air 5 likely prevented another catastrophic event. The photos show the gas leak underground as detected by the Air Wing. The strange shape is the gas leak, seen in close up and from a wider angle. In the third photo, a firefighter stands over the leak," state police state in the department's Facebook post.

Amazing. Good looking out, MSP Air 5.

 

[Hatfield]

That may depend on what the gas is used for.

Cooking?

Central heating?

If you relied on gas for both of those how long could you go without either, especially with winter coming?

Given the scale of the devastation and the amount of checking that will be needed it's going to take some time for the gas company to do what is necessary to ensure the safety and inhabitability of each property.

There's also the question of how much insurance the gas company carries. Is it possible that the damage is greater than their insurance will cover?

The 3 main things I can think of that are typical appliances that use natural gas are:

Kitchen Stoves
Hot water tanks
Heaters + Furnaces

After yesterdays tragedy if I owned an appliance store in the area I would have electric stoves on sale and invest in a bunch of commercials for them.

Same for electric water heaters. Have a huge sale on them.

The problem though is the yearly cost is usually cheaper using gas over electric. I suspect lots of people had hot water heaters that use the natural gas as a fuel source. Gas is usually cheaper than electric so that would be one reason why people would choose those types of water heaters.

Same for heating furnaces. Cost of gas is cheaper than electric. So there were probably plenty of gas furnaces.

And many kitchen stoves as well because cooking on one allows one to better control heat when cooking as compared to an electric stove.

But after yesterday I suspect many would be willing to pay a little more each year and switch to electric for their stove and water heaters. The furnace is a little tricky because it uses a lot of fuel to heat a house. Heating a house with just electric can be very costly especially in cold Massachusetts.

 

[Oregonmama]

The 3 main things I can think of that are typical appliances that use natural gas are:

Kitchen Stoves
Hot water tanks
Heaters + Furnaces

After yesterdays tragedy if I owned an appliance store in the area I would have electric stoves on sale and invest in a bunch of commercials for them.

Same for electric water heaters. Have a huge sale on them.

The problem though is the yearly cost is usually cheaper using gas over electric. I suspect lots of people had hot water heaters that use the natural gas as a fuel source. Gas is usually cheaper than electric so that would be one reason why people would choose those types of water heaters.

Same for heating furnaces. Cost of gas is cheaper than electric. So there were probably plenty of gas furnaces.

And many kitchen stoves as well because cooking on one allows one to better control heat when cooking as compared to an electric stove.

But after yesterday I suspect many would be willing to pay a little more each year and switch to electric for their stove and water heaters. The furnace is a little tricky because it uses a lot of fuel to heat a house. Heating a house with just electric can be very costly especially in cold Massachusetts.

Many homes in MA have oil furnaces

 

[bears10]

That is what can happen with you have substandard labor trying to do the job of the professionals.

Unfortunately, it’s so hard to find qualified trades people these days. I work for a company that specializes in a specific trade and it is incredibly hard to find qualified and dependable workers.