INFRASTRUCTURE COLLAPSE: Nationwide Power Blackout Hits Syria - Cause Not Known?!

The Syrian civil war has claimed more than 270,000 lives (AFP Photo/Youssef Karwashan)

March 4, 2016 - SYRIA - War-torn Syria was hit Thursday by a nationwide power cut, state television reported, but the cause was not immediately known.

"Electricity has been cut across all provinces and teams are trying to determine the reason for this unexpected cut," the station reported, citing a source within the electricity ministry.

Damascus residents said power in the capital had been out since 1:00 pm (1100 GMT) and that mobile Internet connections from some private providers were also not working.

Syria's state mobile provider said its Internet service had been "partially cut due to part of the network unexpectedly malfunctioning".

Since Syria's conflict erupted in March 2011, various areas across the country have experienced intermittent power outages as a result of clashes or air strikes and many regularly rely on generators for power.

Syria's parliament had on Monday called in electricity minister Imad Khamis for a special hearing on the power sector.

Khamis told parliamentarians that the cost of "direct damage" to the country's power stations and the electricity network from 2011 until the end of 2015 was estimated $3.75 billion.

In statements carried by Syria's state news agency SANA, Khamis said five out of the 13 main power stations in Syria had been "directly damaged" in the war. - Yahoo.

EXTREME WEATHER: Three-Day Storm Hits Jerusalem - Israeli Electric Corporation Declares State Of Emergency!

Snow falls in central Jerusalem on Monday.© Hadas Parush/Flash90

January 27, 2016 - ISRAEL - Electric corporation kicks it into high gear as snow starts moving in ahead of overnight buildup; electricity usage breaks record

Jerusalem was visited by bursts of snow showers on Monday as a three-day storm continues to set upon Israel, and the Israel Electric Corporation (IEC) has declared a state of emergency in the capital in anticipation of the coming deluge.

On Monday the record for electricity usage in winter was broken, as the 12,200 megawatt previous high was shattered and consumption continues to rise. A 2.3% increase from the previous record has already been reached.

A full 47 millimeters (nearly two inches) of rain fell in Jerusalem on Monday, making it the highest amount of rainfall in the entire country. While snow also fell down upon the capital, it did not stick or build up - but that's to change on Monday night, as Jerusalemites can anticipate to wake to a white morning on Tuesday.

IEC Director Maj. Gen. (res.) Yiftah Ron-Tal updated Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz (Likud) on Monday regarding the company's preparations for electricity disturbances in Jerusalem, after snow began falling earlier in the day.

A situation room has been opened in Jerusalem and an emergency situation has been declared by the IEC.

The corporation is to reinforce its crews on the ground, as well as its staff on the 103 telephone hotline which is in direct contact with the Jerusalem municipality and the police, passing out information to the interested public and fielding reports of power outages.

On Sunday, the IEC deployed a mobile power station to the Atarot neighborhood in the north of Jerusalem, so as to back-up the power supply in the capital. It has also dispatched generators to remote towns where access has been limited due to the weather conditions.

IEC is preparing for unusually high electricity consumption on Monday night due to the rapid drop in temperature over the last day.

While the storm weakened somewhat on Monday, the cold wave blowing in from Russia continues to move in, and heavy rains and winds blustered throughout the country, accompanied by thunderstorms and hail. Flood warnings remain in effect for certain locations.

The rain will continue intermittently overnight, with potential snowfall in the north. That snow is to gather on mountains over 700 meters (just under 2,300 feet) in height in the center of the country, including in Jerusalem, and build overnight.

In light of the approaching snow, police are preparing to close Highways 1 and 443 that connect the coastal region and Jerusalem on Monday night. - Arutz Sheva.

EXTREME WEATHER: Strong Storm System Hits Wales - Over 1,100 Homes Without Electricity; UNPRECEDENTED Flooding; Mass Evacuation! [PHOTOS]

Stuart Ladd

January 27, 2016 - WALES - According to the BBC, about 450 houses were affected on Tuesday morning, and another 700 later in south-west Wales.

The country's authorities have issued numerous warnings about possible floods, and the Meteorological Office of the country warned that rainfall on Tuesday and Wednesday could reach 4 inches.

Earlier in December, hundreds of people were forced to flee their homes due to an unprecedented flooding with the highest level ever recorded in some parts of northern Britain.

Tens of thousands of homes were left without electricity because of heavy rain and strong wind. - Sputnik.

Stuart Ladd

Stuart Ladd

Stuart Ladd

The Dyfi River has burst its banks in Machynlleth, Powys.  Stuart Ladd

Stuart Ladd

A driver stuck in flood water has been rescued by firefighters after Storm Jonas brought heavy rain to parts of Wales.

Crews freed the car on the A4069 between Llangadog and Llandovery, Carmarthenshire, after the River Bran burst its banks.

The Met Office had warned up to 10cm (4in) of rain could fall on Tuesday and Wednesday, but the worst of the weather is expected to clear by 15:00 GMT.

Flood alerts and warnings are in place.

In mid Wales, the Dyfi River has burst its banks near Machynlleth, Powys. - BBC.

INFRASTRUCTURE COLLAPSE: "The Flames Keep Shooting Up" - Film Footage Shows Fireball Exploding From Underneath Street In Shirley, United Kingdom!

Eruption: Flames explode 15ft from the manhole cover on the busy high street. © SWNS

April 22, 2015 - UNITED KINGDOM - A tradesman walking to his local takeaway was suddenly confronted with a massive fireball which repeatedly erupted 15ft out of the pavement.

Lucky Shiraz Nawaz, 36, was strolling along the pavement when he heard buzzing from the ground just a few feet behind him.

He turned around just in time to see a massive plume of thick black smoke followed by huge orange flames shooting up from an open manhole.

The father-of-two managed to grab his phone just in time to film the astonishing incident on Stratford Road in Shirley, Solihull.

His footage shows plumes of dark smoke billowing up out of the charred ground, followed by repeated blasts of flames, reaching the top of the nearby shop fronts.

Miraculously nobody was hurt in the incident after Shiraz evacuated the nearby takeaway, told them to turn off their gas supply, and called the fire service.


WATCH: Terrifying footage shows huge fireball exploding from underneath street missing shopper by inches.

Firefighters extinguished the blaze, which they said was caused by a fire in an underground link box - which distributes electricity - below the manhole.

Shiraz, a former gas engineer who now fits kitchens and bathrooms, said: "To think that I had just walked over that.

"The flames kept shooting up - maybe five or six times.

"I'm a building contractor so I knew that when I heard the noises it was something to do with electrics. It was like a buzzing.

"I knew what it was but I didn't expect flames to come shooting out straight away or anything like that.

"I'm so lucky I didn't get burned. I had just walked over it - I think I used up one of my lives right there."

Shiraz was walking from his home to the Dixie Chicken shop around the corner from his home when he saw the flames at around 7pm on Monday.

He was just metres away when he grabbed his phone to record the fireballs before stopping to dial 999.

"I got my phone out because I heard the actual noise and I think I saw a flash," he said.

"I think I managed to get it on film just as the first real flames came up. It looked like it was coming from a manhole cover. It was quite shocking.

"I feel very lucky. Had it literally been a few seconds earlier I would have been walking right over it.

"I stopped filming because I felt guilty and I knew I had to call the fire service. - Daily Mirror.

INFRASTRUCTURE COLLAPSE: Massive Power Outage Strikes Macau - Paralysing Telephones, Traffic Lights, Elevators And Banking Services!

A sign at a Macau bank notifying business interruption due the power failure. © Xinhua

April 18, 2015 - MACAU - A massive power outage, triggered by malfunctioning electrical substations, hit Macau yesterday, paralysing fixed-line telephones, traffic lights and elevator services, said the government. Banking services in the affected areas were also briefly suspended before electricity supplies were restored at noon. Some shops were temporarily closed due to the incident as well.

The city's sole electricity supplier CEM - Companhia de Electricidade de Macau - said at 10:56am yesterday morning that a malfunction of the 110kV high-voltage equipment in the Canal dos Patos substation subsequently affected four primary substations including S. Paulo, D. Maria, Porto Exterior and Ariea Preta substations.

Extensive areas in Macau Peninsula were affected, with 100,000 customers on the Macau Peninsula and some customers in Taipa, Coloane and the University of Macau encountering voltage dips caused by the incident. The power supply was fully restored at 12:20pm according to CEM.

Mainland China

CEM has denied the power outage had anything to do with electricity importation from Mainland China. The two existing networks for power supplied by state-owned China Southern Power Grid, situated in Gongbei Port and Lotus Port, respectively, account for 95 per cent of local power consumption.

In a joint press conference held following the incident, the Co-ordinator of the Office for the Development of the Energy Sector, Arnaldo Ernesto dos Santos, said the government is requiring CEM to submit a preliminary report in one week and an extensive report in one month.

A representative of the Public Security Police Force said the border crossing remained normal during the incident and said the government had despatched more police officers onto the streets to ensure public order was maintained.

75 trapped

The Fire Services Bureau activated its emergency mechanism, including mobilising 150 officers and more vehicles to help in rescue work. It handled 75 cases of people trapped in elevators and helped 440 affected by the lift incidents.

The Health Bureau said the incident had only a minor effect on the services of the emergency ward, and the operation of surgery wards and intensive care units, as the hospital has an emergency power supply.

CEM said it took emergency measures by activating the generation units of Coloane Power Plant A to provide emergency supply, which generated the black smoke at its power plant that the company explained is normal.

CEM has apologised for the incident and said the company would learn from it to further optimise the stability of the power supply. It also disclosed that the last regular inspection of the Canal dos Patos substation was conducted last month.  - Macau Business Daily.

INFRASTRUCTURE COLLAPSE: Blackout - Turkey Struck By The BIGGEST POWER CUT IN 15 YEARS; Crippling Transportation Networks!

March 31, 2015 - TURKEY - The worst power outage in 15 years struck most of Turkey on Tuesday, grounding flights and crippling rail networks. Localized blackouts continued as night fell.

Dogan News Agency reported that all provinces, apart from Van in the east, which receives energy from Iran were affected by the accident that took place at 10:36 a.m. local time. The energy ministry later said that the problem originated on the main Aegean lines, which distribute imported energy throughout the country.

Subway systems and traffic lights went down in several major urban centers, creating havoc on the streets, as an impromptu market opened on the streets for generator fuel. Thousands of people were also trapped for hours in elevators, and on funicular lines. Major industrial objects had to be shut down for the majority of the day.

A widespread power outage in Turkey is affect flights.

By late afternoon, the energy ministry said that electricity had been restored to 90 percent of Istanbul, and would "shortly" be back in the remainder of the country.

Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu says all potential causes are still being investigated, “including the possibility of a terror attack,".

A general view of Ambarli power station in Istanbul (Reuters / Osman Orsal)

"Whether or not terrorism is a high possibility or a low one I can’t say at this stage. I can’t say either whether it is a cyber attack," energy minister Taner Yildiz told reports.

This is the first outage event of such magnitude in 15 years, according to the daily Hurriyet paper.


WATCH: Infrastructure collapse from blackouts in Turkey.

#hahaha#metroda#elektrik#kesildi#yürümeye#devam

A video posted by Samet Kanberoğlu (@sametkanberogluu) on Mar 31, 2015 at 1:26am PDT

- RT.

EXTREME WEATHER: Infrastructure Collapse - Powerful And Gusty Santa Ana Winds Knock Out Power To 55,000 In Southern California!

Visitors to the Sepulveda Basin Dog Park look at fallen a tree that was blown down by heavy winds in the Encino section of Los Angeles on Saturday, Jan. 24,
2015. A brief but powerful round of Santa Ana winds with gusts topping 60 mph toppled trees and power lines in Los Angeles. About 9,000 customers were
without electricity in the San Fernando Valley Saturday morning. (AP Photo/Richard Vogel)

January 26, 2015 - CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES - Powerful Santa Ana winds with gusts topping 89 mph toppled trees and power poles in Southern California on Saturday, leaving tens of thousands of people without electricity.

The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power said more than 54,000 customers — mostly in the San Fernando Valley area of Los Angeles — lost power shortly after 3 a.m. The winds downed a large billboard in Burbank, and knocked a large tree into the kitchen of a house in Van Nuys.

Scattered outages left 1,700 Southern California Edison customers without power in Fontana and Ontario east of Los Angeles.

The National Weather Service says a gauge in the mountains near Julian in San Diego County registered a gust of 89 mph at 7:30 a.m. An 82 mph wind gust was recorded in the Malibu hills Saturday afternoon.

The winds kicked up Friday night and were expected to die down later Saturday.

 A Los Angeles Department of Transportation worker tends to a fallen traffic light that was blown down by heavy winds in the Van Nuys
section of Los Angeles on Saturday, Jan. 24, 2015. (AP Photo/Richard Vogel)

Huge surf crashes over a jetty at El Segundo, Calif., Saturday, Jan. 24, 2015. The National Weather Service said a long-period westerly swell created the high surf
along exposed west- and northwest-facing beaches. The service warned of dangerous rip currents at affected beaches.  (AP Photo/John Antczak)

Huge surf crashes ashore at El Segundo, Calif., Saturday, Jan. 24, 2015. The National Weather Service said a long-period westerly swell created the high surf
along exposed west- and northwest-facing beaches. The service warned of dangerous rip currents at affected beaches. (AP Photo/John Antczak)

A high-pressure ridge caused record-breaking highs in several cities. Newport Beach had a high of 80 — one degree hotter than the 1990 record.

Laguna Beach's 82 tied a 1968 record. Santa Maria's 82 tied a 1935 record.

The Santa Anas are generated during cooler months when westward currents reach fierce speeds as they squeeze through Southern California mountain ranges, lowering humidity and making vegetation susceptible to fire.

Meanwhile, a high-surf advisory warning of up to 11-foot-high surf was in effect through Sunday. Authorities said the winds blew two kayakers out to sea off the coast of Malibu. They were reported missing for about an hour before Los Angeles County Fire Department lifeguards helped them paddle back to shore. - Yahoo.

INFRASTRUCTURE COLLAPSE: Power Breakdown Plunges Pakistan Into Darkness - 80 PERCENT Hit By The Outage; The Latest Reminder Of The Country's Crippling Energy Crisis And Chronic Infrastructural Problems!

An aerial view of buildings and homes during a nationwide power blackout in Karachi on February 24, 2013 (AFP Photo/Asif Hassan)

January 25, 2015 - PAKISTAN - Pakistan was plunged into darkness after a key power transmission line broke down early on Sunday in an incident blamed on a rebel attack, the latest reminder of the country's crippling energy crisis.

The power failure, one of the worst Pakistan has experienced, caused electricity to be cut in major cities throughout the country, including the capital Islamabad.

It was later restored in much of the country, with the national power company saying normal distribution would resume within hours.

Officials said the blackout began after midnight when a transmission line connecting a privately-run power plant to the national grid was damaged.

A senior official at the National Grid station in Islamabad said around 80 percent of the country was hit by power breakdown.

An AFP reporter in the eastern city of Lahore said the airport was also affected by the breakdown.

Minister of State for Water and Power Abid Sher Ali later issued an apology and said electricity had been restored in most of the country, blaming the breakdown on rebels blowing up the line in Naseerabad district, which lies in southwestern Baluchistan province.

A spokesman for the national power company said that "electricity has been restored in all parts of the country."

"Some 6,000 megawatts of electricity has been added to the national system and within a couple of hours distribution will be normal," the spokesman said.

Pakistan's electricity distribution system is a complex -- and delicate -- web and a major fault at one section often leads to chain reactions and breakdowns of power generation and transmission.

In addition to chronic infrastructure problems, the energy sector is also trapped into a vicious "circular debt" brought on by the dual effect of the government setting low electricity prices and customers failing to pay for it.

State utilities therefore lose money, and cannot pay private power generating companies, which in turn cannot pay the oil and gas suppliers, who cut off the supply.

Earlier this week, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif cancelled his trip to the World Economic Forum in Davos to deal with a severe petrol shortage at home.

The fuel crisis began last week when Pakistan State Oil was forced to slash imports because banks refused to extend any more credit to the government-owned company, which supplies 80 percent of the country's oil.

Solving Pakistan's energy crisis was a key campaign pledge for Sharif in the run-up to the 2013 general election, and the shortage is heaping fresh pressure on his government. - Yahoo.

GLOBAL FOOD CRISIS: The Price Of Meat, Chicken, Fish, Eggs And Electricity Hit Record High In The United States - Despite Decline In The Overall Consumer Price Index And Crude Oil!

A basket of grocery goods. (AP)

January 17, 2015 - UNITED STATES - Despite a decline in the overall Consumer Price Index (CPI) in December, the food index increased and the price index for meats, poultry, fish and eggs hit a record high, according to data released today from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).

According to the BLS, “The Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) declined 0.4 percent in December on a seasonally adjusted basis. Over the last 12 months, the all items index increased 0.8 percent before seasonal adjustment.”

“The gasoline index continued to fall sharply, declining 9.4 percent and leading to the decrease in the seasonally adjusted all items index,” said the BLS.

“The fuel oil index also fell sharply, and the energy index posted its largest one-month decline since December 2008, although the indexes for natural gas and for electricity both increased,” said the BLS.

“The food index, in contrast, rose 0.3 percent, its largest increase since September.”

AP Photo

“The food index rose 0.3 percent in December after a 0.2 percent increase in November,” stated the BLS. “The index for meats, poultry, fish, and eggs increased 0.3 percent as the index for beef and veal continued to rise, advancing 0.7 percent.”

In addition to rising 0.3 percent over the month, the index for meats, poultry, fish and eggs also hit a record high in December.

In January 1967, when the BLS started tracking this measure, the index for meats, poultry, fish, and eggs was 38.1. As of last December 2013, it was 239.151. In November 2014 it hit 260.247. And in December 2014 it hit a record high of 261.002, an increase of 9.1 percent in one year.

The price of ground beef, which hit a record high in November of $4.201, declined in December to $4.156.

While the price of beef declined, the price of fresh whole chicken per pound increased 0.5 percent, and grade A eggs hit a record high price.

AP Photo

In January 1980, when the BLS started tracking the price of this commodity, Grade A eggs cost $0.879 per pound. By this December 2014, Grade A eggs cost $2.21 per pound. A decade ago, in December 2004, Grade A eggs cost $1.199 a pound. Since then, the price has increased 84.3%.

Each month, the BLS employs data collectors to visit thousands of retail stores all over the United States to obtain information on the prices of thousands of items to measure changes for the Consumer Price Index (CPI). The CPI is simply the average change over time in prices paid by consumers for a market basket of goods and services.

Price of Electricity Hit Record High in U.S. in 2014

Even as gasoline prices plummeted and the overall energy price index calculated by the Bureau of Labor Statistics declined, electricity prices bucked the trend in the United States in 2014.

Data released today by the BLS indicates that the electricity price indexes hit all-time highs for the month of December and for the year. 2014 was the most-expensive year ever for electricity in the United States.

The annual price index for electricity, published by BLS today, was 208.020. That was up from 200.750 in 2013.

The seasonally adjusted electricity price index for the month of December was 210.151, according to the BLS. That sets an all-time record for the seasonally adjusted monthly electricity price index. The previous high was 209.341 in March of this year. In December 2013, the seasonally adjusted electricity price index was 203.740.

The average price for a kilowatt hour of electricity in the United States was 13.5 cents in December. That is the highest average price for KWH of electricity in the month of December since the BLS started recording the December monthly price for a KWH in 1978. In December 2013, the average price for a KWH was 13.1 cents.

The average price for a KWH of electricity tends to hit its annual peak in the summer months, decline in the fall, hit its nadir in the winter and rise in the spring. In 2014, the average price for a KWH hit a record high for that particular month in each month of the year. In June, July and August of this year the average price of a KWH hit 14.3 cents—its all-time high for any months on record.

By contrast, the overall Consumer Price Index declined by 0.4 percent in December with particular help from the decline in the price of gasoline.

“The gasoline index continued to fall sharply, declining 9.4 percent and leading to the decrease in the seasonally adjusted all items index,” said the BLS in its press release on the CPI. “The fuel oil index also fell sharply, and the energy index posted its largest one-month decline since December 2008, although the indexes for natural gas and for electricity both increased.”

The BLS’s price indexes measure relative change in prices against a baseline of 100. The annual electricity price index exceeded 100 between 1983 and 1984, when it rose from 98.9 to 105.3. In the past two decades, the price of electricity in the United States has roughly doubled.

Rising electricity prices have not always been the norm in the United States. In 1913, the BLS annual electricity price index was 45.5. By 1946, it had dropped to 26.6. In 1974, it was still only 44.1—less than it had been six decades before in 1913.

The net production of electricity in the United States peaked in 2007, according to data published by the Department of Energy’s Energy Information Administration. That year, the United States generated 4,156,745 million KWH of electricity.

In 2013, that latest full year on record, the United States generated 4,058,209 million KWH of electricity—or about 2.4 percent less electricity than in 2007

The latest data from the Energy Information Administration, published in December, includes electricity generation numbers through the first nine months (January through September) of 2014. In those nine months of 2014, more electricity was generated (3,117,501 million KWH) than in the first nine months of 2013 (3,077,418 million KWH) or 2012 (3,095,504 million KWH), but less than in the first nine months of 2007 (3,166,614 million KWH).

The composition of the sources of electricity generation also changed between 2007--when the nation produced its peak volume of electricity--and 2014.

In the first nine months of 2007, the U.S. produced more electricity with coal (1,523,714 million KWH) than in the first nine months of 2014 (1,231,795 million KWH).

The U.S. also produced more electricity in the first nine months of 2007 with nuclear power (607,846 million KWH) and petroleum (53,802 million KWH) than it did in the first nine months of 2014, when it produced 596,174 million KWH and 24,953 million KWH from those source respectively.

By contrast the U.S. produced more electricity in the first nine months of 2014 than it did in the first nine months of 2007 by means of natural gas (844,743 million KWH to 688,035 million KWH), conventional hydroelectric (200,614 million KWH to 199,261 million KWH), wood (31,668 million KWH to 28,729 million KWH), waste (14,499 million KWH to 12,723 million KWH), geothermal power (12,170 million KWH to 10,967 million KWH), solar (14,271 million KWH to 532 million KWH), and wind (133,495 million KWH to 23,522 million KWH).

In the first nine months of 2014, solar power equaled about 0.46 percent of total electricity generation. Wind power equaled about 4.3 percent of total electricity production.

- CNS News.

ICE AGE NOW & INFRASTRUCTURE COLLAPSE: Canada Blackout - Heavy Snowfall Leaves Over 150,000 Without Electricity In Quebec! [PHOTOS + VIDEO]

Reuters/Chris Wattie

January 5, 2015 - QUEBEC, CANADA - More than 150,000 Canadians are left without electricity in Quebec due to the snowfall, which caused trees branches to fall, damaging power cables.

The blackouts began Sunday afternoon across the Montreal region, but conditions deteriorated in the evening, and the outages spread all over southern Quebec.

Montreal has deployed 1K snow removal vehicles / tools. Budget for this weekend's cleanup is around $20M.

Tree branches are snapping and falling all over the city due to weight of the ice. Photo by @vincentchampagn

Just witnessed this branch snapped right off the tree because of the weight of the ice. #weather #cbcmtl

The wacky #weather has caused power outages across Quebec, including here in Dorval. #cbcmtl

Ice, ice baby #Montreal

"Our crews are presently patrolling to find out where the power outages are and trying to restore the power as soon as possible. It's mainly due to the weather conditions," Hydro-Quebec spokeswoman Elaine Beaulieu told CBC News.

The main cause of the blackouts was tree branches falling due to snow and ice on them – leading to damage to power cables.

Quebec suffered heavy snowfall Saturday afternoon, becoming freezing rain Sunday morning.

There have also been flight cancelations and delays due to the situation.


WATCH: 150,000 customers without electricity in the Montreal area.

Meanwhile, severe weather raged all over Canada, with British Columbians advised to put off travel. A total of 24 winter storm warnings were issued for the region Sunday. A weather warning for drivers was also issued Sunday evening, and it is expected to extend into Monday.

Most of Canada’s prairie provinces and northern Ontario are under extreme cold warnings: southern Saskatchewan, southern Manitoba and northern Ontario are set to fall as low as -40 to -45 degrees Celsius. - RT.

EUROPEAN VAMPIRISM: "Burn, Baby, Burn" - Canadian Aborted Babies Incinerated In Oregon Waste-To-Energy Facility To Provide Electricity?!

April 28, 2014 - BRITISH COLUMBIA, CANADA -  The British Columbia Health Ministry has admitted that the remains of babies destroyed by abortion in B.C. facilities are ending up in a waste-to-power facility in the United States, providing electricity for residents of Oregon.

The Covanta Marion waste-to-energy facility in Oregon that incinerates
British Columbia "medical waste," including aborted babies.

The province’s Health Ministry said in an email to the B.C. Catholic that “biomedical waste” shipped to the U.S. to be incinerated includes “human tissue, such as surgically removed cancerous tissue, amputated limbs, and fetal tissue.”

“The ministry understands that some is transferred to Oregon. There it is incinerated in a waste-to-energy plant,” the email stated.

The ministry said that contractors handling the province’s “biomedical waste” follow “health and safety protocols, as well as federal, provincial, and local regulations.”

Kristan Mitchell, executive director of the Oregon Refuse and Recycling Association, told the B.C. Catholic that the “biomedical waste” likely ends up at the Covanta Marion waste-to-energy facility in Oregon since it is the only facility that uses waste to power the grid. The facility confirmed that it still receives and incinerates B.C. medical waste.

The power facility, located in Brookes just off the I-5, burns waste in two massive boilers at a temperature of about 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit. The heat transfers into water tubes, which creates steam to drive turbines. The turbines generate electricity.

A 2007 article about the Marion waste-to-energy facility that appeared in the Willamette Live — ironically titled “Burn, Baby, Burn” — stated that at the time the incinerator burned about 800 tons (1,764,000 pounds) of medical waste per year.

“Medical waste is brought to the facility in sealed boxes and is carried to the furnace on a conveyor belt which layers it with the rest of the solid waste being processed,” the article states.

Locals at the time protested the “importation and burning of medical waste,” expressing concern about breathing “toxic emissions.”

The news comes one month after the remains of more than 15,000 aborted babies were found to have been incinerated, along with other “medical waste,” to heat and generate power for British hospitals. - LifeSiteNews.

INFRASTRUCTURE & SOCIETAL COLLAPSE: Blackout - Power Outages Up 15 PERCENT Nationwide In The United States; Surges And Spikes To Cost The U.S. Economy $150 BILLION!

April 04, 2014 - UNITED STATES - An unusual power outage in Redondo Beach, California affected 6,100 customers for three hours in 2013. The cause? Wild parrots roosting on an overhead power line, consequentially knocking out service.

While outages aren’t typically sparked by such unusual circumstances, facility managers should be prepared for unplanned outages. According to a new report from Eaton, such outages were up 15% in 2013 and over half of those surveyed believe that downtime could have been prevented.

Eaton’s Blackout Tracker Annual Report contains data that is based on a full year of reported power outages across the U.S. and provides an overview of national power outage data as well as power outage data by state. For the fifth year running, California topped the list of states with the most power outages, followed by Texas and Michigan.

“The Blackout Tracker Annual Report illustrates the scope and severity of power outages across the country and the serious consequences that can arise for businesses when the lights go out,” said Mike DeCamp, senior marketing communications manager, Eaton Power Quality Division.

“With electrical power outages, surges and spikes estimated to cost the U.S. economy $150 billion, it’s more important than ever for companies of all sizes to invest in reliable power backup solutions.”

Don’t let downtime affect your facility. Be prepared with emergency generator tips. For the full report, visit Eaton's Blackout Tracker. - Buildings.

TERROR ALERT: Report Indicates That U.S. Electric Grid "Inherently Vulnerable" To Sabotage - Multiple Unreported Incidents Raise Major Security Concerns!

March 15, 2014 - UNITED STATES - Electric grid compounds across the country have faced an uptick in unauthorized intrusions by unknown individuals, causing concern that the U.S. grid is “inherently vulnerable” to widespread sabotage, according to a recent oversight report issued by New Jersey’s Regional Operations Intelligence Center (ROIC), which monitors the threat level.

U.S. power grid / AP

Following at least eight “reports of intrusions at electrical grid facilities in New Jersey” from October 2013 until January 2014, the ROIC’s Intelligence & Analysis Threat Unit issued a report warning that the U.S. electrical grid is “inherently vulnerable” to attacks that could wipe out power across large swaths of the country.

The ROIC report, released in late February, is marked as “unclassified” but designated “for official use only.” New Jersey State Police Spokesman Trooper Jeff Flynn confirmed that a report of this nature had been commissioned by ROIC when contacted by the Washington Free Beacon.

The multiple incidents of “sabotage” and crime outlined in the report “highlight the grid’s vulnerabilities to potential threats,” according to a copy of the report obtained by the Free Beacon.

U.S. officials and experts have increasingly warned over the years that the electrical grid could be a prime target for terrorists or others seeking to damage the country’s infrastructure and disrupt daily life.

The concern is that many of the incidents outlined in the ROIC report could be a sign that preparations are under away for a larger, coordinated attack on the grid.

Highly sensitive areas of the electrical grid were found to be lightly monitored, leaving them vulnerable to attack, according to the report.

“The electrical grid—a network of power generating plants, transmission lines, substations, and distribution lines—is inherently vulnerable,” the report said.

“Transmission substations are critical links in the electrical grid, making it possible for electricity to move long distances and serving as hubs for intersecting power lines,” according to the report. “Many of the grid’s important components sit out in the open, often in remote locations, protected by little more than cameras and chain-link fences.”

While the incidents are greatly concerning to security officials—and remain mostly unresolved—the ROIC “currently does not have enough information to classify the New Jersey incidents listed [in the report] as indicative of pre-operational activity or connect them to a pattern,” according to the report, which does not discount this possibility.

However, the incidents of grid tampering are not isolated to New Jersey.

An unidentified individual in Tucson, Ariz., in January, “removed multiple bolts from an electric tower’s support structure, increasing the potential for collapse and electrical service interruption.”

Authorities suspect that the goal was “sabotage rather than vandalism” due to the “deliberate manner of the bolt removal, including probable acquisition of the requisite tools,” the report said.

In April 2013, “unknown subject(s) fired multiple shots at an electrical transmission substation” in San Jose, Calif., “damaging several transformers,” the report notes.

Surveillance video of the incident shows sparks flying across the compound as bullets strike the substation.

“Authorities subsequently discovered intentionally cut fiber optic cables in a manhole,” according to the report. “No motive or suspects have been identified.”

Sabotage has also been reported in Jacksonville, Ark., where in August 2013, “an identified suspect … removed bolts from the base of a high-voltage transmission line tower and tried to bring down the 100-foot tower with a moving train,” according to the report

One month later, “the subject reportedly set a fire at a substation control house.”

In October of that year, “the subject cut into two electrical poles and used a tractor to pull them down, cutting power to thousands of customers,” according to the report.

While the incidents in San Jose received widespread media attention, several of the others did not.

New Jersey has experienced eight separate incidents of a similar nature since last year.

On Jan. 26, for instance, “employees found a hole, approximately three-foot high by two-foot wide, in the perimeter fence of an electric switching and substation in East Rutherford,” according to the report.

Several days before that incident, on Jan. 22, “an identified subject entered a Burlington generating station using false identification,” according to the report. “The subject claimed he had a gun (none found) and a bomb (package cleared).”

Other incidents include break-ins at certain electrical stations and the theft of various on-site materials.

The ROIC concluded that while “the incidents more likely involve vandalism and theft, rather than sabotage,” any type of “intrusion or damage to substations is a critical concern to the power supply and public safety.”

Counterterrorism expert Patrick Poole warned that these attacks could be a “test-run” for a larger act of sabotage.

“While some of these incidents involving substations can be attributed to metal scavenging, it’s planned attacks, much like the one in San Jose, that have officials worried the most and raises a number of questions,” Poole told the Free Beacon. “Why was this substation targeted? What were they trying to accomplish with this attack? Was this a test-run for something larger?”

“What the New Jersey ROIC report shows is that this fits into a larger pattern of incidents, which should be keeping someone at Homeland Security up at night,” Poole said. “The other big question is how many more of these incidents are going unreported?”

The ROIC report outlines several types of suspicious behavior that authorities should be on the lookout for.

These include “photographing objects or facilities that would not normally be photographed,” instances of individuals “loitering in sensitive areas,” and other types of atypical behavior such as “unfamiliar or out of place persons posing as panhandlers, protesters, vendors, [or] news agents.”

Flynn told the Free Beacon that ROIC aims to analyze and codify various grid incidents across the country in order to “learn from those incidents and apply them to situations here in New Jersey.”

The goal is to reach “potential conclusions to solve potential problems we have in state,” Flynn said in response to questions about the report. - Free Beacon.

TERROR ALERT: Snipers Shot Up A Silicon Valley Power Station For 19 Minutes, Knocking Out 17 Transformers – The Worst-Ever Attack On United States Power Grid!

February 05, 2014 - SILICON VALLEY, UNITED STATES - This is scary.

Modern Sniper:Army

The Wall Street Journal's Rebecca Smith reports that a former Federal Energy Regulatory Commission chairman is acknowledging for the first time that a group of snipers shot up a Silicon Valley substation for 19 minutes last year, knocking out 17 transformers before slipping away into the night.

The attack was "the most significant incident of domestic terrorism involving the grid that has ever occurred" in the U.S., Jon Wellinghoff, who was chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission at the time, told Smith.

A blackout was avoided thanks to quick-thinking utility workers, who rerouted power around the site and asked power plants in Silicon Valley to produce more electricity. But the substation was knocked out for a month.

The FBI says it doesn't believe a terrorist organization caused the attack but that it continues to investigate the incident.

Smith and colleague Tom McGinty assembled a detailed chronology of the attack that includes some amazing details, including more than 100 fingerprint-free shell casings similar to ones used by AK-47s that were found at the site and small piles of rocks that appeared to have been left by an advance scout to tell the attackers where to get the best shots.

A U.S. Navy investigation ordered by Wellinghoff determined "it was a targeting package just like they would put together for an attack," he said.

Other utility officials disagree with Wellinghoff's assessment, and say the electric grid remains highly resilient.

Click here to read the full story at WSJ.com.

- Business Insider.

EXTREME WEATHER: Windstorm In Seattle Rocks Floating Bridge - Knocks Out Power To 135,000 And Hurts Two!

November 04, 2013 - UNITED STATES - More than 135,000 people were without power, two were injured and motorists abandoned their cars on a floating bridge Saturday as a fast-moving windstorm swept the Seattle area, officials said.

Puget Sound Energy, which serves counties around Seattle, told NBC News that 95,000 customers were without electricity in the afternoon. The storm knocked down several distribution lines early Saturday.

Windblown waves coming in off Puget Sound close to high tide batter waterfront homes in
Seattle's West Seattle neighborhood on Saturday.  Elaine Thompson / AP

"We expect the situation to worsen in the next few hours," Ray Lane of Puget's communications department said.

Gusts in Seattle and the region around it hit 60 mph or more.

The Washington State Department of Transportation closed the State Route 520 floating bridge across Lake Washington for two hours because of high winds and large waves.

Troopers said as many as 50 cars were abandoned on the westbound lanes of the bridge. Troopers on foot escorted the people back to their vehicles.

A 48-year-old man was seriously injured when a tree fell on his car and a 2-year-old was hurt when a branch broke from a tree and hit her near the University of Washington, NBC station KING 5 of Seattle reported.

Seattle City Light, another main energy distributor, said that 40,000 customers suffered power failures in its service territory within Seattle and suburbs around it.

As the storm moves through the area, elevations above 2,500 feet were expected to get between 6 and 11 inches of snow in a 12-hour period.

The National Weather Service issued a wind warning for much of Saturday covering coastal areas in Washington and Oregon. - NBC News.

INFRASTRUCTURE & SOCIETAL COLLAPSE: Massive Explosion In Syria Causes Widespread Blackout - Assad Regime Blames Rebels For Blasting Gas Pipeline Near Damascus!

October 24, 2013 - SYRIA - A gas pipeline was attacked near Damascus causing the capital and the southern part of Syria to suffer a blackout. The electricity minister blamed the blast on rebels.

"A terrorist attack on a gas pipeline that feeds a power station in the south has led to a power outage in the provinces, and work to repair it is in progress," electricity minister Emad Khamis told SANA news agency.

As the pipeline is located near Damascus International Airport, which is some 20 km away from the capital, a power outage also hit Damascus. 

RT’s Arabic correspondent in Syria Abutalib Albouhaya has confirmed the power was out in the capital after the gas supply to Tashrin power plant was cut. Albouhaya also said there were several victims near a church in Dummar suburb of Damascus with gunfights going on in Qaboun and Mleha suburbs as well.


WATCH: Massive blackout in Syria after rebels blast gas pipeline. 

It is not immediately clear how extensive the blackout is in the rest of the country. The minister said maintenance crews are working to restore power. In September, a similar outage was caused after a high voltage power line was sabotaged, AFP reports. 

Media reports say the capital city of Damascus is covered with thick smoke and shell explosions are being heard. 

"The whole city just went dark," Reuters cited a resident who lives in the center of the city. A woman, who asked to remain anonymous, said she saw the "major glow of a fire" near Damascus International Airport and heard the sound of heavy machinegun fire.  

The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights claimed the explosion was caused by rebel artillery as they were targeting the town of Ghasula several miles from the airport, Reuters reports. The observatory also suggested that the attack was a pre-planned large scale operation.


WATCH: Massive bombing in Syria. 

This attack could now be used by the opposition as yet another “justification for calling off plans for talks, which is an exact opposite of what it is,” anti-war activist David Swanson told RT.

“When you are proposing to discuss an end to violence, an increase in violence is all the more reason to proceed with all the more deliberation to make it happen,” Swanson said. “But that is of course the danger as particularly the opposition side in Syria does not want to have these talks unless unreasonable conditions are set beforehand.”

On Tuesday, during the Friends of Syria group meeting in London, Syrian opposition once again reiterated their conditions for participation in Geneva-2 peace talks. Opposition National Coalition chief Ahmad Jarba said that they would not attend the peace conference unless its main objective was to remove Assad from power.


WATCH: Huge explosion in Syria. 

“There will not be any negotiations at all without making sure that the Geneva 2 meeting is basically for the transitional period and for Assad to go," Jarba said, adding however that his group would convene again to make a final decision on their attendance. 

Russia and the US have been pushing to hold the Syria peace conference since May. According to the Arab League chief, the gathering may finally start on November 23. However, so far no firm date has been set. - RT.

INFRASTRUCTURE & SOCIETAL COLLAPSE: Energy Crisis - London Could Face Rolling Blackouts By 2015!

June 28, 2013 - ENGLAND - Britain’s risk of electricity blackouts by 2015 is more serious than previously thought, regulator Ofgem warned on Thursday. The country’s spare electricity supply margin could fall as low as 2 percent in 2015/16, down from around 14 percent currently. Last year Ofgem gave an estimate of 4 percent.

“Electricity supplies are set to tighten faster than previously expected in the middle of this decade,” Ofgem said in a report, adding that the chance of supply disruptions would rise to one in 12 years in 2015/16 from one in 47 years now. Britain has seen a vast number of power plants close and being mothballed due to emissions-reduction policies and the loss-making economics of gas-fired power plants.

Ofgem said it had lowered its estimate of the amount of conventional power capacity expected for 2015/16 by more than 2,000 megawatts due plant closures and delays in building new ones. Energy Secretary Ed Davey admitted, “Without timely action, there would be risks to security of supply.” While it played down the actual likelihood of blackouts, saying the market managed the problem effectively; the regulator said its findings showed that urgent action is needed.

Britain’s network operator National Grid and the government on Thursday outlined proposals to better manage electricity demand to balance the market at times of tight supply. They include payments to energy users for reducing their demand when necessary. At the same time, the government on Thursday published details of its proposed capacity market, a mechanism that will pay certain power plants to be on standby to produce additional electricity when supply is tight.

The government next year will hold the first auction for power plants to participate in the capacity market for delivery of electricity in 2018/19. The costs of the capacity agreements will be borne by energy users, but the government said that lower wholesale prices and protection against costly blackouts will offset the payments. RWE npower, one of Britain’s biggest power producers, said it was concerned the capacity mechanism favoured certain power plants, such as gas-fired ones that can respond at short notice.

“Government’s proposal for a capacity mechanism must pass the simple test of whether it keeps the lights on at the lowest cost to consumers,” RWE npower chief executive Paul Massara said in a statement. “A mechanism that treats all power plants in the same way will do that, but the current proposals do not suggest this non-discriminatory approach.” - Reuters.

GLOBAL FOOD CRISIS: January Food Prices Rise Up In Kenya - Inflation Rise By 3.67% In One Month!

February 04, 2013 - KENYA - Kenyans paid higher prices for most goods last month compared to December, official figures show, an indication than further reduction in lending rates may be halted.

Higher prices of commodities such as milk, wheat flour and sugar saw the overall rate of inflation rising to 3.67 per cent in January, up from 3.20 in December. Price rises were also noted in house rents, cooking gas and other cooking fuels which offset noted lower costs of electricity and kerosine.

For the month, the average price of 500ml packet of milk cost Sh38.31 up from Sh35.89 in December while the cost of a 2-kg wheat flour went up to Sh139.60 up from Sh138.34 the previous month. Prices of commodities such as sifted maize flour went down.

Consequently, the food and non alcoholic drinks' index rose by 1.24 per cent. The housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels' index went up 1.06 per cent.

The transport index went up by 0.61 per cent despite lower costs of petrol and diesel. "This was mainly due to higher costs of taxi, bus and matatu fares," a statement from the bureau of statistics said.

The rising inflation rate was also blamed on a 4.3 per cent jump up in the education index on the account of increases in tuition and boarding fees.

The upward swing in inlflation may dampen hopes for cheaper credit going forward. The Central Bank reduces its key lending rate depending on the rate of inflation and the exchange rate.

Last month, the CBR rate was slashed to 9.50 per cent from 11 per cent when inlflation declined from 3.25 per cent in November 2012 to 3.20 per cent in December 2012. The shilling has in recent days lost ground versus the dollar hitting a low of 88 this week, a pointer that any more rate cuts are unlikely. - All Africa.

DISASTER IMPACT: Aftermath of Superstorm Sandy - 4,500 Tons (9 Million Pounds) and Counting of Sandy Debris Piles up at Queens Park, Uprooted Trees by the Thousands in New York and New Jersey, Some New Yorkers May Not Have Electricity Until Christmas!

November 19, 2012 - UNITED STATES - It has now been three weeks since Hurricane Sandy hit New York, New Jersey, and many other northeast locations in the United States. Still, the debris is still piling up and many people have no electricity or wont have back their power until Christmas.

Superstorm Sandy debris is seen in the parking lot of Jacob Riis Park in the Rockaway section
of Queens on Wednesday. Mark Lennihan / AP.

Sandy Debris Piles Up At NY Site - 4,500 Tons (9 Million Pounds) And Counting.
Last summer it was packed with beachgoers, a parking lot where New Yorkers stashed their cars, applied sunscreen and dragged lawn chairs, coolers and umbrellas across the blacktop toward the shore. Today it's an enormous waste collection site half a mile long and a quarter-mile wide, piled high with debris from the flooding caused by Superstorm Sandy. Though the flow of debris has slowed a little, the cleanup job is far from over. New York City officials have determined that around 350 homes in the city are beyond salvation, including 80 in Breezy Point alone, said Fred Strickland, the resident engineer from the Army Corps of Engineers, which is helping the New York Department of Sanitation with the cleanup. If all goes according to plan, the city will condemn the houses and demolish them, and Strickland's team will help haul away the rubble. Twisted steel, waterlogged wood, broken furniture and countless mattresses already fill the parking lot that normally serves one of New York's most popular ocean beaches. Hundreds of trucks come and go around the clock bringing material collected from the streets of the Far Rockaways and Breezy Point, where water from Sandy's storm surge tore apart homes and buildings. Residents are still digging out. The temporary garbage dump at Jacob Riis Park in Queens is one of several sites around the city being used this way. The size of the dump reflects the enormity of the damage caused by the storm. The debris just keeps coming. - NBC.

In this Oct. 31, 2012 photo, a tree in Jersey City, N.J., lies tangled in power lines after being brought
down by high winds from Superstorm Sandy.

Sandy Uprooted Trees By The Thousands In New York And New Jersey.
They fell by the thousands, like soldiers in some vast battle of giants, dropping to the earth in submission to a greater force. The winds of Superstorm Sandy took out more trees in the neighborhoods, parks and forests of New York and New Jersey than any previous storm on record, experts say. Nearly 10,000 were lost in New York City alone, and "thousands upon thousands" went down on Long Island, a state parks spokesman said. New Jersey utilities reported more than 113,000 destroyed or damaged trees. "These are perfectly healthy trees, some more than 120 years old, that have survived hurricanes, ice storms, nor'easters, anything Mother Nature could throw their way," said Todd Forrest, a vice president at the New York Botanical Garden. "Sandy was just too much." As oaks, spruces and sycamores buckled, many became Sandy's agents, contributing to the destruction by crashing through houses or tearing through electric wires. They caused several deaths, including those of two boys playing in a suburban family room. They left hundreds of thousands of people without power for more than a week. - The Weather Channel.

Some New Yorkers May Not Have Electricity Until Christmas.
In the following excerpt taken from the transcript of an interview between CNN's Anderson Cooper and New York City Councilman James Sanders, it is revealed that many citizens in New York will not have their power restored until Christmas.

COOPER: With us now is New York City councilman and senator-elect James Sanders. He calls the power failure, the LIPA failure, in his words a powder keg. Councilman, you met with LIPA officials today. They said some people here on Long Island may not have power until Christmas? Is that true?

JAMES SANDERS, NEW YORK CITY COUNCILMAN: When I raised the question to the man and said, how soon will everyone have power, they wouldn't give me an answer, and I said, well, can we say November? Can we say December? How about Christmas? At that point they said, it is possible.

COOPER: What do you make of this? I mean, I know you called for the president of LIPA to resign if power isn't restored by Monday. But you also said the buck stops with Governor Cuomo since he appoints LIPA board members. Who do you call responsible in here?

SANDERS: Well, the first people held accountable of course has to be the LIPA. LIPA has the responsibility of making sure that this area is powered. And that responsibility is a dismal failure. What hasn't been mentioned is some people are freezing out here, and we are absolutely -- there are people who are dying thanks to this cold. And we can't -- as an elected official, I can't sit by quietly. LIPA must go, and the person who has the power to make this happen is our good governor.

COOPER: And you know, it's not the first time that LIPA has come under fire. It's had a bad reputation when it comes to getting power restored after storms, right?

SANDERS: LIPA is historically one of the worst-performing authorities that New York State has, and why we allow this to continue, I don't know. At a minimum, the captain needs to go down with the ship. The ship went down 12 days ago, and yet the captain is still skating away. The captain needs to go down with the ship.

MASS FISH DIE-OFF: Large Numbers of Fish Found Mysteriously Dead in the Guangdang River, China?!

November 11, 2012 - CHINA - Yesterday afternoon, Yantai public Mr. Cao call 96110 reflects the number of dead fish floating the Laishan Guangdang River river, nearby residents competing salvage. Some residents said, may be the result of someone deliberately electric fish.  16:30, Hutchison Who rushed to the the Laishan green homes north gate reaches Guangdang River, most of the dead fish in the river has been fishing for walking, from time to time, residents rush to the river holding a fishing tool.

FILE: A man collects dead fish in the Guanqiao Lake in Wuhan in central China's Hubei province from earlier this year.

Nearby residents said, here morning people up all their tools to fish, dead fish discarded in the river weeds. On the surface of the water near the shore has been the color green, sporadic floating in waving belly stiff quite dead fish, most of these fish is about 2 cm carp seedlings, the river of dead fish gathered at the green moss, exudes a pungent stench. Beside the river 5,6 individuals are busy with homemade nets fishing. A middle-aged man riding a motorcycle holding hand nets hurriedly ran down the river join the fishing team, about 20 minutes later, he trotted on the shore, the reporter followed him, and found the net a treaty weighing 2 pounds catfish.  Mr. Cao said, these dead fish is 5:00 yesterday morning, from Phoenix Mountain Reservoir has spread to the seaside.

Mr. Cao suspect that the river is a man-made cause of death and so many fish, likely was electrical fish in the river. Ms. Wang said that the people she lived here for six years, and have never seen so many dead fish. The people walk on in Guangdang River bridge Uncle Lee said, two weeks ago, there are a lot of people come to the river to fish, dead fish in the river are now members of the public fish the rest of the fish in the morning. Lee uncle said, these are carp, carp and catfish fry, could have long from samgun now alive died, Uncle Lee that the river water is too shallow hypoxia caused by large tracts of fish floating on the surface of the water, but also may be electric fish electric fish Mongolia.  The interview, the reporter learned that fishing people in dead fish the majority do not know the dead fish as a food harmful. In this regard, the health practitioner Yuhuangding Hospital, under the premise of not understanding the cause of death of fish a large area, it is recommended that the public is best not to eat fish floating in the river, in order to avoid injury to the body. - SHM.