Tokyo BLACKOUT!

[Taro Toporific]

Right now downtown Tokyo is having a widescale blackout. Check NHK to see if your train is affected---many are. For you folks in the 3rd world where this happens everyday, this is a rarity in Tokyo. A large scale blackout like this has not happened in 30 years. The poor guys in Tokyo Electric will have to report to Diet and aplogize on their knees for this.

[Taro Toporific]

[nullpointer]

For you folks in the 3rd world where this happens everyday, this is a rarity in Tokyo.

You mean California or New York?

[Mulboyne]

You mean California or New York?

Or London.

[Taro Toporific]

You mean California or New York?

Well, yes, when I used to work with the guys in Hitachi and they keep asking me why all the server room bids had UPS added for power back up. When I said it was for blackouts, they first replied that Tokyo isn't subjected to aerial bombing anymore so there's no need for blackouts. The concept of power blackouts was unheard of, hee, hee. They kept asking me, "Why would the power company turn off the power?"


Blackout in wide areas of Tokyo, vicinity
TOKYO, Aug. 14 KYODO
A blackout began in wide areas of Tokyo and nearby Chiba and Kanagawa prefectures shortly before 8 a.m. Monday, which left more than 1 million households in the dark and disrupted rail services and road traffic during the rush hour, police said.
The Chiba prefectural police are investigating an accident in which a crane truck damaged high-voltage electrical power lines in Urayasu as a possible cause of the blackout.
More than 260 traffic lights in Tokyo have gone out, while some people in Tokyo's Shinjuku and Shibuya wards have become trapped in elevators, Tokyo's fire department said.
Some commuter train services operated by East Japan Railway Co. and other rail companies have shut down, while Tokyo's subway services were temporarily suspended.
Tokyo Electric Power Co. is investigating the cause of the outage.
A liaison office has been set up at the prime minister's office to collect information and the Tokyo Fire Department has set up its disaster control center.
==Kyodo

[Neo-Rio]

BBC carrying the story as well,

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4786031.stm

But they just couldn't help tacking on this at the end of the article:-

As the city got back to normal, men were given a special dispensation to travel in "women-only" metro carriages to ease overcrowding.

Men get on those carriages all the time with complete impunity because of the overcrowding which happens daily.

[Samurai_Jerk]

Men get on those carriages all the time with complete impunity because of the overcrowding which happens daily.

Really, I've never seen it happen?

What is the worst thing that could happen to you for riding in them anyway? Could any legal action be taken?

[Taro Toporific]

Men get on those carriages all the time with complete impunity...

Really, I've never seen it happen?
What is the worst thing that could happen to you for riding in them anyway? Could any legal action be taken?

I've seen guys get on the ladies car but then get scared of the ladies glaring at him and move to a regular car. It doesn't happen often but it does happen.
There wouldn't be any "legal action" but the railroad employees on the platform will warn guys for trying to get on the ladies car ---if a guy (normally drunk) ignores the warning station police will pull him off at the next station.

[capsule]

I was in the flippin' shower shaving and shampooing when at 7:40 on the nose everything went out - Lights and water! This continued for a solid 30 mins..gotta love that.

Luckily none of the servers at the office were affected!

[Delinjapan]

at least I learned a new word today. I arrived at the train station and I saw that everything was at a standstill, so I asked 2 office ladies standing on the platform :

(me) : nani ga attenda?? *what happended?*
(OL1) : teiden! *powercut*
(me) : nandesuka? *what's that?*
(OL1) : denki...owarimashita! *electricity...finished!*

[Mulboyne]

Bloomberg reports some real horror stories:

In Setagaya ward, Takeshi Takahashi, a real estate company employee, was forced to wait at Yoga station on the Denentoshi line, where he normally meets a co-worker on the train. He chatted with his co-worker, who was stuck on the train between stations, by cell phone. The stranded passenger told Takahashi his train's air conditioning system was still working.

Is that really the best example of local colour that the reporter could come up with?

[gomichild]

Bloomberg reports some real horror stories: Is that really the best example of local colour that the reporter could come up with?

OMG the humanity!!!!!

[kurohinge1]

Unconfirmed reports suggest a large, pre-historic-looking creature was responsible for the teiden (blackout) by knocking down power lines, and an anonymous photograph has surfaced . . .



Godzilla has declined to comment, although his neighbour (a large, turtle-like creature who refused to be named) claimed that Godzilla had been out drinking all night following a belated birthday bash for Ultraman, and had a nasty habit of trying to limbo under local power lines (and piss in the near-by dam) whenever he was drunk.

[dimwit]

Wait a sec. I thought it was a giant crane.

[GuyJean]

Nice ones, Kuro and Dim..

GJ

[Taro Toporific]

Crane owner won't compensate for damage caused by blackout
The Yomiuri Shimbun, Aug 20, 2006
Mikuniya Kensetsu, the company that owns the floating crane that caused a widespread blackout in the metropolitan area by accidentally hitting electric cables on the Kyu-Edogawa river last Monday, said it bears no responsibility to compensate for indirect damage resulting from the blackout.
"We don't bear any responsibility to make reparations for indirect damage, such as failure of air conditioners and personal computers, and the death of tropical fish," the offshore civil engineering company said in a statement on its Web site Friday.
Kenji Kimata, chairman of the company based in Kamisu, Ibaraki Prefecture, told The Yomiuri Shimbun, "My personal view is that we are responsible for the direct damage to the electric cable, and we would comply if [Tokyo Electric Power Co.] requests compensation, but I don't think we bear any legal responsibility to pay for indirect damage caused by the blackout."
TEPCO will not pay compensation for damages either, because its contract with customers exempts the company from liability claims for indirect damages in which the power company is not responsible for the outage...more...

[IkemenTommy]

Crane owner won't compensate for damage caused by blackout

Yeah.. we'll see about that. We'll lynch em like we did with those dick weed Huser executives.

[Buraku]

UPDATE:

CNN - Tokyo darkened by power failure

A spokesman for Tokyo Electric Power Co. Inc. (TEPCO) said it was not

These Tepco idiots are at it again, wasn't it a few years back their power company was trying to feed the J-public nuclear waste, and was forced to close many of its plants in a massive scandal