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talk about strange coincidences
2002-09-11-8:49 a.m.
So today at 7:46 am, we decided that we'd play the national anthem throughout the hotel on the PA system, as a way to commemorate 9/11. Since I handle all the electronics and phones and all that jazz on the project, I was in charge of setting it all up etc.. Well at 7:46 on the dot started the cd and checked with my guys on the radio to see if everything sounded ok, and they said they could hear everything fine. About 10 seconds after that, the power shuts off, and the entire building goes dark. I instantly hear my boss radio our central plant guys, so I know that power has been lost over all of our property at least (several hundred acres and 30 buildings). Within about 10 seconds power was back on, as we have two Caterpillar V-24 generators which kick on as soon as a loss in inbound feed is detected. I immediately ran down one floor to the main electrical room for the hotel, and all the panels except for the emergency feed were dark. The operator in the central plant said we lost the feed from HL&P from both directions. My friend John and I were both laughing, saying if terrorists had managed to disturb the entire grid of Houston, that would be damned impressive. (We really didn't think anyone would bother messing with just Galveston, but I could see them messing with Houston.) I jumped on the internet and looked on the newswire, and turned on the radio, but no one had said anything after about 5 minutes, so I thought something was fishy. About ten minutes later, one of the guys got on the radio and said he was in the transformer yard and had found the problem: One very big, very barbecued bird, who poked his head in something he shouldn't have. This happens a lot, but usually smaller birds will just get their heads blown off. You wouldn't believe the amount of headless birds they clean up out of that area. But this is the first time something big enough has come along to actually trip a circuit. Once they figured out what it was, they switched to a back up transformer and everything was fine. It was just some pretty awkward timing for it is all. As I've said before, my job might not pay worth a damn, but I will say that's it's never dull.
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