I'm beginning my email this morning with a Public
Service Announcement.
Yesterday was a VERY windy day. I live in an area where there are a lot of very tall pine trees and it's not uncommon for them to break and/or fall in a storm. Around 11am yesterday, we heard a big "pop" that sounded like a transformer blowing. Just up the street I saw that a tree had fallen on wires and was across the road. Sure enough, we lost power. Well, we lost half power.
Some outlets and lights worked and some didn't.
Little did we know, our neighbors saw the "pop" and later told us that they saw the cables and pole in front of our house shake with sparks coming from the power lines. They did not lose power and didn't realize we were without.
As I mentioned, it's common for trees to fall and cut power, so I reported the outage and
went about my day. Luckily, we don't need any power to create our cards and projects, so I spent a good part of my day creating. Without any distractions (tv, radio, email, etc), I was able to get quite a lot done in my craft room.
We went out to dinner and stopped by my parents house (they never lose power) and my dad mentioned that we should call the fire department because half power could mean a "ground fault"
and that could be dangerous.
The fire department came and discovered that we did have a "neutral fault line" so they cut all power to the house. National Grid was able to repair the line pretty quickly afterwards (about 8:30pm). Lucky for us, no damage was done and no one was in danger.
According to google: A neutral ground fault occurs when a neutral wire
accidentally touches ground. This can cause a large amount of current to flow, which can trip circuit breakers, damage equipment, or cause fires.
Lesson - if you have half power, call the fire department to expedite a response from your electric company!
