Power Outages Due to Weather:

We do not need a terrorist to disrupt the electric power system, and with it, our way of life. Heavy gale force winds, rainstorms, lightning, hurricanes, tornados, and hail storms in the summer, snow and ice storms in winter, are violent enemies of our electrical power grid. Even if your home does not get hit directly, you can lose electricity when power lines between your home and the power plants are snapped by falling trees. The weather caused the following problems:

VEPCO Power Outages Washington, DC and Virginia Due to Weather:

Other Virginia Power Outages Due to Weather:

• On December 24, 1998 a winter snow and ice storm caused electric power outages to 260,000 customers in the western portion of Virginia, USA.
  FOUR DAYS later 107,000 customers were still without power.
  SIX DAYS after the storm 40,000 customers were still without power.
  SEVEN DAYS after the storm 30,000 customers WERE STILL without power.
  A WHOPPING TEN DAYS after the storm, 10,000 customers WERE STILL without power.
  Three people DIED of Hypothermia!
  

Power Outages Due to Weather in Other States:

• On January 22nd. and 23rd., 2000, over 500,000 electricity customers in and around Atlanta, Georgia lost power due to an ice storm.
  
  
• On January 31, 1998, 250,000 customers in eastern Tennesee, West Virginia, and North Carolina lost power from a storm that delivered 48 inches of snow! This storm caused nine deaths.
  
  
• During the winter of 1997-1998 a SINGLE snow and ice storm took down 22,000 utility poles in New York state.
  
  
• During February, 1994, 700,000 people lost power in Tennessee due to a snow and ice storm.
  

Power Outages Due to Weather in Canada:

• During the winter of 1997-1998, in what was called the "Storm of the Century" millions of customers south of Montreal, Canada lost electrical power.
  80,000 of them were without it for a WHOPPING 26 DAYS before it was finally restored!
  

Other distant Power Outages Due to Weather:

• During the fall of 1998, Hurricane Georges hit Puerto Rico, the Florida Keys, and the coast of Gulf Coast of Mississippi. This Hurricane damaged several HUNDRED THOUSAND structures leaving five MILLION TONS of debris in its wake. One MILLION people lost electric power and 700,000 lost their water supply!
  

ABC News Article on the Coming Power Shortages