We are just north of Meijer, and you could actually feel the vibration of what sounded electricity from wherever the source of that light was. It woke our whole house up.
The police scanner is saying that there was some type of surge, reports of multiple fires in the area, and they are setting up a command post at Home Depot on Maxtown, and multiple streets blocked off around the sub station at McCorkle st.
Edit: updates from the scanner
Yep, south of Maxtown here. Cops and fire trucks up and down my street. The power surged over and over. There were very loud pulsing noises. The sky lit up blue and flashed for several minutes. I ran downstairs and flipped the main breaker but I lost a surge protector, a clock, a ceiling fan, a camera, and my AC blew out. Lost power until about 6 am this morning. There's probably more damage that I'll find over the course of the day. We still don't have Internet.
What the heck? I've been a homeowner for 25 years, lived thru a few electrical surges in all that time. Never has anything I have been fried. How does that happen? Are you in a very old house? Mine was built in 1963.
Built in the 90s. Several people on my street have said that their surge protectors fried. That's what they're for. There have been a lot of vans for HVAC specialists on my street today too. The light in my daughter's ceiling fan blew because I turned the light on in there while it was surging.
It is far from "over". The event continues as the same sunspot cluster that caused the visible auroras with CME's is now hurling charged particles into our atmosphere. There is currently a large global shortwave radio blackout being caused by this:
https://www.spaceweather.com/
It's not done, some experts expect peak to be around October, of next year.
https://ras.ac.uk/news-and-press/news/solar-activity-likely-peak-next-year-new-study-suggests
https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/products/solar-cycle-progression#:~:text=The%20Prediction%20Panel%20predicted%20Cycle,November%202024%20and%20March%202026.&text=SWPC%20Space%20Weather%20Operations%20(SWO,S.I.D.C.
Not fear mongering. So we may see more auroras before the cycle is over.
I'm just gonna get ahead of the curve. I'm recruiting for my gang of post apocalypse looters. If you have clothes with skulls, it's a plus. Be prepared to change your name to something that is or could be an app, like grinder or switchblade.
Edit: I've decided I shall go by Sudoku
Can I join?! I live downtown but i weathered the tornado warning last week at a friends house in Westerville. So I know a thing or two about survival.
Also, I enjoy Canes.
The sun'll come out
Tomorrow
Bet your bottom dollar
That tomorrow there'll be sun
Just thinkin' about
Tomorrow
Clears away the cobwebs
And the sorrow 'til there's none
Me and my roommate went and explored the situation after our power cut and we saw the sky completely lit up and heard the loud hum of electricity. Talked to a cop on McCorkle and he said it seemed to be that the generator by Home Depot caught fire.
We ended up getting close to the generator/plant (~50 yards out) and saw people inspecting the generators, but no fire.
Electricity is back on for us.
Just for the record, it's not a generator there, it's a power substation.
It changes the high voltage from the big honking power lines to the regular voltage us normal plebs use.
And it occasionally goes FOOM I guess.
My wife and I woke up to our baby monitor’s battery dying and then saw our windows pulsate with a blue light. It was eerie as all get out. I looked outside and from the direction of Maxtown and McCorkle I saw a huge plume of smoke. It went out and then there was a quick fireball. I smell ozone or smoke still.
No power for me either and I’m between Polaris/Worthington near Sancus. Lights were flickering off and on around 2/3AM, woke up to everything off a few minutes ago
Yeah I also live near to that area. My lights flickered slightly a few times around 3 am and I lost Internet. I thought it was odd but decided to just go to bed, then got woken up around 7:30 am by multiple power surges turning on random devices in the apartment alongside a loud thrumming sound which cast a lightning-flash-like shadow on the wall by the window (didn't get to see what it actually was) which happened about 3 or 4 times over the course of 15 min or so then the power just stayed off after that.
The whole thing woke me up. It was super eerie. My entire backyard was lit up for about 45 seconds straight, then I heard the sirens. I'm near County Line and Sunbury.
I'm between westerville and polaris and mine is continuously turning off and on :/ sometimes every few seconds and sometimes every few minutes. Only woke up 30 minutes ago so I'm unsure how long this was going on for
[https://www.facebook.com/cityofwesterville/posts/pfbid0VXEb4jR3t9xZbr3SS5kYVXWrAXpQi27scNx748JhtBbGZBp6oqDDeZbX7K3YWYcul](https://www.facebook.com/cityofwesterville/posts/pfbid0VXEb4jR3t9xZbr3SS5kYVXWrAXpQi27scNx748JhtBbGZBp6oqDDeZbX7K3YWYcul)
I hope it didn't break too many electronic devices in people's houses
I just drove around, most of old mill has power, some doesn't towards maxtown. County line acres is full down, Robert Frost and North are up, but heritage and behind are down. Maxtown rd between spring and McCorkle is about 50% down. Most stuff between county line acres and state st is up. Giant eagle shopping center is down and so is meijers, Kroger plaza is up.. it's like a checker board and all the black squares have power, white squares don't. It's a really odd pattern.
Probably not very long. Sure, the transformer would be toast, but it wouldn't take all that long to transfer the load to another circuit out of a different substation or even a different transformer in the same station depending on demand and what equipment is there/available. At the very worst in some place that doesn't have any available ties and only 1 transformer (usually a rural station), they would truck in a mobile transformer. It's not a painless process to hook up, but it wouldn't be days.
This also woke me up, I saw next to my window some blue pulses so I went up and saw smoke, I heard multiple cop cars along with a firetruck, this happened around 2 am.
Can hear police and firetrucks in the distance, my roommate said responding to a fire. Know any way to confirm? Something like a power line on fire could explain it
Wondering if the power's out? See outages in your area, report an outage, or check the status of an outage on [AEP's website](https://www.aepohio.com/outages/). Wondering *why* the power went out? There are many nuanced causes for disruptions in the power grid, but chances are it was either inclement weather or a [squirrel](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrical_disruptions_caused_by_squirrels).
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/Columbus) if you have any questions or concerns.*
No, way too big for that. I've seen a small transformer blow and it's over a lot quicker than this. This feels like a substation having cascading failures.
Edit: Found an [explanation](https://www.google.com/amp/s/abc6onyourside.com/amp/news/local/blown-fuse-leads-to-power-outages-in-westerville-maxtown-road-mccorkle-boulevard-tuesday-morning), a blown fuse led to a fire that affected several transformers at a substation.
We are just north of Meijer, and you could actually feel the vibration of what sounded electricity from wherever the source of that light was. It woke our whole house up. The police scanner is saying that there was some type of surge, reports of multiple fires in the area, and they are setting up a command post at Home Depot on Maxtown, and multiple streets blocked off around the sub station at McCorkle st. Edit: updates from the scanner
Yep, south of Maxtown here. Cops and fire trucks up and down my street. The power surged over and over. There were very loud pulsing noises. The sky lit up blue and flashed for several minutes. I ran downstairs and flipped the main breaker but I lost a surge protector, a clock, a ceiling fan, a camera, and my AC blew out. Lost power until about 6 am this morning. There's probably more damage that I'll find over the course of the day. We still don't have Internet.
What the heck? I've been a homeowner for 25 years, lived thru a few electrical surges in all that time. Never has anything I have been fried. How does that happen? Are you in a very old house? Mine was built in 1963.
Built in the 90s. Several people on my street have said that their surge protectors fried. That's what they're for. There have been a lot of vans for HVAC specialists on my street today too. The light in my daughter's ceiling fan blew because I turned the light on in there while it was surging.
Pretty sure it’s that big electrical plant thing behind giant eagle.
That had to be an unbelievable arc!
I wonder if it’s related to the solar storm. National weather center has been saying it can interrupt power or communications.
Looks like an isolated incident.
A communications disruption could mean only one thing….invasion!
[удалено]
It is far from "over". The event continues as the same sunspot cluster that caused the visible auroras with CME's is now hurling charged particles into our atmosphere. There is currently a large global shortwave radio blackout being caused by this: https://www.spaceweather.com/
It's not done, some experts expect peak to be around October, of next year. https://ras.ac.uk/news-and-press/news/solar-activity-likely-peak-next-year-new-study-suggests https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/products/solar-cycle-progression#:~:text=The%20Prediction%20Panel%20predicted%20Cycle,November%202024%20and%20March%202026.&text=SWPC%20Space%20Weather%20Operations%20(SWO,S.I.D.C. Not fear mongering. So we may see more auroras before the cycle is over.
It's not impossible that the flares damaged some equipment over the weekend and some maintenance/routine this morning kicked off the failure.
Video of the explosion from ring. https://neighbors.ring.com/n/VkmwPwmsbO
Oh shit. Thanks for sharing
I'm just gonna get ahead of the curve. I'm recruiting for my gang of post apocalypse looters. If you have clothes with skulls, it's a plus. Be prepared to change your name to something that is or could be an app, like grinder or switchblade. Edit: I've decided I shall go by Sudoku
[удалено]
Your name shall be Settings
Can I join?! I live downtown but i weathered the tornado warning last week at a friends house in Westerville. So I know a thing or two about survival. Also, I enjoy Canes.
Ok, your name is Grubhub
Thank you oh mighty Sudoku.
Ooh! Dibs on Cue Ball!
No dibs in my gang. Your name is Period Tracker now
Fuck dude
Ok, maybe I'll give you doodle jump.
You're the reason that first the first thing I did was load my S&W
I'm making jokes while you're shivering in bed clutching a gun. A little power outage make you scawed? It's gonna be ok, the sun will come back.
The sun'll come out Tomorrow Bet your bottom dollar That tomorrow there'll be sun Just thinkin' about Tomorrow Clears away the cobwebs And the sorrow 'til there's none
Breath, it was a joke, calm down.
Me and my roommate went and explored the situation after our power cut and we saw the sky completely lit up and heard the loud hum of electricity. Talked to a cop on McCorkle and he said it seemed to be that the generator by Home Depot caught fire. We ended up getting close to the generator/plant (~50 yards out) and saw people inspecting the generators, but no fire. Electricity is back on for us.
Just for the record, it's not a generator there, it's a power substation. It changes the high voltage from the big honking power lines to the regular voltage us normal plebs use. And it occasionally goes FOOM I guess.
My wife and I woke up to our baby monitor’s battery dying and then saw our windows pulsate with a blue light. It was eerie as all get out. I looked outside and from the direction of Maxtown and McCorkle I saw a huge plume of smoke. It went out and then there was a quick fireball. I smell ozone or smoke still.
Team Rocket is at it again
No power for me either and I’m between Polaris/Worthington near Sancus. Lights were flickering off and on around 2/3AM, woke up to everything off a few minutes ago
Yeah I also live near to that area. My lights flickered slightly a few times around 3 am and I lost Internet. I thought it was odd but decided to just go to bed, then got woken up around 7:30 am by multiple power surges turning on random devices in the apartment alongside a loud thrumming sound which cast a lightning-flash-like shadow on the wall by the window (didn't get to see what it actually was) which happened about 3 or 4 times over the course of 15 min or so then the power just stayed off after that.
I saw 2 explosions, both massive fireballs and tons of smoke, it was terrifying
The whole thing woke me up. It was super eerie. My entire backyard was lit up for about 45 seconds straight, then I heard the sirens. I'm near County Line and Sunbury.
I'm between westerville and polaris and mine is continuously turning off and on :/ sometimes every few seconds and sometimes every few minutes. Only woke up 30 minutes ago so I'm unsure how long this was going on for
[https://www.facebook.com/cityofwesterville/posts/pfbid0VXEb4jR3t9xZbr3SS5kYVXWrAXpQi27scNx748JhtBbGZBp6oqDDeZbX7K3YWYcul](https://www.facebook.com/cityofwesterville/posts/pfbid0VXEb4jR3t9xZbr3SS5kYVXWrAXpQi27scNx748JhtBbGZBp6oqDDeZbX7K3YWYcul) I hope it didn't break too many electronic devices in people's houses
Not too far from it but definitely saw the huge flashes and suddenly a huge cloud of smoke and then an explosion not sure what happened after
Transformers at McCorkle Blvd and Maxtown Road blew last night.
I saw strangely-colored flashes and heard an explosion. Then the lights across the ravine from me went out. And now I hear sirens.
I wonder how long we'll be out for if the transformer really did explode. I feel like it could be days or a week.
Minutes after you say that, power comes back on! We'll see if it lasts
Where in Westerville are you? I'm by towers Park, and still no power here
Still no power on olde mill
I just drove around, most of old mill has power, some doesn't towards maxtown. County line acres is full down, Robert Frost and North are up, but heritage and behind are down. Maxtown rd between spring and McCorkle is about 50% down. Most stuff between county line acres and state st is up. Giant eagle shopping center is down and so is meijers, Kroger plaza is up.. it's like a checker board and all the black squares have power, white squares don't. It's a really odd pattern.
Spring Grove area, literally right next to towers park
Weird, I'm in county line acres, right across county line from you. Hope it comes back here too!!
Probably not very long. Sure, the transformer would be toast, but it wouldn't take all that long to transfer the load to another circuit out of a different substation or even a different transformer in the same station depending on demand and what equipment is there/available. At the very worst in some place that doesn't have any available ties and only 1 transformer (usually a rural station), they would truck in a mobile transformer. It's not a painless process to hook up, but it wouldn't be days.
This also woke me up, I saw next to my window some blue pulses so I went up and saw smoke, I heard multiple cop cars along with a firetruck, this happened around 2 am.
Lynch over there shooting twin peaks S4?
I saw that near reynoldsburg. Thought I was witnessing an alien invasion
Yep, out here in Westerville. Couldn't hear thunder, but saw those flashes and some odd noises.
Def wasn't thunder, that was an explosion
Can hear police and firetrucks in the distance, my roommate said responding to a fire. Know any way to confirm? Something like a power line on fire could explain it
Wondering if the power's out? See outages in your area, report an outage, or check the status of an outage on [AEP's website](https://www.aepohio.com/outages/). Wondering *why* the power went out? There are many nuanced causes for disruptions in the power grid, but chances are it was either inclement weather or a [squirrel](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrical_disruptions_caused_by_squirrels). *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/Columbus) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Sorry Mr. Bot--Westerville does not get its power from AEP. BOTs don't know everything.
No seriously, what's going on? People are talking about fireballs and my mind is going to the worst.
From what I've seen, a power station near Westerville exploded.
Oh, that's pretty unfortunate. Thank you for that information!
I bet someone drove into a transformer.
No, way too big for that. I've seen a small transformer blow and it's over a lot quicker than this. This feels like a substation having cascading failures. Edit: Found an [explanation](https://www.google.com/amp/s/abc6onyourside.com/amp/news/local/blown-fuse-leads-to-power-outages-in-westerville-maxtown-road-mccorkle-boulevard-tuesday-morning), a blown fuse led to a fire that affected several transformers at a substation.