THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, May 15, 1996 TAG: 9605150436
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B5 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY KAREN JOLLY DAVIS, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 51 lines
Sixteen high-voltage circuit breakers at the Delmarva Peninsula's biggest power plant tripped simultaneously on Tuesday, resulting in an electrical shutdown from Smyrna, Del., south to the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel.
Drew Vallorano, spokesman for Delmarva Power, said the company did not know what caused the outage to 300,000 customers in three states about 10 a.m.
But the resulting blackout affected the entire Virginia Eastern Shore for at least part of the day Tuesday.
Vallorano said the massive short circuit occurred at the 500 kilovolt substation in New Castle, Del.
``Typically, it would work the way your home circuit breaker would work,'' he said. ``Things just disconnected.''
On the Eastern Shore, life stalled during the outage. Traffic lights on Route 13 didn't work. Local radio stations fell silent. Most people on the 75-mile-long peninsula could not pump gas or water.
NASA and other federal facilities closed, as did some banks, restaurants and stores. But the schools didn't. ``They felt it was safer to keep the students there than to take them out on the roads,'' said Accomack County Administrator Keith Bull as he paced his darkened office.
Bull and the rest of his staff manned duty stations without lights or computers. The phones worked, though, and residents called constantly for information.
County officials had trouble getting word out to the public because the local radio stations were down. No police were at the major Route 13 intersections. Many drivers sped up, with no lights to slow them. Crossing the highway was tricky.
But state police reported no accidents by late afternoon.
At the landfill, citizens had the rare opportunity to dump trash without a tipping fee, because the weight machines weren't operating.
``We have a lot of happy customers,'' said Bill Harmon, Accomack's director of public works. ``They're riding in free.''
Some areas lost power only briefly. Cheriton and Eastville suffered a short outage before the generator in Bayview turned on and restored electricity to those communities. The hospital in Nassawadox and Accomack County's jail used backup generators.
By 3 p.m., Delmarva Power had restored service to 200,000 customers. Company officials said power was restored to all customers by 6 p.m. Tuesday. by CNB