Does anyone know what happened? Supposedly a lightning guard wire came down, but how did it manage to cause a wide spread blackout in the process?

Update, I just came across this:


http://img.scoop.co.nz/media/pdfs/0606/skmreport.pdf

Looks like two earth wires came down and took out 4 110kv bus bars.

Just seems like an unfortunate accident don't see that much could be done to prevent it rust is just an unfortunate thing that happens

Well maintenance would have helped, but having 220kv cross over 110kv bus bar is not a good idea for this very reason. Also the single breaker double buss topology because one bus is in such close proximity to the other during any contingency, good chance both will go at the same time.

Reading further I heard they added a new GIS next to the station so anything happening to the open air portion would have less effect.