We had a powercut this morningacording to what I was told it also affected another town around 30miles away so it must of been a grid failure somewhere. Does anyone know? I wonder what could cause such a widespread blackout

I experienced a 10-hour blackout in a rather large rural area last weekend. There was a fairly substantial lightning storm with nasty wind (blew away a whole tent with luggage and everything inside) so I suspect either a lightning hit or bad storm/tree damage to MV lines, severe enough to cause a total shutdown.

Thats bad 10 hours with no electric thankfully ours was only about an hour and a half I since found out it was a fault at chickerell grid substation the report in the paper call it a technical fault what ever that means the report about it affecting somewhere 30 miles away was wrong just some bad reporting unfortunatley

Back when hurricane Sandy hit NJ and NY, the area I live in was in the dark for 18 days. I'm across the bay from 'Ground Zero' where the ocean broke thru the barrier island and into the bay. Eighteen days with a 9K gas generator.

I didn't have much trouble, we spent the evening with candles and LED torches and then when the wind calmed down I slept in my tent where I don't need electricity anyway. The restaurant probably had some refrigeration issues but the owner never complained a bit. I was just glad we had running water, over 100 people on a mountain without drinking water or anything else would have been quite problematic! And in such a remote location a well pump or at least booster pump wouldn't have been unusual at all. Apparently they've got a spring-fed reservoir far enough above the house to provide decent pressure.