I guess I better get the carb mod done on my generator so it'll run on propane.,

I travelled up route 81 on saturday and there were tree down all the way up through virginia. Stopped for gas a few times but the gas stations had no power. Thought I was gonna run out of gas but found one with power just in time. Luckily I had a couple gallons in the bike on the back of the truck in case I needed it.

Been nice and cool out in central Calif for 2 weeks or so, but I'm waiting for the shoe to drop, so to speak.

Sensationalist thread title. I was expecting to hear about some huge malfunction like the blackout of 2003, not some thunderstorms. The grid isn't "kaputt" it's just damaged.

We had one helluva storm Friday evening around 7 pm.  Power flashed off a couple of times, but came back on, and stayed.  But I lost cable, internet, and cell phone service.  Lots of tree branches down, but no full trees.  Saw several up-rooted trees down the street from me though.  It blew so hard, I've never seen it like that before.

Went out Saturday to check on all my husband's buildings (that he takes care of for work), found a few broken lights, signs, roof hatch blown open on one building, but nothing major.  All the gas stations that were open had lines for gas that were several blocks long, radio said the average wait was 45 minutes to get gas.  We drove about 50 miles before finding an out of the way 7-11 where we got gas in about 15 minutes.  Drove to our camp to check it out, and surprisingly only had one tree down in the front yard, not even close to the house.  And the power was still on.  Lots of areas in between with no power.
 
Got to work this morning and we have power, internet, but no cell service.  Guy I work with, his whole county shut down the water supply because a power line fell into the lake/dam.  So there are alot of terrible stories within a few miles of me, but I'm thankful to have been lucky.  All my in-laws are without power, and expecting several days before its restored.

Sucks with no cable or internet, but I'm happy to have power (i.e. Air conditioning!) because the temps have been 95-100°.  And humid!  

Glad to hear all of you are ok minus the couple of
shingles missing on your roof, the thing is that many
lost power and ability to communicate so just wanted to
start a thread to paint a more useful, fuller picture of the
situation based on real info given by REAL people we all know
and not  just what tv's talking heads are parroting around as always.

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Sorry NY mike if things are not doomy enough for you and
if I mislead you with my alarmist title, the thing is that for
a lot of folks this was/is a big deal and also I just had 45
characters for the title so it needed to be short and to the point,
the kaputt part is cause I was thinking in German, I should have
used the word "down" instead, sorry won't happen again mikey.
 

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arteacher.-

yes, that is very valid theory, old farmer almanacs from the
1800's based their yearly predictions souley on observed
solar activity and cycles, they were amazingly precise without
the aid of satellites and such; flares, the magnetosphere, general
electromagnetism and geomagnetic solar storms are still widely
misunderstood/ignored by many who instead look for answers in
more popular, and profitable, "junk science", mad world I tell you.  

You all be safe now.

We have had no storms or hardly any rain,Grass is all getting brown,96 today and 99 tomorrow not normal for Wisconsin.