Unnamed Administration sources reported that Sean Donelan said:
Unless my math is very wrong, I don't understand how a 300 amp
surge could damage that much stuff.
More to the point, transformers seldom blow up, much less fall on
cars. [exception: Sunday night at 9pm, FOX...]
David Lesher wrote:
More to the point, transformers seldom blow up, much less fall on
cars. [exception: Sunday night at 9pm, FOX...
The last time a transformer blew near my house, all that happened is
that some of the neighbors lost power for a while.
I think someone forgot the smiley at the end of the message.
[ On Saturday, December 11, 1999 at 03:02:07 (-0500), Steve Sobol wrote: ]
Subject: Re: [announce-all] NAC Maintenance this weekend (fwd)
The last time a transformer blew near my house, all that happened is
that some of the neighbors lost power for a while.
Well..... The last time a transformer as big as the one I assume the
story was talking about blew in a warehouse here in Toronto, the entire
corner of the building was knocked out. I don't remember the details,
but that one's definitely in the records -- check the Toronto Star or
Toronto Sun over the past five years or so (my memory of the timing of
recent events is about as fuzzy as a bank of fog).
I've also heard a story second hand (from someone at the site) of a
backup generator (or buffer generator) that failed (it was three-phase,
something about one phase not switching over I think) which similarly
blew the side of a building out when it failed. This was back in the
early 80's or maybe even late 70's, and I believe it was a mainframe
datacentre (or factory powerplant), also somewhere in Ontario.
We had an ordinary 4Kv single-phase house transformer blow up after
being struck by lightning on our farm in the 70's too, but I guess
that's a different scale of surge..... 
I've heard a story about a generating plant in South/Central Utah or
Northern Arizona which somehow someone succeeded in screwing up the wiring
in such a way that when they went to put a generator online, the phase
detectors thought everything was in sync and then when they put the
generator on line they discovered that it was, in fact, not wired
correctly (one of the phases reversed or something). The resulting
"torque reversal" caused the majority of the generator to promptly exit
the building and they found pieces/parts not a trivial distance away.
I heard this enough times from enough different sources (many of which I
trust as reliable) that I consider this factual. Of course, I DIDN'T see
it myself (thank god.).
If this did, in fact occur, the instantaneous potential between the
generator and the line could very well cause a transformer to fail,
especially if a breaker failed to open.
(not trying to add any credibility to the original story).
- Forrest W. Christian (forrestc@imach.com) KD7EHZ
"Greg A. Woods" wrote:
[ On Saturday, December 11, 1999 at 03:02:07 (-0500), Steve Sobol wrote: ]
> Subject: Re: [announce-all] NAC Maintenance this weekend (fwd)
>
> The last time a transformer blew near my house, all that happened is
> that some of the neighbors lost power for a while.Well..... The last time a transformer as big as the one I assume the
story was talking about blew in a warehouse here in Toronto, the entire
corner of the building was knocked out.
Ok, that's still nowhere near what was described.