NEWS: Power Outage Hits Athens and other Parts of Greece, page 1

posted on Jul, 12 2004 @ 10:43 AM

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One month before the start of the 2004 Summer Olympics, the host city of Athens finds itself in a widespread power outage. The blackout struck during the midday hours during sweltering temperatures. Is Athens prepared for a major event like the Olympics?

ap.tbo.com
The midday blackout, blamed by the government on "mismanagement" of the electrical grid, raised serious concerns about Athens' ability to handle increased power demands during the Olympics, but officials promised the network was ready to handle the Aug. 13-29 games.

Power gradually started returning to Athens after about 20 minutes but was not fully restored to the city until just over three hours after the outage began. Government officials said electricity would be restored to the entire region during the rest of the day. At one point, generators were pressed into service at Olympic venues.

Transport Minister Mihalis Liapis, who was riding on a rail link built for the Olympics from central Athens to the airport, was stranded en route in the worst blackout to hit Greece in more than a decade.

The outage began at 12:39 p.m. in Athens - home to nearly 5 million people - and quickly spread as far as Larissa, 155 miles to the north, and the port of Kalamata to the south. It also included some islands in the Aegean and Ionian seas.

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This is very bads news for Greece and the Olympic committee, power outages in the midst of security fears does not add up to a promising situation.

[edit on 7-12-2004 by worldwatcher]

Calculon386

posted on Jul, 12 2004 @ 12:46 PM

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Who wants to go to the Olympics?? Terrorism or not, its gonna be all jacked up over there.. How much work do they have to go and what day must it be finished by? Times running out!

Banshee

posted on Jul, 12 2004 @ 04:46 PM

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There's been concern before this as to whether Athens' power grid will be able to handle the exponentially increased demand when the Olympics hit town.
It was briefly touched on in this ATSNN story.

This is concerning. Greece is known to have electrical problems during the hottest part of the year due to the subpar electric grid. Apparently they haven't fixed things in preparation for the Games, and at this rate I don't see how they'd have time to do it now.

Not good, not good....

HumptyDumpty

posted on Jul, 12 2004 @ 04:58 PM

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Dont count those greeks out, its like their PM said in an iterveiw on T.V. a while back..."Us Greeks we start slow with everything and finish at a wild pace"

Just look at the Euro Cup...ok well maybe they didnt finish with a wild pace, but they did start off slow! heh

AD5673

posted on Jul, 12 2004 @ 05:28 PM

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How are they going to hold the olympics?? And they want to hold the olympics in New York in the future

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Boogie

posted on Jul, 12 2004 @ 06:30 PM

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Big Deal! It's Greece! Get a taste of what the real olympics were like with events in non air conditioned venues. Go sit out in the cafe and drink some chilled ouzo. Go hang out on the Mediterranean beaches and cool yourself down.....

Well that's the best spin I could put on it....really though, these Olympics anymore are getting to be over the top productions for the pampered. Nothing I like better than seeing people competing in conditions that aren't perfect (like the NFL in mud or snow, hockey in the 4th OT) where sometimes you see some real olympic effort.

Murcielago

posted on Jul, 12 2004 @ 06:55 PM

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Originally posted by AD5673
How are they going to hold the olympics?? And they want to hold the olympics in New York in the future

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Yeah and whats wrong with that, New York plans on building a big new stadium to hold the 2012 olympics. China will be hosting it in 2008.