Which way is worse
Aug. 19th, 2005 04:50 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
judith_sThis morning at 9:15 there was an explosion in San Francisco. The explosion buckled the sidewalk, and apparently shot a gout of flame into the street.
At first I was relieved to hear that the cause was actually an explosion in an underground PG&E vault housing transformers. But then I realized that my odds of being hurt by a badly maintained transformer are significantly higher than my odds of being hurt in a terrorist attack. While I'm still glad it wasn't terrorists, I'm rather worried by the idea that, as PG&E spokescritters said "there have been vault explosions in the past." That's reassuring, I'm sure. Shouldn't they be scrambling to explain how their transformers could explode and buckle the sidewalk, shooting manhole covers through the streets?
At first I was relieved to hear that the cause was actually an explosion in an underground PG&E vault housing transformers. But then I realized that my odds of being hurt by a badly maintained transformer are significantly higher than my odds of being hurt in a terrorist attack. While I'm still glad it wasn't terrorists, I'm rather worried by the idea that, as PG&E spokescritters said "there have been vault explosions in the past." That's reassuring, I'm sure. Shouldn't they be scrambling to explain how their transformers could explode and buckle the sidewalk, shooting manhole covers through the streets?
(no subject)
Date: 2005-08-19 07:42 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-08-19 07:44 pm (UTC)