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Given what little we know, targeting the AT&T infrastructure could be a reasonable guest a motive. The blast itself didn’t seem to take the hub offline; there

Given what little we know, targeting the AT&T infrastructure could be a reasonable guest a motive. The blast itself didn’t seem to take the hub offline; there was a broken water main followed by AT&T being refused access to the building by emergency response. It appears that things started cascading a few hours later, presumably once the generator fuel was exhausted.

myrandomcomment 6y ago
Sensible call on the generator fuel. Thanks for thinking of it.
- jcims 6y ago
  I would think buried utilities, they lost power?
  - Retric 6y ago
    Power loss could have been from the blast, which destroyed underground water pipes. Or they may have turned off power to the area for safety reasons.
kitteh 6y ago
Back when I worked in a CO the engineering goal was to be able to run the building load on gen for at least 24 hours straight before getting fuel trucks. We had weekly gen tests to validate things were working as expected. It could be that they had to de-energizd some equipment to perform inspection and work within the facility. I know our facility had a number of procedures on how to de-energize parts of the building and inhibit the generators from feeding that area (a lesson learned in the Hinsdale CO fire years ago). During Hurricane Katrina a number of us had to invent a procedure for de-energizing non critical equipment to reduce power load in order to keep critical services running for an extended period of time since it was clear we werent going to get utility and resupplies for awhile.
- ikiris 6y ago
  This was one of the big old ATT COs
panarky 6y ago
It's probably not very productive to guess at the purpose with so little to go on. But if that's what we're doing, then my bet is on "overwhelming law enforcement and emergency response so a different crime can go undetected".
- jrockway 6y ago
  Why Nashville then? I used to work in 111 8th Ave (a big meet-me facility in New York City) and "National Security Agency" was on the building directory. Why risk killing civilians to wiretap Nashville? They can probably ask nicely ("nicely") and get whatever they want.
  - panarky 6y ago
    Maybe they're not trying to wiretap Nashville. Nobody's taking credit so it doesn't seem like politically-motivated terrorism. There are many military and DHS facilities within the radius of disrupted communications.
Threeve303 6y ago
> Given what little we know, targeting the AT&T infrastructure could be a reasonable guest a motive. This is all I meant. Not meaning to spread conspiracies or misinformation. One article (have to find the source) stated that one of the main buildings hit was owned by AT&T and of course the HQ is there. Maybe it's related, maybe not. Just trying to make sense of the situation with limited information.
templarwarrior 6y ago
Most likely the generators were damaged from the blast & didn’t kick on when commercial power was cut off. The batteries then would have lasted 3-4 hrs.
rhodozelia 6y ago
It would be strange to have a diesel generator that could power a building only for a few hours. I’ve commissioned numerous diesel generators to provide power to power plants if the transmission line is down and generally they can go at least three days. A diesel generator that could use all its fuel in 3 hours would be like a car with a 1 gallon tank.
- Ancapistani 6y ago
  My understanding is that there is usually enough fuel on-site for more time, but that it’s not a completely automated process.

myrandomcomment 6y ago

Sensible call on the generator fuel. Thanks for thinking of it.

jcims 6y ago
I would think buried utilities, they lost power?
- Retric 6y ago
  Power loss could have been from the blast, which destroyed underground water pipes. Or they may have turned off power to the area for safety reasons.

kitteh 6y ago

Back when I worked in a CO the engineering goal was to be able to run the building load on gen for at least 24 hours straight before getting fuel trucks. We had weekly gen tests to validate things were working as expected. It could be that they had to de-energizd some equipment to perform inspection and work within the facility. I know our facility had a number of procedures on how to de-energize parts of the building and inhibit the generators from feeding that area (a lesson learned in the Hinsdale CO fire years ago). During Hurricane Katrina a number of us had to invent a procedure for de-energizing non critical equipment to reduce power load in order to keep critical services running for an extended period of time since it was clear we werent going to get utility and resupplies for awhile.

ikiris 6y ago
This was one of the big old ATT COs

panarky 6y ago

It's probably not very productive to guess at the purpose with so little to go on. But if that's what we're doing, then my bet is on "overwhelming law enforcement and emergency response so a different crime can go undetected".

jrockway 6y ago
Why Nashville then? I used to work in 111 8th Ave (a big meet-me facility in New York City) and "National Security Agency" was on the building directory. Why risk killing civilians to wiretap Nashville? They can probably ask nicely ("nicely") and get whatever they want.
- panarky 6y ago
  Maybe they're not trying to wiretap Nashville. Nobody's taking credit so it doesn't seem like politically-motivated terrorism. There are many military and DHS facilities within the radius of disrupted communications.

Threeve303 6y ago

> Given what little we know, targeting the AT&T infrastructure could be a reasonable guest a motive. This is all I meant. Not meaning to spread conspiracies or misinformation. One article (have to find the source) stated that one of the main buildings hit was owned by AT&T and of course the HQ is there. Maybe it's related, maybe not. Just trying to make sense of the situation with limited information.

templarwarrior 6y ago

Most likely the generators were damaged from the blast & didn’t kick on when commercial power was cut off. The batteries then would have lasted 3-4 hrs.

rhodozelia 6y ago

It would be strange to have a diesel generator that could power a building only for a few hours. I’ve commissioned numerous diesel generators to provide power to power plants if the transmission line is down and generally they can go at least three days. A diesel generator that could use all its fuel in 3 hours would be like a car with a 1 gallon tank.

Ancapistani 6y ago
My understanding is that there is usually enough fuel on-site for more time, but that it’s not a completely automated process.