UPS = less risk != no risk (Score:3, Interesting) 
by linuxwrangler (582055) on Monday May 05, @06:24PM ( #5886041 )

Something can still get you. I have a similar setup...personal webserver for me and some friends and mailserver for me and a club to which I belong. It has a big UPS and fairly low draw. I built it ~1000 days ago and it has been down exactly once. 

I was at the computer and the UPS started beeping. Power outage? I checked the lights and sure enough the power was out but came back on moments later. Whew. Then the UPS started beeping again and the lights showed overvoltage. This was getting weird so I headed out to the garage to get my DVM. 

Just as I got out front I heard a very loud noise and saw a shower of sparks erupt from a power pole about a block north of me. This formed into a plasma ball about 12 feet across that started drifting down the 12kv lines toward me. (Striking an arc happens in power lines all the time especially in lightning prone errors and there is an interrupter device that is supposed to shut down the power for a couple seconds to break the arc. This device failed resulting in what the power company called a "sustained arcing fault"). 

Driven by the breeze, the plasma ball drifted past my place, went a couple blocks south, turned left for a block then right and finally went out. A few seconds later another one started. Unfortunately I was in the process of downloading pictures from my camera so I didn't get any pictures. :( 

The upshot was that there was much carnage along the lines. One house caught fire about 4 miles farther down the line from me. My neighbor's power pole was on fire. Lines were down in my front yard and down the street. Every transformer for many many blocks was blown out. I was mostly OK. The only damage was a partly melted surge strip, about a dozen fried GFCIs, some molten balls of metal embedded in my car window and such. No damage to the TV/stereo/computers. 

I tried to keep the machine up with a small 400 watt generator I had but it wasn't up to the task.  The UPS would see good power, switch to "mains" and the inlet surge would slow down the generator just long enough for the UPS to trip back out. I now have a wonderful Honda EU2000i that can power anything in my house ('course I'd have to be home to connect it so I'm still at some risk.) 

24 hours later we had power back. I was a bit cheesed off that my uptime had retreated from ~550 days to 0 but the spectacular light and noise show tempered my disappointment.