Chapter 31: The Dying Grid
The catastrophic hum of the high voltage transmission lines along Blackwood Crest abruptly shifted into a frantic, oscillating whine as the weight of three inches of solid glaze dragged the spans downward. Miles inland, the regional substations were tripping off the grid one by one, their massive breakers detonating under the surge of shorted conduits and crushed transformers. The storm had passed beyond the thresholds of human engineering, generating sustained hurricane winds that whipped the falling snow into a solid, impenetrable sheet of blinding white.
Across the bay, the municipal sirens in the lower harbor district began to wail their emergency warnings, rising and falling in long, mournful notes that carried through the frozen air like the cries of dyin
