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Originally Posted by jester
Well dam failures due to a lack of maintenance and the resulting flood of a specific region.
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I saw a documentary a month or so back here in Australia - I think it was called "Life after People" - which gave a really good indication one what would happen if the day dawned and there simply wasn't any humans.
Not dead, just "gone", no bodies, etc.
Most systems are automated. Nuclear power stations would shut down in a matter of days (if not hours) as even minute faults cause automated safties to kick in. Conventional power generation (coal, oil, etc) would only last as long as the fuel kept flowing, hours in most cases.
Hydro-electricity on the other hand could last for centries. Fuel is effectively unlimited and control systems are highly automated. Circuit breakers would kick in as parts of the national grid failed minimsing the impact on the generating plant.
Only once the machinery itself began to wear out due to insufficent lubrication, etc, would the generation of electricity cease. Hoover dam was used as an example which would last several hundred years until barnacles (or something similar, can't remember exactly) native to the area blocked the coolant intakes.
With the solid construction of many modern dams themselves, nothing short of a nuke is likely to cause enough damage to breach them. Of course in WWII dams were prime targets, so I'm sure a few of the more suseptible around the would would have found themselves home for a cruise missile or similar.
Tsunami's I think would be a significant problem during the actual exchange as nukes either miss their intended coastal targets and explode out to sea, coastal ground bursts, or perhaps antishipping nukes. It's doubtful the waves power is likely to be as damaging as Christmas 2006(?) in India and southern asia, but who knows.....