Bonneville America Forums Forums Off Topic Discussion Forums Lounge storm info

I agree, construction standards had little or nothing to do with the damage,it was an over whelming amount of rain on top of all the rain we had already had right before the storm. The winds were not bad at all, at least not here. I got 17mph winds up to 25mph. No worse than many thunder storms but couple that with all the water and trees went down and took things with them. I know several people just getting power back today and others still without. The streams were very high and some flooded. I saw a bridge near me that had debris block the center opening forcing all the water to go through the openings on both sides. It held to my amazement.

Home for the first time since Sat. night restoring power. Someone forgot to tell the trees about our construction standards. 100 footers laying around like their out of work getting a check. For those of you without power still, Thank you for your patience, kind words, and hospitality. No that Utility WORKERS up and down the East coast and crews from many miles away are working around the clock to get the lights on. Now a few beers (fewteen) and sleep. Go back to work tomorrow and will get back home Sat. BTW all those picturesque tree lined mile long driveways, not so pretty after big rain and wind and the sub standard trees laying around on vacation.

Thank you for your efforts in every possible weather scenario Robert. That is one dangerous job on a good day. There is a utility station locally, and I can't recall how many guys are walking around with lost limbs and hands and fingers from a quick brush against a hot wire. Kinda hard to see what's up with 6 cords of tree and wet leaves on top sometimes.

Nearly political post -- The US electrical infrastructure was started many moons ago, and could in large part use a great deal of rebuilding and restructure, but many issues, like, environmental lawsuits and early retire of utility crews often gets in the way. I'm tempted to use California as an example of how not to do electricity, but I'll leave that alone for tonight. I made a trip down route 63 in CT today, and noticed a crew fixing what looked like 1930s pole tops. The horizontal lumber atop the pole looked pretty much like two by fours holding up a two wire system, whatever that means.

This recent storm is yet another example of how cutting crew numbers and those with $eniority results in longer power outages. It's not unusual these days to be without power for a week or more. I don't recall it being like that prior to the 1980s.

i have never understood why it is that yrs ago they didnt start running all power lines underground?? it seems that they could run all of it thru some sort of everlasting pvc and get rid of the dangers of downed lines and outages all together?? and if they had started yrs ago, they would probably be mostly done by now this just seems so obvious. have often wondered, is there a reason why they dont other than $$$$

Its about the money. I think if you look back to the late 70s all if not all most, housing and commercial were laid underground. The main lines and older developments cost lots of bucks to do.

You have to consider almost every one they bury involves sidewalk or roadway replacement where they dig and use the equipment. A road cost 1 million a mile so if you have lines on each side that cost the utility about 500k a mile that starts to mount up.

I absolutely agree with you. In the long haul it is cheaper than deploying a few thousand line workers and boom trucks to fix the carnage later.