Beryl Barreling Our Way?

[Havok1]

The cost of burying all the old lines would be astronomical. On top of that I still see issues with material shortages and back orders just for new construction and current projects. Add in the backlash from homeowners when their yards and fences are destroyed in the process and getting around the already buried utilities and it would be a total nightmare.

.

They could bury them over time as they do maintenance, and start with burying newly installed lines. They can also tunnel under ground and don’t have to dig trenches everywhere the lines go.

 

[Catherine1]

Still waiting.
Could be as late as Sunday for our subdivision.

I wish you well.

My former house in the boonies in the Great Lakes region had NO power for over one week. They called it one of the biggest blizzards in that area - this was in the 70's. PEOPLE DIED.

I was stuck in another township but in the same county after working late. My late husband called one house and spoke to my co-worker's husband (Close friends and both of them were in the AIR NG Fighter Wing along with 2 different NON .gov jobs.) and told him to TIE ME DOWN and not let me try to drive home. Which most likely SAVED MY LIFE!

The HIGHWAY PATROL and the county sheriff's department were warning of the BAD ICE STORM and incoming snow drifts and more snow with high winds moving in rapidly and heading their way.

I was told this when I dropped her off and came in to use her house telephone to tell him that I was on my way HOME. I was stuck UP there in her rural house with NO POWER for the same time frame.

MY HOUSE landline telephone @ home went OUT THAT evening - night along with the power.

HER telephone where I was 'stranded' in her house and STUCK with that blizzard stayed on most of the time but her power went out in the EARLY AM after mine went out miles away. She had the same electric company but a much better telephone company!

Much more to tell but AFTER that time frame and looking at old footage and horror stories, I wondered how we even survived. I was grateful for SHELTER.

We banded up together and with one of her neighbors too. ONE HOUSE - all together. Two families plus me thrown into the mix.

Plus BOTH of the houses, her house further north and mine closer to the LAKE were on wells. Her neighbor was on a well too.

AFTER that storm and even with EXTRA super insulation due to how well be built and designed that house, etc. - we bought a generator.

And over the years, we owned a couple of them in a 30 year time frame in the house that we built after his USN - Nam and all around the world time frame.

THE WIND was so strong and with the snow drifts/ice - my husband did NOT even light the fireplace.

He SLEPT in a HEAVY snow suit with our German Shepherd dog downstairs on the first floor on the couch or Lazy Boy chair. She climbed up on the couch and he let her stay there with him or alone if he sat in a chair. He put a sheet on the couch and piled up blankets. Plus he had extra sleeping bags if needed.

The snow was UP to the second floor WINDOWS. The basement and both floors had NO BROKEN WINDOWS or FREEZING PIPES INSIDE.

We always had emergency supplies on hand since I was raised that way to be prepared. NOT some types of preppers that you see OUT THERE but in sane and NORMAL preparation for snow/ice/high winds and in East Coast hurricane country. THIS blizzard was in the Great Lakes region.

The Army National Guard and the AIR NG - civil engineering came INTO THAT TOWNSHIP and in other ones and in other counties and DUG US OUT but it was horrific for sure.

IT looked way worse than Dr. Zhivago in the old Russian house.

More to say but I will not bore you any longer.

We had our POWER GO OUT often during ALL times of the year living close to the Lake and being in the BOONIES we were almost the LAST ONES to get it back on or cleared out. Even 10, 15 or 20 miles made a HUGE DIFFERENCE when it came to ANY KIND of repair work or road clearing.

Take care!

Old Lady Cate
PS: When his destroyer went out to sea during one hurricane and when I lived in Ocean View right ACROSS from the water on OV Avenue and a sand dune, he MADE ME leave the tiny beach cottage with my dog and stay with a few other USN wives. Usually he was hardly ever 'home' - stateside anyway but THIS TIME he was. Late 60's.

In 1996 (?), Baltimore, Maryland got hit and I was down there from the GL region during a BIG blizzard helping my late 'Aunt' Catherine close up her downtown law office, her home office, her entire home, etc. to come live with my late husband and me in farm/lake country.

She was in very bad health, she wanted to be with us and not in MD and she died not long after the move to the GL region in the hospital.

The city and county took the SNOW PILES down to the harbor and dumped them into the water. Baltimore, where I was with HER never lost power but other parts of the city, county and state DID lose power. My older brother lived and still lives closer to Annapolis and his power was on and off. My older sister was living in FL.

 

[Lead Belly]

They could bury them over time as they do maintenance, and start with burying newly installed lines. They can also tunnel under ground and don’t have to dig trenches everywhere the lines go.

Underground cables have higher transmission losses than overhead lines due to the inherent resistance of the cable insulation and the additional cooling requirements. This leads to a decrease in overall system efficiency.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2021/09/02/underground-electricity-ida/?variant=45bcfc8a951d56c3

 

[Catherine1]

Still no power at my house. I was initially trapped on my street for quite a while by fallen trees on each end of the street. The county did a great job of clearing access quickly.

There are at least a dozen large pine trees down within a mile of me. 3 or 4 of them only have their root balls out of the ground because they couldn't completely fall. They're being held in place by the power (and whatever else) lines strung between the poles that lead into my neighborhood.

According to the Centerpoint map, my neighborhood isn't scheduled for repair. It hasn't even been assessed to determine what work is required. I have a feeling I'll be buying ice and wiping my sister down with Everclear for several more days.

HEB had ice this morning, though not in the ice making machines. Their overflow coolers were half full, telling me they got a delivery of ice from somewhere else. I was there at 6:30 and I estimated they'll run out before 7:00.

OTOH, they had set up about a half dozen tables and covered them with power strips and signs reading "Charging Station."

View attachment 461145

Prayers said for both of you too.

I read that HOUSTON had a huge sewer MESS due to no power even with generators running and flooding.

Catherine

 

[MountainGirl]

Overhead, underground...
Doesn't matter if there's no juice.
F green energy. FJB.

 

[Catherine1]

Harris county just posted a "boil water" notice.

How do they boil water without power?


Luckily I have natural gas stove top, etc.
Also in Montgomery county.

A Coleman camp stove or something like that could be used.

The single use at one time mountain climber's stove that you can carry in a pack.

A grill with a pot of water on top of it.

Etc.

Old Lady Cate

 

[Catherine1]

So in my case, that's "Only use the bottled stuff."

I've got 2 40-bottle.cases. I hope that's enough to get us to electricity restoration.

Of course, I can remember a hurricane that went through Mobile many decades ago that left my grandmother without electricity for 6 weeks. Hmmm.....

We have extra bottled water on hand too.

Plus camp style water filters and a Berkey if needed.

Catherine in Western Montana

 

[craigntx]

There was plenty repair trucks staged at the horse track last night. Doing nothing .
My power was out a whole hour. It was scary

 

[Younggun]

Underground cables have higher transmission losses than overhead lines due to the inherent resistance of the cable insulation and the additional cooling requirements. This leads to a decrease in overall system efficiency.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2021/09/02/underground-electricity-ida/?variant=45bcfc8a951d56c3

Don’t go bringing real world issues in to what seems like a simple fix on the surface.

 

[Younggun]

They could bury them over time as they do maintenance, and start with burying newly installed lines. They can also tunnel under ground and don’t have to dig trenches everywhere the lines go.

You are still talking about astronomical costs. And the majority of new construction I see is underground.

Also “tunneling” (I assume you mean boring) still required large holes to be dug at regular intervals, along with the location of every transformer. For that to happen trucks and equipment have to get in. Yards are destroyed, fences taken down, homeowners raise hell.

 

[oldag]

Overhead, underground...
Doesn't matter if there's no juice.
F green energy. FJB.

True. But it reduces the number of downed lines/poles that need repair.

 

[oldag]

Underground cables have higher transmission losses than overhead lines due to the inherent resistance of the cable insulation and the additional cooling requirements. This leads to a decrease in overall system efficiency.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2021/09/02/underground-electricity-ida/?variant=45bcfc8a951d56c3

Life is full of tradeoff's.

I would not necessarily advocate burying all lines, but within neighborhoods it makes sense for new construction. Retrofitting? That is a more complicated question.

 

[Havok1]

You are still talking about astronomical costs. And the majority of new construction I see is underground.

Also “tunneling” (I assume you mean boring) still required large holes to be dug at regular intervals, along with the location of every transformer. For that to happen trucks and equipment have to get in. Yards are destroyed, fences taken down, homeowners raise hell.

The repairs to the power lines with be an astronomical cost. The secondary costs due to the power outage will be astronomical costs. You can pick one astronomical cost or another. One would lead to more people having AC right now, and would also reduce the trashy appearance created by having power lines everywhere you look.

And yeah, you have to dig in intervals, but you wouldn’t have to trench the entire state like some people may be led to believe.people were ok with it being done for fiber. They’d probably deal with it for AC.

Underground cables have higher transmission losses than overhead lines due to the inherent resistance of the cable insulation and the additional cooling requirements. This leads to a decrease in overall system efficiency.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2021/09/02/underground-electricity-ida/?variant=45bcfc8a951d56c3

this is true, but that doesn’t make it unrealistic. This is a normal thing most places.

 

[wbblazer90]

MSNBC Racheal Maddow is happy carbon emissions for the Houston area are down 40% since the hurricane. She urges Ercot for longer outages and more blackouts in Texas!

 

[popper]

'The cost of burying all the old lines would be astronomical.' Not if the cities would have PLANNED to do that over time. Cities DO have control over the 'distribution Co's. Problem is - they tend to put the $ in their own pocket vs doing what is needed. Houston Mayor out handing out water bottles so he LOOKS good (and gets votes).

 

[Dred]

Life is full of tradeoff's.

I would not necessarily advocate burying all lines, but within neighborhoods it makes sense for new construction. Retrofitting? That is a more complicated question.

Hmmm ... I specifically selected for a house fed by overhead power lines. When a house is fed by underground lines from the transformer, the homeowner owns the underground lines.

Expensive as F* to replace when they fail. Largely 'cause you pay an electrician to pull a permit so CP will unlock the transformer so the electrician can lay cable in the new 36" deep hole you dug.

Cost me near $5k to get this done at a TH I sold. Transformer was in my back yard, 15 feet from my meter. Early entry on my "now that I know" spreadsheet.

Sent from my SM-S908U using Tapatalk

 

[Younggun]

I hope someday I can speak as confidently on subjects I know absolutely nothing about as some in this thread.

 

[FireInTheWire]

Nope. We’re headed west.
Away from the &!):?$!! coast.

Dry heat West?

 

[Lonesome Dove]

You can thank the unions for that. If it's true...

Story- remember the bad fires in California awhile back ago? We sent a bunch of people for mutual assistance. The Cali power company was waiting at the Border for our crews to arrive. When they did, they were told no one is working unless they were union. A bunch had to drive all the way back. It was quite the fiasco. And it was the last time we've helped California.

 

[oldag]

Hmmm ... I specifically selected for a house fed by overhead power lines. When a house is fed by underground lines from the transformer, the homeowner owns the underground lines.

Expensive as F* to replace when they fail. Largely 'cause you pay an electrician to pull a permit so CP will unlock the transformer so the electrician can lay cable in the new 36" deep hole you dug.

Cost me near $5k to get this done at a TH I sold. Transformer was in my back yard, 15 feet from my meter. Early entry on my "now that I know" spreadsheet.

Sent from my SM-S908U using Tapatalk

Not the case where I live. My responsibility begins above the meter.