Day 6: still no power here in CT.
by LondonDomer (2020-08-09 22:59:55)

What a shitshow


Sorry LD! *
by The Holtz Room  (2020-08-10 12:30:57)     cannot delete  |  Edit  |  Return to Board  |  Ignore Poster   |   Highlight Poster  |   Reply to Post


Do what my dad did.
by Milhouse  (2020-08-10 11:24:03)     cannot delete  |  Edit  |  Return to Board  |  Ignore Poster   |   Highlight Poster  |   Reply to Post

After 6 days without power after a major ice storm, all of the neighborhoods around their house had power. My dad called and was told it would take 2-3 more days before they hooked up his power.

30 minutes later, he called back and told the person on the other end of the line, "Never mind. A few of us guys from the neighborhood opened up one of those big green boxes, and we think we know what the problem is. One of my buddies is pretty good with wiring, so we'll just fix it ourselves."

He says their power was on within an hour.


Ugh. How much do you miss CO right now? *
by ColoNDFan  (2020-08-10 09:49:18)     cannot delete  |  Edit  |  Return to Board  |  Ignore Poster   |   Highlight Poster  |   Reply to Post


Don’t eat the mayonnaise left in the fridge. *
by Nitschke  (2020-08-10 09:43:24)     cannot delete  |  Edit  |  Return to Board  |  Ignore Poster   |   Highlight Poster  |   Reply to Post


After the Labor Day Storm of 1998, we were without power
by ndstein04  (2020-08-10 09:18:58)     cannot delete  |  Edit  |  Return to Board  |  Ignore Poster   |   Highlight Poster  |   Reply to Post

for over a week. As my parents’ house uses a well, we also had no water that entire time. Had to shower in the rain storms.


My parents got power yesterday 1 town over
by airborneirish  (2020-08-10 09:13:20)     cannot delete  |  Edit  |  Return to Board  |  Ignore Poster   |   Highlight Poster  |   Reply to Post

She said the crew that restored hers was from south bend area.


My coworker in Wilton just got his back last night too *
by mintirish  (2020-08-10 10:03:47)     cannot delete  |  Edit  |  Return to Board  |  Ignore Poster   |   Highlight Poster  |   Reply to Post


There's trucks from Missouri here, Canada too. *
by Wooderson  (2020-08-10 09:22:23)     cannot delete  |  Edit  |  Return to Board  |  Ignore Poster   |   Highlight Poster  |   Reply to Post


In NJ we got Texans and Oklahomans
by Nyirish08  (2020-08-10 09:41:17)     cannot delete  |  Edit  |  Return to Board  |  Ignore Poster   |   Highlight Poster  |   Reply to Post

They slept in their trucks but made a month of revenue for the outdoor bar in our downtown. The owner is still smiling. I'm sure this will be great for the 'rona.


That’s terrible. I’m so sorry. Ugh. *
by kellykapowski  (2020-08-10 08:35:43)     cannot delete  |  Edit  |  Return to Board  |  Ignore Poster   |   Highlight Poster  |   Reply to Post


Same in southern Westchester *
by enduff  (2020-08-10 06:46:40)     cannot delete  |  Edit  |  Return to Board  |  Ignore Poster   |   Highlight Poster  |   Reply to Post


The 2011 Halloween snowstorm
by The Delta House  (2020-08-09 23:53:57)     cannot delete  |  Edit  |  Return to Board  |  Ignore Poster   |   Highlight Poster  |   Reply to Post

left me without power in Hartford for 11 days. That was nice.


I remember that storm.
by Wooderson  (2020-08-10 08:51:22)     cannot delete  |  Edit  |  Return to Board  |  Ignore Poster   |   Highlight Poster  |   Reply to Post

Was at the Dream Hotel, having a blast. I don't think anyone expected that one to turn out the way it did, everyone was out in light jackets and costumes.


My in-laws are outside Hartford and no power yet too
by Nyirish08  (2020-08-09 23:25:50)     cannot delete  |  Edit  |  Return to Board  |  Ignore Poster   |   Highlight Poster  |   Reply to Post

They emptied their fridge and took off for cape cod by day 2-3


Wow. What’s going on? *
by mitquinn  (2020-08-09 23:22:15)     cannot delete  |  Edit  |  Return to Board  |  Ignore Poster   |   Highlight Poster  |   Reply to Post


One of the worst utility companies in the US *
by wcnitz  (2020-08-10 11:16:26)     cannot delete  |  Edit  |  Return to Board  |  Ignore Poster   |   Highlight Poster  |   Reply to Post


One employee per vehicle policy may be slowing things too
by Father Nieuwland  (2020-08-10 07:39:29)     cannot delete  |  Edit  |  Return to Board  |  Ignore Poster   |   Highlight Poster  |   Reply to Post

I don’t know if all power companies in the area are doing that as a virus precaution, but I know some have said they are

Link to one in Connecticut. I have read of others in NY

Partial text:

"As this phase of work begins to wrap up, crews are now turning their attention to addressing outages affecting large numbers of customers," Marone said. "All of our teams are working under special precautions because of the COVID-19 pandemic. These include a one-employee-per-vehicle policy, use of personal protective equipment and enhanced hygiene measures.


They failed to properly prepare and preposition crews.
by Wooderson  (2020-08-10 06:21:54)     cannot delete  |  Edit  |  Return to Board  |  Ignore Poster   |   Highlight Poster  |   Reply to Post

my town is down to 9% without power, down from 50% on Wednesday We were extremely lucky to have a few minor outages (longest was 2.5hrs Fri), but some towns not on the main grid connections are just screwed. THere' s massive amount of debris lying around, too, tons of 110'+ trees went down on power lines and roadways, so gotta clear that before you can redo the lines.

The local DPW crews are working their asses off, but our two power companies (UI and Eversource) dropped the ball badly.

Also, people here are too cheap to bury the lines, which would've avoided a lot of this.


That plus the increased reliance
by ProfKid93  (2020-08-10 09:52:37)     cannot delete  |  Edit  |  Return to Board  |  Ignore Poster   |   Highlight Poster  |   Reply to Post

on mutual aid arrangements with other utilities to allow the downsizing of in-house line crews.


I am curious about your last point
by bmoreirish  (2020-08-10 07:30:51)     cannot delete  |  Edit  |  Return to Board  |  Ignore Poster   |   Highlight Poster  |   Reply to Post

Have their been proposals to bury the lines? Would it be a new tax? Certainly seems like an investment that would pay off in the long run.


So I've been in this area for the better part of 30 years.
by Wooderson  (2020-08-10 08:37:44)     cannot delete  |  Edit  |  Return to Board  |  Ignore Poster   |   Highlight Poster  |   Reply to Post

Newer build developments definitely bury the lines, like you would see in Sun Belt tract housing developments.

The thing is, when you do it up front, it then becomes cheaper to do it for everyone at the same time. Up here, we have loads of legacy housing (my house is from 1926, for example, and not the oldest on the street), which is all strung together with a hodgepodge of wiring. You'll often see two poles right next to each other, and older shorter one, and a new taller one with more wiring (and unlit fiber runs, but that's loooong PB post I don't have time to write).

So to bury the lines, you'll have to redo every individual home's electrical entry point, do a full street at a time, and do it over years and years. It would be a monumental undertaking for small towns, which is essentially what CT is, excepting a few larger towns and smaller cities (Bridgeport is the largest in the state, and still under 200k).

Also I believe that the state has granted the monopoly to a few players. We have one town, Wallingford, that somehow built their own electrical grid in the late 19th century, and through incremental upgrades, was able ot weather this storm with very few issues.


There's also the issue of ground freeze, we'd need to dig some deep-ass trenches to bury conduit on account of frost heaves and whatnot, and the soil up here isn't exactly conducive to that. When they did my sprinkler system, which needed to go down exactly 2", they needed a carbide tipped street saw to get that far down.

But then we piss and moan about power going out, and say "well it's only happened once this year", and talk ourselves out of doing it.

And frankly, it's worse in the winter if you're far form the main thoroughfares. Ice in the evergreen trees adds twice the weight, and branches from those go down and take out power consistently in the winter months. My parents house had a near miss in the mid-90's when an ice storm took off a 70' section and it dropped in the backyard 5 feet from the back door.

Sorry for the rant, this is just something that's been going on so long and is frustrating as my job depends on the availability of electricity, and I've experienced both this and Sandy and deal with CL&P often enough as a result.


It's cost prohibitive at this point
by njnd96  (2020-08-10 09:42:06)     cannot delete  |  Edit  |  Return to Board  |  Ignore Poster   |   Highlight Poster  |   Reply to Post

In NJ the only areas that have buried lines are those that were built after the 60's - which isn't that many. My house boarders up against the next town, that section has buried lines and mine doesn't. My power goes out 2x a year (on average), theirs doesn't. Just in my small town it would probably cost $100M to convert. I'd love it if they converted, but it's not going to happen.

The best solution is a portable generator. All in with the generator and getting a transfer switch installed you're looking at $500 or so.


Agreed, hence my points on the obstacles.
by Wooderson  (2020-08-10 11:02:46)     cannot delete  |  Edit  |  Return to Board  |  Ignore Poster   |   Highlight Poster  |   Reply to Post

I'm hoping to get nat gas run up my street by next summer, then will be swapping out a lot of power gear for solar when I redo my roof.

Until then, I'm at the mercy of Eversource.

I will say we had a tree randomly go over in June that took out my entire corner of town, so when they fixed it up, they rationalized a lot of the wiring, which is likely why we held firm during this one for the most part, but it still would be nice to see some wind/solar initiatives around here really take off. Maybe combine it with some cell towers to limit the footprint or something.


Nat gas is a game changer
by njnd96  (2020-08-10 14:27:56)     cannot delete  |  Edit  |  Return to Board  |  Ignore Poster   |   Highlight Poster  |   Reply to Post

Guy down the street from me has solar and geothermal. I considered solar, but I don't want to be locked into a 20 yr lease. If you can still qualify for the subsidies then purchasing is the way to go.


The entire Northeast refuses to
by vermin05  (2020-08-10 08:29:49)     cannot delete  |  Edit  |  Return to Board  |  Ignore Poster   |   Highlight Poster  |   Reply to Post

That area of the country has the least compelling reason to do so because high winds are so rare since hurricanes are usually severely weakened, tornados are rare, and the mountains usually weaken normal thunderstorms. Combine that with Yankee stubbornness, and a belief that the way it’s been is good enough and you have your reasons.


And this... (link)
by beancounter  (2020-08-10 08:45:40)     cannot delete  |  Edit  |  Return to Board  |  Ignore Poster   |   Highlight Poster  |   Reply to Post


That's definitely a part of it.
by Wooderson  (2020-08-10 08:45:00)     cannot delete  |  Edit  |  Return to Board  |  Ignore Poster   |   Highlight Poster  |   Reply to Post

But see my post, I feel winter is far worse for this sort of thing, with wet winds coming off the water and icing up old trees and tipping them over.

During this storm, my buddy who has a 300' long driveway lost two massive trees that took out the lines to his house, on account of the root structure was trying to hold into what's essentially a glacier-smoothed rock outcropping.

The root ball that popped up was over 15' high when it was on its side.


Isaias knocked a lot of NE on its ass *
by Nyirish08  (2020-08-09 23:26:32)     cannot delete  |  Edit  |  Return to Board  |  Ignore Poster   |   Highlight Poster  |   Reply to Post


Whoa. That is terrible. *
by URwhatUR  (2020-08-09 23:19:09)     cannot delete  |  Edit  |  Return to Board  |  Ignore Poster   |   Highlight Poster  |   Reply to Post