FOX-TV just said electricity may not be on for several weeks ????

[kentuck]

..in the disaster area? How can that be? Are we waiting on the electrical engineers to get home from Baghdad? That doesn't sound right, does it. Some of the lines and poles were damaged but they should have those up and running in a matter of days, I would think. But, here I am cynical again, if they tell the people it might take 3-4 weeks and they get it done within a week, then they can say what a great job they did, when in fact, they should have completed the task in three days??

[MikeG]

1. This would have never happened under Clinton.

[prodigal_green]

2. National Guard deficit

They are all deployed. A lot of those people come from the same pool that make up the skilled trades.

[Journeyman]

3. That's something I always do in my business. . .

under-promise and over-deliver. . . it always makes you look good -- great, in fact.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

5. I Live In Seminole County In A Newer Development...

We never lost power even with seventy five mile winds but we have most of our power lines underground...


Florida without air condition in the summer is like Viet Nam...

[dsc]

4. that isn't all that unusual

The part of Mississippi I lived in had had an ice storm a couple of years before and it took well over a week for everyone to get power. Also the part of NC I live in now got nailed in 99 by a hurricane and many places also had weeks without power.

[SW FL Dem]

21. Very true, it depends on the extent of the damage

We were on the edge of the storm and we lost power for over 24 hours. I was in Los Angeles during the Northridge quake in 1994 and we didn't get power back for several days. Most of SW FL should have power within a few days. Those in the most damaged areas may have to wait up to two weeks or longer.

[DBoon]

6. What ever lead you to believe the US was a first world nation?

I've heard that folks who sell Uninterruptible Powers Supplies (UPSs) for computers have a damned of a time in Europe - the local power grid is so reliable they don't really see the need for such a device.

[stevedeshazer]

7. So, if there's a hurricane in October...

How will those electronic voting machines work?

[VirginiaDem]

8. After Isabel

here in Norfolk, VA it took several weeks for some to get their electricity back. I'm right downtown and lost my power for five days and I was one of the lucky ones. There are still huge trees down in some places. It took quite a while ( a month...I can't quite remember) to get a major tunnel opened back up.

It takes a long, long time to locate and then fix every single problem area. The only overtly political problem here was that it seemed that some neighborhoods were favored over others.

[Zech Marquis]

20. ah the Midtown Tunnel!

the fols who manage it failed to close the floodgates in time..ODU is also on very lowlground, and who can forget the sight of Langley AFB being flooded?

[unfrigginreal]

9. We were hit by a weakened Hugo in Charlotte...

and my power was out for 11 days, so I think weeks is probably true.

[GreenInNC]

18. Hit by Hugo also

Here in Mint Hill (suburb of Charlotte) we were out for 13 days. I don't think people who have never been in the middle of a hurricane really understand the devistation.

[Baclava]

10. This is a major disaster.

It's not like somebody cut your cable cutting the grass.
Geeze.

[lapfog_1]

11. There could be a lot of substations

and transformers damaged. That can take time to replace, OTOH,
weeks sounds like a very long time.

[Cha]

12. We waited months on Kauai after Iniki blew through the

Island. But I think that was worse..being a 5.

[salvorhardin]

13. Weeks here in upstate NY several times

October of 1987 when I was living in Albany we received a freak blizzard and power was out for days in most of the city. In the dorms where I lived it was out for almost three weeks. Ah... those fond SUNY memories.

Also, in 1993 or 1994 in my hometown, we had flooding in January from a freak melt (imagine over 100" of snow melting in the course of about 48 hours) which also knocked the power out for over a week.

In my current location the power is out for hours at least once a month, usually because of a nearby lightening strike. I'm told that the high tension lines which service our town were constructed in 1939 and other than patch ups have not really been serviced since the 1960s.

[1monster]

14. I live in an area that was just brushed by Charley and my power went out.

A blown transformer. (That darned thing blows at the least provacation and went out before the storm started blowing the big winds here.)

A Florida Power and Light rep told me that it could be days or weeks until the power was fixed.

I wasn't surprised because when Tropical Storm Gabrielly blew through the state about three years ago, we were fifty-one hours without power because of a blown transformer (it takes a two man crew about five minutes to fix).


We were lucky this time, though. The power went out at about 12:30 a.m. and came back on around 8:00 p.m. that night.

After suffering through a long power outage prior to Gabrielle, we bought a 5000 watt generator. Twice now, that generator has save us plenty of $$$$ by keeping the refrigerator going during storm-caused power outages. It was worth the $500 that we bought on time...

My suggestion: If you live in Florida, buy a generator.

[nonkultur]

15. Not only that. They are talking about cancelling local primaries

(JEB) Bush said he has directed Secretary of State Glenda Hood to determine whether approaching elections could be affected by the storm. He said he was uncertain whether the Aug. 31 primaries could go on as scheduled in some counties.

http://www.sptimes.com/2004/08/15/Weather/Charley_s_aftermath_u.shtml

[Zen Democrat]

16. Having gone through a major hurricane before .....

Living without electricity is not the biggest problem. Trying to live without water is the biggest problem. When you turn on the faucets and nothing comes out, you realize that water is your primary resource, not the A/C and lights.

[kentuck]

17. Good points all....thanks.

I just heard there are "only" a million people without electricity. This is not good for Bush, is it?

[Zech Marquis]

19. Isabel damage in Virginia

last September we had a direct hit from Hurricane Isabel. It was only a category 1, BUT the sheer amount of damage had alot of people without power, phones, water for 2 weeks or so. Fortunately that was the most extreme case, most of us in the Hampton Roads area had our power and phones back on within 2-3 days or so.

This hurricane which devastated Florida on Friday was much much more powerful than Isabel--I can only imagine losing eveything had we been in the path of something like Charley. So for once, Faux News qas actually correct..but so is a broken watch 2 times a day :evilgrin:

[Shopaholic]

22. They pretty much had to rebuild the power grid in SC after Hugo

Most of my family live in a rural area and they were without power for almost a month. I live about 50 miles away and we were without power for about three days but parts of the county where I live were without power for much, much longer. They pretty much had to rebuild the power grid here in South Carolina after Hugo and in parts of North Carolina too. You'd be amazed at how much damage a falling tree can do--taking out power lines, etc. Amazingly, our phone system held up very well, and thankfully, we had water--just not hot water.

[Davis_X_Machina]

23. 11 days during the ice storm of '98...

...and it was cold. Some of my students went twenty days.

[SayitAintSo]

24. They will have utility crews from MULTIPLE states working on this

I know crews from my company headed down there this week end. Even with all the help it can take weeks for some areas based on the level of devestation.

[Name removed]

25. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[kentuck]

26. Why do you want to "flush john"??

"hes full" of what ??