Something to keep in mind about restoring power in Houston

[Dreamer Tatum]

Many of the power lines in Houston are above-ground, and a lot of the power outages are due to falling
trees and branches shearing off the connection at the house/apartment/business. That creates (a) a serious hazard due to standing
water, and (b) nasty and tedious repair issues for crews.

In a lot of places, it's going to be a house-to-house operation, just like after Alicia. That's why it's going to take a while.

Of course, after Alicia, HL&P was on the case 24/7, and there were stories about people who tried to pay off the crews to hok their house up sooner. That was a big deal back then, and I imagine people will be wayching for it now.

[Phred42]

1. Wonder how many Blackwater scum are running around town now with machine guns?

[Igel]

2. Here's a map you might like.

If the webpage is stable. They keep restructuring the site, and this page periodically vanishes (with its daughter pages).

They've mapped out their service area and are showing graphically which areas have power fully, partially, or not restored (with 2-3% "never lost power" lumped in with restored).

http://www.centerpointenergy.com/newsroom/stormcenter/ike/0af9097a7e25c110VgnVCM1000005a1a0d0aRCRD/

The maps are PDFs; they don't load quickly.

[madrchsod]

3. cedar rapids iowa still is not at 100%

they still have some buildings in the down town area that still need metering and 500 houses that have`t been inspected to receive power. the energy company had to clean the flood water from just about every piece of equipment in the system.

they would not hook up electricity until a electrician certified that power could be restored. hooking up power to a box that is wet very dangerous. there`s also issues with natural gas restoration.