Utilities Prepare for Hurricane Irene to Inflict Widespread Power Losses

[xchrom]

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-08-26/millions-may-lose-power-as-irene-carves-destructive-coastal-path.html

Millions of homes and businesses are likely to lose power for several days as Hurricane Irene plows up the eastern coast of the U.S., ripping down power lines and flooding underground natural gas and electric equipment.

The outages may dwarf those caused by U.S. Gulf Coast Hurricanes Ike, Rita and Katrina because of the storm’s path through residential areas, said Jim Nowak, manager for emergency restoration planning with American Electric Power Co., in an interview.

Power companies as far west as Kansas, Texas and Oklahoma are organizing repair workers to send East to help with repairing the damage, said Nowak, who is a member of two regional utility groups that are coordinating cleanup efforts.

“Everybody across the United States is on alert,” he said.

[dixiegrrrrl]

1. that is one thing that states used to do well, hope they still do.

I remember seeing miles of utility trucks from out of state all lined up, waiting to enter as the hurricane passed, and was always amazed at how dedicated the workers were to getting our power back on as fast as possible.
During local storms down here, when a tree takes out a few miles of wire, or drops a pole, the response is very quick, the police come and block off the downed lines, the power trucks show up promptly, I have watched this time and again.


Even better, during one thunderstorm recently, 3 trees went down across our street and several neighbors went out with chainsaws, cut them up and cleared the road, whole families helping to clean up the limbs and branches. No power lines were involved, so it was safe to clean it up.

I do love our town, I really do.

[xchrom]

2. +1