Hurricane Ida

[ExFlyBoy5]

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Originally Posted by braumeister Yes, from some of my friends in that industry I know there is a lot of wonderful cooperation in times of crisis like this. Not uncommon to send crews as much as 1,000 miles from home when needed. I've even seen Canadian crews working to help restore power lines in Rhode Island.

"Mutual assistance" is an absolute must...think about how much it would cost to have thousands upon thousands of employees and the equipment for an event that happens (hopefully) only every few years. And of course, there is some $$ that entices them, too.

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When a utility receives mutual assistance crews and other equipment, the utility receiving the assistance is responsible for them financially, covering the costs for the crews and dealing with liability and other related expenses. However, responding utilities are expected to handle the logistics of their travel to the requesting utility.

Here is a fairly interesting report that gets into some details and history of mutual assistance:

https://pubs.naruc.org/pub/536E475E-...0-C13478337428

Quote:

The report you are reading was created under the National Council on Electricity Policy & Energy Assurance program, a project of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC)Grants & Research Department.

[ExFlyBoy5]

Here is the Flickr page for Entergy. It seems as though they have been updating pictures fairly regularly.

https://flickr.com/photos/entergy?

[ejman]

Wonderful to hear houses made it OK W2R - what a relief.

[street]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ExFlyBoy5 Here is the Flickr page for Entergy. It seems as though they have been updating pictures fairly regularly. https://flickr.com/photos/entergy?

Thanks for sharing that Entergy Updating. One thing too, it was hard to get material for electrical companies project with the covid event that we are still battling.
Transformers, glass and poles were all most impossible early summer yet. So, waiting on material can also slow up the progress.

[Lewis Clark]

When we were driving north out of Florida to evacuate from Hurricane Irma in 2017, we saw several dozen power company crews from northern states driving south into the danger zone to be ready in advance for the post-storm recovery.

On our return home, we bought snacks and stopped and offered them to every repair crew we saw along the roadside. They were grateful for the treats.

[ERD50]

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Originally Posted by Ronstar Yep repairing the power grid is a huge task, especially when the damage is tough to physically get to. When the most recent tornado hit our area, it also took out several high voltage transmission towers. ...

Yes,I don't think there's much you can do to make something tornado proof. That's so localized and intense, it would be cost-prohibitive to bring everything up to that standard, when the intense damage from tornadoes must be a very small % of land even over a 10 year period. We've probably all seen pictures of a house near 100% destroyed by a tornado, and the houses two away have only minor damage.

Hurricanes are different being of lower wind speed, but widespread. Looking at that earlier link from ExFlyBoy5 :

Quote:

Here is the Flickr page for Entergy. It seems as though they have been updating pictures fairly regularly. https://flickr.com/photos/entergy?

I see only one picture with high power equipment damaged (and looks fairly minor), but lots of pictures of the wooden poles down. With so many wooden poles through so many areas, it's also probably just not feasible to bring all those up to hurricane standards.

What a mess. Heartbreaking.

-ERD50

[Dawg52]

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Originally Posted by W2R The standard 6' wood fence across the back of my yard blew down. But it belongs to my back neighbor, not me! So I'm sure he'll deal with it. His sister says it's too soon to come back - - no gas anywhere, so her generator is just sitting there. The neighbor on the other side of F had two trees blow down, but neither landed on his property. We're happy. P.S. - - just saw the photos. The fence that fell down, fell into my yard, but it belongs to the neighbor, so I won't have to clean it up. The big tree hanging over F's yard did not fall down. There are a few roof shingles in our yards, and lots of small branches and such, but that will be less to deal with than we feared. My detached garage did not collapse either! Our roofs may or may not have lost a few shingles, but they are basically intact. We are so relieved!

Looks like you guys got lucky. Good news! Bad news is it could take quite a while to get the power back up. Might be a good time to take a road trip somewhere while you wait.

[NW-Bound]

With such widespread damage to the electric grid, it may be a while before supermarkets and gas stations can reopen. I hope they get the sewer and water supply back on line soon.

When you have power outage for so long, personal electric generators may be of limited use. How long can you keep it running 24/7? How do you get the fuel? It's a mess.

Residential solar arrays with Powerwalls would not work either. PV panels would be the first things to get blown off the roof. You can't win.

[Souschef]

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Originally Posted by NW-Bound With such widespread damage to the electric grid, it may be a while before supermarkets and gas stations can reopen. I hope they get the sewer and water supply back on line soon. When you have power outage for so long, personal electric generators may be of limited use. How long can you keep it running 24/7? How do you get the fuel? It's a mess.

You do not need to run it 24/7. I ran a test using a remote thermometer and during an 8 hour outage, the refrigerator temp only went up 3 degrees.
We have a 5 gallon gas can with stabilizer in the gas, and if need be, we can siphon 5 gallons from one of the cars.
The only thing we ran on the generators was the refrigerator, the 6 cu ft freezer, and power strip to keep our phones charged. We also invited our neighbors to charge their phones here.

[NW-Bound]

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Originally Posted by Souschef You do not need to run it 24/7. I ran a test using a remote thermometer and during an 8 hour outage, the refrigerator temp only went up 3 degrees. We have a 5 gallon gas can with stabilizer in the gas, and if need be, we can siphon 5 gallons from one of the cars. The only thing we ran on the generators was the refrigerator, the 6 cu ft freezer, and power strip to keep our phones charged. We also invited our neighbors to charge their phones here.

Well, if you have a Powerwall or an equivalent battery, you can charge it up and have power for several hours between charges.

I was thinking of having continuous power for AC, at least for just one small room. Even a small AC takes quite a bit more power than a fridge.

PS. Where I am, ACs are life-support equipment. Without it, people die. Well, I would.

[Car-Guy]

Quote:

Originally Posted by NW-Bound I was thinking of having continuous power for AC, at least for just one small room. Even a small AC takes quite a bit more power than a fridge. PS. Where I am, ACs are life-support equipment. Without it, people die. Well, I would.

+1, we have lot of power outages around here. 2, 4, 6 hours are not uncommon... I have two generators (~15kw in total) and lots of spare gas.


From mid March to mid November the first thing I power up is our life support system... Which consist of a 12k btu window AC. (may buy a spare pretty soon just in case) Next comes the refrigerators and then the home entertainment systems....Those all stay on for the duration... Other things are powered up and down as needed. The generators can each run about 8 to 10 hours between fill ups depending on the load.

[street]

I should have a small generator, I would use it more then I think. We just tough it out when power goes out. The times it is bad is in winter.

Right now I'm using my son's generator while I'm working on that shop where I don't have power. I been using manual hand tools till I ask to barrow his generator.

[Car-Guy]

^^^^^
I think I have received more value out of these generators than just about anything I've ever owned.... Both are 15+ years old now and have never failed me. I change the oil once a year with a quality synthetic, add gas and they just keep on going. I'm going to guess they only run about 80 to 100 hours a year on average but it's cheap insurance IMO.

[Out of Steam]

Quote:

Originally Posted by braumeister Yes, from some of my friends in that industry I know there is a lot of wonderful cooperation in times of crisis like this. Not uncommon to send crews as much as 1,000 miles from home when needed. I've even seen Canadian crews working to help restore power lines in Rhode Island.

Our lights were restored after a long outage in Maryland by a crew from Mississippi.

[mebden]

I’m just letting everyone know I’m all good in Houma for having the eye come right thru my back yard and having no power or water and hit or miss cell phone signal I took a ride today thru most of Houma and power lines are down all over roads I can’t even get out of my sub division from 2 ways as power poles laying across the exits this place looks like a war zone I never seen so much damage I feel greatful my house only lost shingles and a blown out garage door theirs people here that have trees thru their living rooms or no roof at all this area looks like 50 plus tornados went thru here at the same time and I’ve seen what those can do to

[ivinsfan]

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Originally Posted by mebden I’m just letting everyone know I’m all good in Houma for having the eye come right thru my back yard and having no power or water and hit or miss cell phone signal I took a ride today thru most of Houma and power lines are down all over roads I can’t even get out of my sub division from 2 ways as power poles laying across the exits this place looks like a war zone I never seen so much damage I feel greatful my house only lost shingles and a blown out garage door theirs people here that have trees thru their living rooms or no roof at all this area looks like 50 plus tornados went thru here at the same time and I’ve seen what those can do to

Thanks for checking in.I'm sure it will be a long haul for you and you wait for water and power. Sounds like you dodged a bullet and that's great.

[Gumby]

I'm happy to hear from you, Mebden, and glad you're safe.

[street]

Quote:

Originally Posted by mebden I’m just letting everyone know I’m all good in Houma for having the eye come right thru my back yard and having no power or water and hit or miss cell phone signal I took a ride today thru most of Houma and power lines are down all over roads I can’t even get out of my sub division from 2 ways as power poles laying across the exits this place looks like a war zone I never seen so much damage I feel greatful my house only lost shingles and a blown out garage door theirs people here that have trees thru their living rooms or no roof at all this area looks like 50 plus tornados went thru here at the same time and I’ve seen what those can do to

Glad you are fine and sounds terrible. There is always someone that has it worse in any situations. A lot to be thankful for.

[Ronstar]

Thanks for the update mebden. Take care and be safe.

[retire-early]

A generator that can run on propane is more useful.
Propane doesn't "go bad" like gasoline.