More Power Outages Possible in Ice-Ravaged Northeast

[NHSparky]

More Power Outages Possible in Ice-Ravaged Northeast

LINK

(excerpt)

ROCHESTER, N.H. —  Utility officials trying to recover from a devastating ice storm in the U.S. northeast warned there could be more outages Sunday as drooping trees and branches shed ice and snap back into their original positions, potentially taking out more power lines.

Roughly 649,000 customers were still without power Sunday morning in upstate New York, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont and Maine. Utilities in hardest-hit New Hampshire said power might not be totally restored to the region until Thursday or Friday, a week after the storm knocked down utility lines, poles and equipment and blacked out 1.4 million homes and businesses.

President George W. Bush declared a state of emergency in New Hampshire and in nine of Massachusetts' 14 counties late Saturday, directing the Federal Emergency Management Agency to provide relief assistance.

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I'm posting this from work on my lunch as my power at home is still out and has been since Thursday night.  There's no way of knowing when the power will be coming back on.  Fortunately, I was pretty much prepared with a full tank of gas in the car, and plenty for the generator (still have about 5 gal left).  Most of the ice actually melted or fell off the trees here on Friday, and it was a sight to see, but just a bit risky if you were outside.  Imagine someone throwing ice cubes at you from a height of 100-125 feet, and you get the idea.  Now imagine it as a SHOWER of ice cubes from that height.  Now add some branches.  I was clearing out my driveway and seriously contemplated either getting my spare hardhat or going inside altogether. 

Only one grocery store was open as of yesterday morning, and most of the non-perishables such as coffee, etc., were long gone.  Batteries?  If you want C or D cells, forget it.  I spoke with an employee at Home Depot who told me that they got 60 generators in Saturday morning and were sold out in 15 minutes.  Wal-Mart finally opened about 3 PM and it was Black Friday times ten within 10 minutes.  Most gas stations in town that did have power ended up closing because they ran out of fuel.  The lines were reminiscent of the 1970's shortages.  Fortunately, no gouging.

And of course, our douchebag Dem governor says, "Don't expect your power back for several days."  And he wonders why we call him, "Governor Do-Nothing."

[asdf2231]

Winter Wonderland baby!

Check your local news outlets, there should be places handing out emergency supplies and batteries.  Red Cross or Salvation Army usually runs those distro sights but it could be your local County Emergency Management office.

[Miss Mia]

Good luck NH!  Hopefully it doesn't take too long to get the power up and running. 

[BlueStateSaint]

I was looking at the atomic clock's time projection on the ceiling at the exact moment we lost power in CP--3:17 AM, Friday morning.  We left the apartment at about 11 AM, after finding power out all over the Town.  My parents never lost power, but my mother didn't want us to come up there, because they have a rather territorial cat, and our cat would have to fight her way in.  (She has claws, my parents' cat doesn't, so it would have been a one-sided fight.)  So, we went to my wife's parents who didn't have power, but they did have a gas stove and a fireplace.  We went there.  They got power back at 2 PM Friday, but Time Warner didn't get cable up until about 6 PM Saturday, so they had no landline phone.  Right about that time, our apartment got power back, but our daughter had just fallen asleep for the night, and there was no way that we were going to wake her up.  I was the advance party (with the cat) yesterday morning at around 9 AM, and my wife came back with our daughter at about 12:45 PM.

Sparky, I hope you get your power back real soon.  I'm getting a Coleman stove and maybe a kerosene heater, even though they are banned in the apartments.

[NHSparky]

Work again.  As of 6:00 this morning, no power.

ETA:  Story from yesterday afternoon, but you get the idea:

LINK

As of 2:00 p.m., PSNH reports that about 194,000 customers are without power, a significant decrease from the 322,000 customers reported at 5 p.m. on Friday.

<snip>

Particularly in the southern tier of the state, which was hit hardest by the ice storm, there are a number of areas where the entire electric system must be rebuilt from the ground up. Many higher voltage power lines along the main roads require extensive rebuilding, and several thousand “tap lines” connecting smaller roads and individual homes are also damaged.

Although progress has been rapid today, it is anticipated that the number of customers restored will begin to slow as line crews complete work on larger circuits and begin the difficult and time-consuming work of reconnecting thousands of power lines that serve smaller pockets of homes and individual residences.

Crews continue to struggle with debris making several roads impassable and equipment hard to reach. Damage from the storm was so massive and widespread that much of Saturday was spent assessing damage. In many cases, PSNH crews have had to cut their way into the damage to fully determine what repairs are necessary.

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Derry and other towns might be out for two or more weeks.  Merry Christmas.

[NHSparky]

PSNH reporting 139K customers still without power, down from peak of 322K.  That means nearly half a million people in PSNH territory alone still in the dark.  Does not include munis in NH or other states.  The total number is well over 600K customers (commercial and residential) from PA to ME.

[miskie]

luckily I live far enough south and east to have avoided this mess - The wife, who works for a Boston Area electricity and gas conglomerate has let me know the full extent of the problems, and it aint pretty.

I wonder If Al Gore recently went though the area, as he tends to bring fine examples of global warming everywhere he goes.

[Thor]

I could tell you a story about kerosene heaters. It would be far better for you to get those Coleman Catalytic heaters that are safe to use in tents. I used one in my little hunting shack up in MN for the last few years. It's safe and works real well. Also, one can buy an adapter hose and connect a 20 lb propane tank to the heater. A 20 lb propane tank lasted me all four days plus about half a tank left over.

[NHSparky]

luckily I live far enough south and east to have avoided this mess - The wife, who works for a Boston Area electricity and gas conglomerate has let me know the full extent of the problems, and it aint pretty.

I wonder If Al Gore recently went though the area, as he tends to bring fine examples of global warming everywhere he goes.

Lemme guess.  This is a scene from the control rooms at PSNH, New England ISO, and Boston Edison:

[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qPt3eLv7Ie0[/youtube]

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