Huge Swath of US in the Dark

[KG4CGC]

Based on Weather Channel reports, a huge swatch of the country is in the dark tonight, including a million in DC, after a severe storm ripped through starting in the southern tip of Wisconsin and spreading out easterly through Chicago through Ohio, W. Virginia, and on to the coast off Penn. with winds up to 90mph.
I'm still looking for a link as new reports are still coming but they're slow.

[W3WN]

We're fine in Pittsburgh.

I'll bet St. Louis wishes they'd had a blackout tonight.

[NA4BH]

A million in DC in the dark.......... Who'da thunk it? :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: and :rofl: plus :cheers:

[NA4BH]

But looking at the radar, it's one hell-uv-a storm.

[ki4itv]

Just rolled through here.
Second Dorecho this week. Makes living in a sea of tress exciting to say the least.

[W4GPL]

Major net outages as a result..

Istagram, Netflix, Pintrest..

[NA4BH]

Major net outages as a result..

Istagram, Netflix, Pintrest..

QRZ?

[ki4itv]

He said major.
QRZ is of minimal concern.

[W4GPL]

QRZ?Looks like it, eh?

[NA4BH]

He said major.
QRZ is of minimal concern.

LOL. You're right

[W4GPL]

I was watching a movie with Tom Selleck about IKE.. was quite good and my Netflix went poof. Wasn't aware of the power outages though, but Twitter is abuzz about Netflix being down. Ruining a lot of family movie nights, it sounds like.

[W4GPL]

Not that it matters, but the server we have in DC is still online (for now).

[KG4CGC]

Could someone check up on our area brethren?

[W3ZR]

Must have been a hell of a storm. I am 50 miles from the New York border and could see lightning from it, and even the lightning detector at the lake saw it.

[n2ize]

Ain't summer wonderful ? :(

[PA5COR]

That is one reason we have just the 380 KV lines in the air, and all 50 KV lines to the transformers in cities etc underground, houses are connected as well under ground cables.
Breaking powerlines are exeptional seldom here, in the 25 years i live here there was one outage due to a blown transformer house that lased all of 3 hours...

[N8YX]

The northern edge of that system just missed our county. Further to the south is where the fun really began. A number of TVS spinups were associated with cells in the line as they crossed Ohio.

[WØTKX]

There were power outages in Centennial, CO yesterday as I was trying to do my commute home.

Traffic lights were out. That's what I get for trying to avoid the freeway rush hour. :shifty:

[K7SGJ]

There were power outages in Centennial, CO yesterday as I was trying to do my commute home.

Traffic lights were out. That's what I get for trying to avoid the freeway rush hour. :shifty:

I would think visability through all the smoke would be an issue as well. Man, that's some shit happening up there in CO. as well as just about all of the west. Some of the photos of whole neighborhoods on fire is just unbelievable. I don't know which natural disaster is more scary, tornados, earthquakes, or wildfire.

[WØTKX]

No, it's not that bad in Denver. Colorado Springs (south) and Fort Collins (north) are worse at times.

The whole front range smells like a campfire. I'm moving to the foothills shortly... so fire mitigation is gonna be a big deal.

[kb2vxa]

Saw it on the Weather Channel last night, one headed for Chicago and an even bigger one headed for DC and Baltimore. We got a stray at the northern end of that 500 mile long monster, nothing serious but it woke me up in the middle of the night. FYI it's disgustingly hot and humid again today, we're in the middle of summer's second heat wave.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/29/virginia-dc-derecho-storm_n_1639274.html

[K7SGJ]

No, it's not that bad in Denver. Colorado Springs (south) and Fort Collins (north) are worse at times.

The whole front range smells like a campfire. I'm moving to the foothills shortly... so fire mitigation is gonna be a big deal.

Yep. When we moved out here away from the city, I made sure I cleared a good fire break between the house and the desert. Of course back then (before global warming :shhh:) we had a lot more rain, and the wild grasses were much higher in the late spring and dead as hell in the summer; a real tender-box if not cleared. But unlike your area, tall trees aren't an issue here, either. I have lived in mortal fear that one of these days, some asshole is going to toss a smoke out their window, and the place is going to go up in a heartbeat. We had a couple of close calls early on, but the volunteer fire department was just down the street, so response was pretty quick, plus they draw from Phoenix and some of the other towns around when necessary.

[W4GPL]

No, it's not that bad in Denver. Colorado Springs (south) and Fort Collins (north) are worse at times.

The whole front range smells like a campfire.Yeah, just depends on the winds. For the most part, Denver has been fine -- a couple of days the smoke was really irritating my eyes and throat, but those days have been far and few between.

[rot]

Lost a 30 ft tree...:ugh:
Must have blowed right over in the 5min drive-by winds that rolled through round 11p last night.
No power loss.
It's like...effin Venus hot outside..sucks even in the shade.
Not a good day to be with out AC round here fer sure.
perSpire,NC
rot

[n2ize]

Those derecho's are nasty, causing much more widespread damages than most tornado's. But couple the derecho + huge hail + lightning + torential rain + tornados and... wow... what a mess. Fascinating to see such a display of pure energy but scary for those under it. And we don't even kinow what's headed our way in the way of hurricanes yet. We've got 3-4 months where anything can happen. And with all this heat there is a lot of energy up there.

I feel sorry for those caught in this heat with no air conditioning or fans. Fortunately around here if the power goes out the water keeps flowing so you can always grab a cool refreshing shower and an alcoholic beverage to soothe the nerves.

[KG4NEL]

That is one reason we have just the 380 KV lines in the air, and all 50 KV lines to the transformers in cities etc underground, houses are connected as well under ground cables.
Breaking powerlines are exeptional seldom here, in the 25 years i live here there was one outage due to a blown transformer house that lased all of 3 hours...

I lived/worked in the DC area for 2 years after undergrad, and we got hit with the worst snowfall they had on record. The spokesman of the Maryland utility basically said the same thing - we can bury the lines, but you won't like what it does to the rates. And they won't cut the trees back from the lines, because apparently it takes an act of Congress to cut someone's prized tree that just so happens to overhang a line.

I wouldn't have believed it before, but for an area that was #1 and #2 in per-capita income, it was amazing how little the right-of-ways were maintained. And it showed in the winter, or when storms like this happen.

[PA5COR]

Soon after electricity became normal here the lines went underground, easy to do here all clay and sand ground, more difficult to do when you have rock...

Saves lots of money to long outages cost money too, and lives when it is hot like you have now.
You have the odd problem that now and then a digger goes through an underground line, but they prevented that by having a permit to dig up the ground from the office that has a plan of all underground infra structure so you know exactly what is burried there and how deep.

That took care of that, and those lines have double steel belts to protect them.

[n2ize]

. I don't know which natural disaster is more scary, tornados, earthquakes, or wildfire.

Hurricanes too, especially if you are living near the coast and the Atlantic Ocean comes knocking on the door.

[n2ize]

Soon after electricity became normal here the lines went underground, easy to do here all clay and sand ground, more difficult to do when you have rock...

Saves lots of money to long outages cost money too, and lives when it is hot like you have now.
You have the odd problem that now and then a digger goes through an underground line, but they prevented that by having a permit to dig up the ground from the office that has a plan of all underground infra structure so you know exactly what is burried there and how deep.

That took care of that, and those lines have double steel belts to protect them.

Most of this area is all above ground, as it much of the United States. Manhattan is all underground but there they have their own unique set of problems and even underground summertime electrical loads blow out transformers and/or cause cables to melt and burn.

Some of the newer suburban developments have underground but the vast majority on NYS is overhead. How well overhead works depends a lot of how well the power company maintains the trees. Around here they tend to have a good tree maintenance program. Weak or dying trees are removed and replaced with young healthy trees. Dead branches as well as branches encroaching on power lines are routinely trimmed. As a result we rarely get outages. When power companies stop doing tree maintanance the problems start arising. On course if we were to get a 90 mph derecho or a tornado then all bets are off, tree maintenance or not.

[ki4itv]

I don't know which natural disaster is more scary, tornados, earthquakes, or wildfire.

I can tell you first hand that tornado's are particularly terrifying.
The Dorecho we had on Monday was pretty intense, almost tornado-like with a little less chaos. It had my ass cheeks clenched together and I have a curiosity that borders on stupidity when it comes to severe weather.

[n2ize]

. And they won't cut the trees back from the lines, because apparently it takes an act of Congress to cut someone's prized tree that just so happens to overhang a line.

They do it around here all the time, even in some extremely affluent areas without incident.



I wouldn't have believed it before, but for an area that was #1 and #2 in per-capita income, it was amazing how little the right-of-ways were maintained. And it showed in the winter, or when storms like this happen.

They trim the trees around here every year without any hassles. They even cut down a huge dead tree from the front of my house. And they did it at no cost to me. Saved me a lot of money because it was going to have to be removed and it would have cost me quite a bit to have the job done.

[n2ize]

Some of our worst damaging winds around here tend to come not from hurricanes or tornados but from nor'easters, particularly in the fall, winter and spring. A couple years ago we had a nor'easter come through that wreck up a lot oif trees and causes widespread damage. Did a lot more damage to this arera than hurricane Irene did last summer.

[kb2vxa]

"And they won't cut the trees back from the lines, because apparently it takes an act of Congress to cut someone's prized tree that just so happens to overhang a line."

That lack of maintenance is the power company's fault. The someone's tree in question is city property because if the street is standard layout the RoW extends 10 feet past the sidewalk, if there is none it's measured from the center line of the crown.

"I wouldn't have believed it before, but for an area that was #1 and #2 in per-capita income, it was amazing how little the right-of-ways were maintained."

Blame it on the city but if you want to blame the rich buggers tell the Council to raise taxes so the city can afford it.

[n2ize]

"And they won't cut the trees back from the lines, because apparently it takes an act of Congress to cut someone's prized tree that just so happens to overhang a line."

That lack of maintenance is the power company's fault. The someone's tree in question is city property because if the street is standard layout the RoW extends 10 feet past the sidewalk, if there is none it's measured from the center line of the crown.

"I wouldn't have believed it before, but for an area that was #1 and #2 in per-capita income, it was amazing how little the right-of-ways were maintained."

Blame it on the city but if you want to blame the rich buggers tell the Council to raise taxes so the city can afford it.

Problem is that in most cases the city doesn't give a shit about clearing the power lines. Round here the city would rather let the tree fall and pay for any damages later rather than trim or remove a tree ahead of time. It's strictky up to the power company to put up the money and hire a tree contractor to do the trimming. The city doesn't give a rats ass either way.

[W4GPL]

When I lived in Florida, we experienced 3 hurricanes in a single summer (2004? I think?) -- the township I lived in was one of the few areas that was able to keep their power and other utilities running. I am certain it was because of the buried lines.. YMMV.

[WN9HJW]

Deleted

[KG4CGC]

Frig cooling is often treacherous.