The October Snowstorm For The Record Books

EMAIL FROM CHRIS:

I know you are following the aftermath of the Snoctober Storm closely, so I thought I would email you to let you know how what my parents in West Hartford are dealing with.

Branches took out the power line to their house and the lines are down on the driveway, which means my father can't get the car out of the garage. He has called every day since the power went out at 8:15pm on Saturday night, but no one has come by or gotten back to him as of yet.

Each time he calls he tells them, "I'm not expecting you to get the power back on, but I need the lines removed so I can clear the driveway and get the car out of the garage." He needs this to happen for 2 reasons, first off so he can go out and get more gas for the generator they are running, and even more importantly, because my mother has MS, is in a wheelchair, and if anything happens with her he needs to be able to take her to the hospital.

I know CL&P is working hard all over the state and that this is an unprecedented disaster, but I feel like situations like my parents should be a high priority. And again, he knows he won't get power back, but clearing the lines seems like something they should be able to do promptly.

Thanks for the great coverage on this issues.

Reply To Email From Matt

Matt, in theory your idea is a good one. In practice, however, the two connectors would corrode over time making the lines unreliable. Remember too, that this idea could only be used for individual house drops, which are at a much lower voltage than the primary wires on top of the poles. FYI, gas stations use a similar concept on their fuel pumps to limit damage from cars driving away with the nozzle still in the car's filler pipe. It's called a "Breakaway Section", and it will be located just after the hose attaches to the pump.

Reply To Email from Quentin

Quentin, there are vast differences between the services. Water, sewer, and gas lines just require passive pipes that do not require periodic maintenance. Electric, telephone, and Cable TV requires transformers, splices, amplifiers, active electronics, etc. that cannot function when wet, and have a finite life. Business size transformers require huge underground concrete vaults if the giant ground mounted cabinets cannot be used. For residential areas, 3' high green metal transformer enclosures would have to be mounted on homeowner's lawns, basically where the pole mounted transformers are now. The time needed to do any diagnostic or replacement work is roughly double what it takes to do the same work on aerial systems. Ground mounted transformers also bring with them new problems such as getting hit by cars, vulnerability to flooding, etc. Think of how much longer it would take to locate, let alone replace, a transformer that was buried under the several feet of snow and ice we had last year! If it were YOUR transformer, I bet you'd be complaining why it took so long to get your power back,, and the answer would be to change to aerial! Bottom line, underground IS better, but not as perfect as you might think.

EMAIL FROM KYLIE:

I have to teach during your show today, sadly, but wanted to weigh in as a parent. I assume that in the discussion of the storm and storm clean up and how safe things are out there, trick or treating will come up in the conversation. I want to put it out there that I am absolutely disgusted with Southington's announcement to leave whether to trick or treat up to parents. In essence, all they are doing is punishing those children whose parents deem it too dangerous. In my neighborhood alone, we still have downed lines, branches dangling from tops of trees, no power, and overall unsafe conditions for trick or treating. Obviously, I'm not letting my children go out - but now they're being punished; no trick or treating until next year. Other towns have chosen the more rational response of having their town's trick or treating postponed until next weekend - when conditions are safe - so it's not an unheard of practice. Southington's choice is just plain bad.

EMAIL FROM QUENTIN:

Did I really hear an official say that running power lines under ground makes maintenance too difficult?

If underground power lines are too difficult to maintain -- then maybe we ought to our run water, sewer, and gas lines overhead on phone poles through old trees too. Cheaper and better right?

Makes sense to me :)

EMAIL FROM MATT:

I understand that power lines are designed to withstand a significant amount of weight from snow/ice, and must resist hurricane force winds.

My question for Arnold is: Why can't the power lines be designed with a connector on either side? The connector would plug into each end using a clip to hold it in place. The clip would be designed to withstand the forces of wind and weight, and will break free if there is too much weight on the line. When the line is broken, all the power companies would have to do is replace the clip, and re-string the line - rather than repairing individual wires.

A design like this would help power companies all over the US get the power back online quicker, and with less time spent repairing wires. Also, I'm assuming that there would be a significant amount of money saved from not having to re-wire areas as well.

EMAIL FROM J:

I've been astounded by how many drivers I've seen blowing through intersections where there are stoplights without power. I've only heard bits of WWL & CMS today, but if it hasn't come up could you remind folks that stoplights without power should be treated as STOP signs?

From the CT DMV website here: "At a four-way stop [or light with out power] the driver who gets there first goes first (after coming to a complete stop). If more than one vehicle arrives at the same time, the vehicle on the right goes first."

EMAIL FROM GREG:

I heard the Governor earlier today state that the utilities have been asking for money to trim the trees, and have in the past been turned down. Wouldn't that be a standard maintenance item that they should have been doing every year? Or did they slash their budget for tree trimming to increase profits and now are paying the price for this? Now they want us to pay more on our bills to compensate them, when it should have been an ongoing maintenance item.

Listener email from John

We have low interest rates right now, let's borrow a ton of money, put tons of people to work for 10-15 or 20 years, and bury all power lines. When someone says underground powerlines are just as hard to repair, that just means we have not been clever enough yet in devising ways to access the lines - just needs some studying - it can be done. The yearly cost of repairing downed power lines, combined with lost revenues and other collateral economic damage, from winter storms, hurricanes and other weather related disasters, could be forever wiped out, in 15-20 years, with a big investment now, exactly when we need it most for our economy.