SNOW IN OCTOBER??? I THOUGHT I GOT MARRIED IN THE FALL OF 1988...

[lovecolor]

WOW...that is just crazy!  At least during the Irene storm, workers from other states came to help.  It's terrible that they were not asked to help this time around.   

[firegypsy]

they were asked.  there is a huge controversy because they're saying that they still haven't been paid from Irene.  I believe they haven't.  But big accounts like that usually allow 90 days for remittance of payment and it hasn't been that long.  So while they haven't been paid, the payment wasn't due yet.  Regardless, they refused to help.  

And Trinkette is right on all three accounts.  We don't usually lose power when it snows!  But the devastation of the trees/transformers and lines was beyond anything that anyone expected.  Trees are down everywhere, and a week later some roads are still blocked.  It's really bad.  We've never had such a heavy snow this early and many suffered as a result.

All the towns that surround me are still 70%+ without power and it went out last Friday! 

[clgwli]

That's horrible.  We haven't heard about that part of it here so I am shocked to know no one wanted to help.  We've had our fair share of ice storms and tropical storms that have caused power outages for us.  Our worst was hurricane Ike when he blew through here and knocked us out of power for a week. There were companies from all over helping us out.

I know when ice has knocked us out of power the same has happened.  Snow *usually* does not do near as much damage as ice because *usually* it isn't as heavy as the ice.  It is very rare for us at least to get a lot of very heavy snow like the NE got.   That said the power company came here on Friday and cut part of our big maple tree down since it was close to power lines.  They did a pretty drastic cut but I imagine they were being way conservative after seeing what happened in the NE.

We live in an older neighborhood and all of our power lines are above ground which is the huge issue.  Once you get out in the country I know it gets worse because there are just so many miles of line going through and not as many people.  At least here they try to work on what fix will get the most people back with power first and then down the line to the fix that gets the fewest people back will be done last.

Well the very first are the ones who have sparks and stuff coming from down lines.  They will try to fix that first since it is a potential disaster in another way.

I wish we had underground lines and you would think an area like this would have it, but no one here really wants to dig up every single yard to get rid of it.  It's a stupid power struggle from what I understand so it is what it is.  

Fortunately we rarely lose power for more than a day or two (usually even just a few hours) but I really get grumpy when it does happen.  My heart goes out to those still w/o power.  Colder months are always the worst for it.

[firegypsy]

well, it could have been much worse, and I'm holding on to that.  at least today and tomorrow it's supposed to be getting close to 70 degrees!  we got lucky in the sense that no ones pipes were freezing.

[clgwli]

That is a small blessing.  The last time our area lost power in the winter for a long time it was well below zero (maybe -10 or -20) and it got really cold really quick.  Some people had pipes burst and then had frozen basements due to the cold and inability to get all the water out (harder to do w/o power).  

I Hope the warm weather helps people to get the work done quicker so everyone will be back with power soon!

At least when we had Ike blow through it was about 65 all day long.  It was a bit chilly but it could have been much worse.  We didn't need heat or air which was a huge blessing.  I hope people find relief in the warm temps int he next few days

[Mrs Mitchell]

Mrs.M, the power problem is due to fallen and damaged utility poles and lines, mostly due to high wind and too much snow on trees and branches (causing trees and branches to crash down, often into homes, cars, power lines and roads). This storm was particularly destructive to certain areas because the leaves were still on the trees. Several inches of snow on leaved-trees made for too much weight, and down came the trees. Because the ground was already saturated, many trees just uprooted themselves and feel over... even 200 year-old oaks. There seemed no logic to it; many, many "strong" trees, both young and old, just split in half. Farther up North, the storm was not a problem because the leaves were already off the trees for the season.

That makes sense - of course there aren't usually leaves on trees during a snow storm!