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The Site => General discussion => Topic started by: Jace the Gull on August 27, 2011, 05:49:32 PM

Title: Anyone Lose Power because of Hurricane Irene
Post by: Jace the Gull on August 27, 2011, 05:49:32 PM
Did your power go out during the Hurricane Irene? You can vote AFTER the hurricane has passed your area! Don't vote if it did not pass your area yet. Those who don't live where the hurricane can vote for the fun....I have also included options for those who aren't in the hurricane areas!

Looking forward to the results! If you want to post the name of your electrical company or where you live you can!

Have fun and stay safe!

-Jace
Title: Re: Anyone Lose Power because of Hurricane Irene
Post by: Nelson on August 27, 2011, 06:09:33 PM
I'm in Michigan where we are having a beautiful day! However, I voted "No, but I am surprised, usually we lose power on conditions like this" because we seem to lose power as much on clear beautiful days as we do during storms! Our power here in rural Northern Lower Michigan is quite unreliable. It was out for almost two days earlier this spring due to a number of small issues.

-Nelson
Title: Re: Anyone Lose Power because of Hurricane Irene
Post by: seansy59 on August 27, 2011, 06:22:45 PM
Im getting through the hurricane Irene right now. I am in NJ. I will vote after the storm.

We still run on old powerlines. Clear/colored old glass insulators, and many different old wires. They are about 60+ years old, maybe more.

We rarely lose power :MV:, except with high winds. We will see tonight with 70+ mph winds!

Our  :incandescent: :MV: :hps: are still on so far
Title: Re: Anyone Lose Power because of Hurricane Irene
Post by: Jace the Gull on August 27, 2011, 06:41:13 PM
Im getting through the hurricane Irene right now. I am in NJ. I will vote after the storm.

We still run on old powerlines. Clear/colored old glass insulators, and many different old wires. They are about 60+ years old, maybe more.

We rarely lose power :MV:, except with high winds. We will see tonight with 70+ mph winds!

Our  :incandescent: :MV: :hps: are still on so far

I am in MD, i haven't voted yet its not over...in fact it wont get into NJ until a little longer...its just the beginning in NJ.....the eye hasn't even passed Maryland YET!!! so wait until tomorrow....OR when power already goes out.....the Hurricane is still touching VA and MD.....
Title: Re: Anyone Lose Power because of Hurricane Irene
Post by: joe_347V on August 27, 2011, 07:01:20 PM
I'm in the Toronto area we're having a pretty nice day too, we rarely lose power here but it's usually because of a snow/ice storm if we do though.

Although I lost power once because a truck hit the utility pole around a mile away from me. :o
Title: Re: Anyone Lose Power because of Hurricane Irene
Post by: Nelson on August 27, 2011, 07:19:47 PM
The last time we lost power, the power initially went out when a tree fell on a line back in the swamp. It was during a big storm, so the power company wasn't able to get to it for a few hours. Then, before they could get to it, a vehicle crash took out some equipment (probably a pole) on the distribution system, so that took priority. Replacing that equipment took a few hours, then the power company came back to work on the tree issue. However, the cross arms are so rotten that the tree pulled the line and insulators off the arms for quite a distance. So, that took a while longer. All in all, we didn't have power for almost two days.

We have an intersection that is very tight for trucks making a right turn. Every few years, a truck will take the corner too wide and bust off the power pole. That blows a fuse on the line coming into town, so it shuts the town down for a few hours until the pole is replaced.

Quite often we will just lose one phase. Its not unusual for part of your building to be out and the rest lit! Or to see some houses with power and some without. I see this at work quite often where we have three phase power. Where I live in the country, we just have single phase.

The other issue is that whenever the power has to be shut off somewhere in town, the power company has to throw the "big switch" where the main line comes into town. There isn't much else to sectionalize the power feed where I live. I've always wanted to cut the padlock and throw that big lever myself just to watch the whole town go out!
Title: Re: Anyone Lose Power because of Hurricane Irene
Post by: rjluna2 on August 27, 2011, 07:25:21 PM
Even though I am living in Atlanta area, I do have some power dip.  Sometimes there may be power interruption lasting no more than 2 seconds.  Just enough to reset my color laser printer to do a power on test page and some clocks without battery backup.  That doesn't happen very often.

That is why I have uninterruptable power supply on every computer desktop at my home :D
Title: Re: Anyone Lose Power because of Hurricane Irene
Post by: Nelson on August 27, 2011, 07:28:54 PM
Yes, uninterruptible power supplies are a must for important equipment, especially where I live! I also have an 8KW propane generator that powers the most critical loads (computer, amateur radio station, well pump, refrigerator, furnace, and lights).
Title: Re: Anyone Lose Power because of Hurricane Irene
Post by: Mike on August 27, 2011, 09:28:17 PM
You should add "No, because the hurricane hasn't hit me yet." :P
Title: Re: Anyone Lose Power because of Hurricane Irene
Post by: Jace the Gull on August 27, 2011, 09:37:48 PM
You should add "No, because the hurricane hasn't hit me yet." :P

I have notice you don't exactly read much....you need to read first before commenting or you could just be "embarrassed" so reread the post first...it says do not vote UNTIL the hurricane PASSES your area first...



Title: Re: Anyone Lose Power because of Hurricane Irene
Post by: Mike on August 27, 2011, 09:40:30 PM
Yeah but if the power goes out i won't be able to vote.  :(
Title: Re: Anyone Lose Power because of Hurricane Irene
Post by: Jace the Gull on August 27, 2011, 09:41:00 PM
By the way just a minute ago I just had a power interruption....it flashed 3 times...and restarted my router, the computer and made this room dark for a short time!!! I am gonna add...for those who did not have a complete blackouts but some power interruptions...I will add it to the poll now...

I am not going to VOTE yet...because the hurricane is NOT finished with MD yet.....so I won't vote till tomorrow when the day has a smiley faced sun!
Title: Re: Anyone Lose Power because of Hurricane Irene
Post by: Jace the Gull on August 27, 2011, 09:41:52 PM
Yeah but if the power goes out i won't be able to vote.  :(

But you can vote when power is restored, or use your mobile phone like my Droid....whatever...so wait till the hurricane passes you......
Title: Re: Anyone Lose Power because of Hurricane Irene
Post by: joe_347V on August 27, 2011, 09:43:47 PM
I still haven't voted yet even though I believe it will miss the Toronto area.
Title: Re: Anyone Lose Power because of Hurricane Irene
Post by: Mike on August 27, 2011, 09:44:48 PM
I don't have a cell phone. I'm guessing I'll loose power though because there are lots of trees near me and the poles are far spaced.
Title: Re: Anyone Lose Power because of Hurricane Irene
Post by: Jace the Gull on August 27, 2011, 09:46:03 PM
no guessing...and I live with a lot of trees...I actually live inside a forest.....and rarely lose power...LOL....so you wait until hurricane is finished and power is restored...you won't be able to CHANGE the vote...
Title: Re: Anyone Lose Power because of Hurricane Irene
Post by: Mike on August 27, 2011, 09:47:09 PM
Ok.  >:D ;)
Title: Re: Anyone Lose Power because of Hurricane Irene
Post by: SeanB~1 on August 28, 2011, 05:50:21 AM
Not even on the same continent..........

But still have lights charged and ready, as well as small portable generator just in case the strikers decide to do more sabotage.
Title: Re: Anyone Lose Power because of Hurricane Irene
Post by: Jace the Gull on August 28, 2011, 06:38:43 AM
We lost power!!!!! It happened when the tropical storm came......................the hurricane already passed us...........it's very wet out. We got a lot of leaves stuck on the Northern side of our house (our back of the house...our front of the house faces south)

I am confindent we will have power back within 24 hours (hopefully!)
Title: Re: Anyone Lose Power because of Hurricane Irene
Post by: Jace the Gull on August 28, 2011, 07:08:13 AM
Don't rest NJ, NY, RI, Massachusettes, and all the New England people....your hurricane hasn't really come yet! So wait until tonight!
Title: Re: Anyone Lose Power because of Hurricane Irene
Post by: Vince on August 28, 2011, 09:34:29 AM
Irene is approaching my area as I type this. I've had cases where I didn't lose power with tropical storm conditions like those we are expecting here (from tonight until tomorrow). Hydro-Québec's grid is usually reliable, I rather blame their organization when it comes to grid management...

Weather forecast is about 50 to 100mm of rain (that gives about 2 - 4"), winds of 50 to 70km/H constant, with gusts of over 100km/H (~ 30 to 40m/H with gust of 60m/H). I have a radio, my vintage Ray-O-Vac flashlight, my iPod touch and my Nintendo DS in case anything happens  ;D
Title: Re: Anyone Lose Power because of Hurricane Irene
Post by: gailgrove on August 28, 2011, 12:04:49 PM
Well I'm sure we won't lose power here, we very rarely do. But we are just under the hurricane here, it's not even raining and we can see the outside edge of it! but I am just under it here, it's getting a bit windy here too!
Title: Re: Anyone Lose Power because of Hurricane Irene
Post by: rjluna2 on August 28, 2011, 12:52:59 PM
By the way just a minute ago I just had a power interruption....it flashed 3 times...and restarted my router, the computer and made this room dark for a short time!!!
Maybe you should hook up your router to the UPS along with your computer.  That is what I have it done at my home office with my parents' computer as well :)
Title: Re: Anyone Lose Power because of Hurricane Irene
Post by: Jace the Gull on August 28, 2011, 01:03:29 PM
So far, our power is still out......

The neighborhood next to us....has 2 parts...a older part built in 1988 and a newer part added in 1998...the 1988 part has MV posttops the newer part has HPS posttops.....

The older part has power....but the newer part is without power and I believe the newer part uses same main transformer as us while the older part comes from the other road which has power....
Title: Re: Anyone Lose Power because of Hurricane Irene
Post by: seansy59 on August 28, 2011, 01:34:29 PM
Well, I got through Irene. It is windy, damp, and rainy still (mist). It is 65*F but feels like 50*F!

Lights flicker every now and then with winds still gusting to 50mph somtimes. Calming down tonight.

Damage is O.K. Our porch lights bent a little and one came off the wall. Lots of debris everywhere, power lines are tangled up big time.

Few trees down, a bit of flooding that dried already.

Never lost power 100%. Just flickered. Still got tonight to go through yet till it fully clears tommorrow.
Title: Re: Anyone Lose Power because of Hurricane Irene
Post by: Vince on August 28, 2011, 01:40:43 PM
Here it goes... rain started to fall. Winds are pretty calm at the moment, I'd say ~ 15km/H, with no gusts.

Also if I lose power, I won't be able to come here anymore LOL. My neighbourhood is pretty big but the whole area is fed by a single 3-phase line which I still didn't locate, since we have TWO stepdown stations that take high voltage and drops it to 25kV, both about a km from me but in different neighbourhoods. The few streets around me are fed by a single 1-phase wire which also feeds a part of a big boulevard near me! So weird that it could be worth a diagram!  ;D
Title: Re: Anyone Lose Power because of Hurricane Irene
Post by: gailgrove on August 28, 2011, 01:43:02 PM
Here it goes... rain started to fall. Winds are pretty calm at the moment, I'd say ~ 15km/H, with no gusts.
Funny, it is more windy here than that, and we are barley under the clouds from it.
Title: Re: Anyone Lose Power because of Hurricane Irene
Post by: joe_347V on August 28, 2011, 02:00:19 PM
It got windy and a bit cloudy here today but so far there's no rain here.
Title: Re: Anyone Lose Power because of Hurricane Irene
Post by: Jace the Gull on August 28, 2011, 04:21:11 PM
We still have no power.......we have bad enough damage to have some treesget snapped off the roots! Some of our neighbors has generators......We don't LOL
Title: Re: Anyone Lose Power because of Hurricane Irene
Post by: Vince on August 28, 2011, 05:00:05 PM
Things are getting worse here. Winds about 30km/H with gusts of 50km/H, and moderately heavy rain. No big fear of power outage at the moment, although it could happen at any moment...
Title: Re: Anyone Lose Power because of Hurricane Irene
Post by: Jace the Gull on August 28, 2011, 07:40:12 PM
Our power just came back on! It went out between 2:00 AM to 3:00 AM on August 28, 2011.....and did not come back on or restored until 8:25 PM

So we had about 17 to 18 hours without power....part of it while sleeping.....

So far as of now we are typing BGE has restored 219,816 customer's power but 422,423 customers are still in the dark out of the total of 1,266,600   customers!!!

They started doing storm operations at 12:00 pm on 8/27/2011.........in some electrical companies, even streetlight services have to be involved! I know that sometimes you have to work non-stop for 18 hours if there is major outage or storm outage....

While we all are comfortable at home....resting...lets take the time to APPRECIATE all the HARD working linemen who is working their ASS off restoring our power! I have to say the same for the workers in all electric companies who has to work THIS hard....

Not a pretty picture!!!!

Title: Re: Anyone Lose Power because of Hurricane Irene
Post by: Jace the Gull on August 28, 2011, 07:42:04 PM
By the way from the LOOKS of it it seems Michael (Streetlights98) has lost power because he's been inactive almost all day!!!

Title: Re: Anyone Lose Power because of Hurricane Irene
Post by: Vince on August 28, 2011, 07:55:28 PM
The worst is still coming for me... argh.  :-\ I am prepared, so no worries LOL.

Well, time to take a shower now... I may not be back  ;D
Title: Re: Anyone Lose Power because of Hurricane Irene
Post by: joe_347V on August 28, 2011, 08:16:19 PM
The clouds here cleared up shortly before evening, and the hurricane avoided the Toronto area.

So I'm going to vote No because I am not even where the hurricane hit!
Title: Re: Anyone Lose Power because of Hurricane Irene
Post by: Vince on August 28, 2011, 08:33:43 PM
Over here conditions are steady since 7pm, let's just hope it won't get worse. According to TWN things will remain stable until early tomorrow.
Title: Re: Anyone Lose Power because of Hurricane Irene
Post by: Vince on August 29, 2011, 09:46:10 AM
Final results: one tiny flash at 10pm. It was big enough to cause my UPS to switch to the battery for a second. My computer took the flash without any problems. Otherwise I never lost power. My area has actually been kinda spared by the tropical storm! MANY regions around me deal with broken trees and power outages as I type this, while my area didn't have much damage.
Title: Re: Anyone Lose Power because of Hurricane Irene
Post by: A_lights on August 29, 2011, 12:32:44 PM
No storms here in Rochester MI , power stayed on too
Good you guys all stayed safe :)
Title: Re: Anyone Lose Power because of Hurricane Irene
Post by: RCM on August 29, 2011, 11:55:31 PM
The power goes out all the time here! And jace, I sent you a pic and your power came  back on LOL
Title: Re: Anyone Lose Power because of Hurricane Irene
Post by: Mike on August 30, 2011, 07:09:22 AM
UGGGGGGG. My power went out a 8AM Sunday morning and didn't come back until 2AM this morning. >:( It's not  my power companies fault though. I'm sure they didn't go around pushing trees on to lines. The power lines were literally shredded by the wind and trees. No lights were harmed though dispite the numerous downed trees and lines.
Title: Re: Anyone Lose Power because of Hurricane Irene
Post by: Jace the Gull on August 30, 2011, 11:48:52 AM
UGGGGGGG. My power went out a 8AM Sunday morning and didn't come back until 2AM this morning. >:( It's not  my power companies fault though. I'm sure they didn't go around pushing trees on to lines. The power lines were literally shredded by the wind and trees. No lights were harmed though dispite the numerous downed trees and lines.

My power went out too....you can read the whole post....I was very detailed....LOL Welcome back!
Title: Re: Anyone Lose Power because of Hurricane Irene
Post by: Mike on August 30, 2011, 03:25:32 PM
Yeah mine was out 36 hours.