Tropical Cyclone Irma

[DonH56]

My brother and his wife live in Georgia, maybe 50 miles NE of Atlanta, very near the SC line. Their power has been out for ~11 hours as of last night and is still out. Neighbor had a massive tree come down but my brother says his house sustained only minor damage, thankfully. He's a commercial pilot; they'll dock his pay if he can't make it in to fly (not based in GA now though was before, so now he has to hop flights to get to work, what fun -- the industry is not designed for families).

 

[amirm]

It is amazing how vulnerable our power grid is to natural disasters. Many parts in our area still have poles with wires hanging and trees dangling on them. I was all excited to see them come over to remove the ancient wooden posts, thinking they would bury the wires. But no, they put in brand new wooden posts!!! Couldn't believe it. I am sure part of the reason is that they lease the posts to wireless companies for cell transceivers.

 

[Blumlein 88]

It is amazing how vulnerable our power grid is to natural disasters. Many parts in our area still have poles with wires hanging and trees dangling on them. I was all excited to see them come over to remove the ancient wooden posts, thinking they would bury the wires. But no, they put in brand new wooden posts!!! Couldn't believe it. I am sure part of the reason is that they lease the posts to wireless companies for cell transceivers.

I am not aware of cell transceivers on wooden poles. Do they do that anywhere?

ATT has hinted they might use pole right of ways to put in high speed wireless internet that runs point to point along poles. Don't know of it in use anywhere. Wish they would bring it to my house to replace the DSL connection.

Contrary to popular belief below ground lines aren't less likely to take damage from lightning. While they aren't as effected by wind and ice they can be damaged by flooding. They also according to the industry age faster than lines on poles. Replacing and repairing them is far more expensive and time consuming. So the bottom line seems to be if a company keeps its poles clear of trees the cost and reliability overall for lines on poles is better. Not to mention in my community with everything below ground, the next door neighbor's power lines shorted to ground last year. The short was under my driveway. They had ways to run a parallel line that didn't require digging up my concrete driveway. It did include digging up most of my front yard along the edge of the road. A pole would have been restrung in a couple hours.

 

[NorthSky]

Wireless is the future.

Irma is like a huge bucket siphoning the water from the ocean and emptying it on land.
I bet the 8.1 earthquake in Mexico, with @ least 100 deaths, had something to do with all the power and shaking from Harvey, Irma, Jose and Katia.

 

[RayDunzl]

Couldn't believe it.

When you dig a hole in the sand in Florida you hit more sand.

I stayed at a hunting lodge/ranch on my first Telecom job site in Crawford Colorado.

Saturday morning there were explosions that rattled me out of my slumber.

They were setting new fence posts and using dynamite (?) to blast holes in the rock to set the posts.

I am not aware of cell transceivers on wooden poles.

They might be running their inter-tower fiber on poles.

 

[NorthSky]

https://medium.com/@omarmasry/part-...od-the-bad-and-the-downright-ugly-ea483f83fe7

 

[amirm]

I am not aware of cell transceivers on wooden poles. Do they do that anywhere?

Yes, by us! They lease the pole from electric company. See: http://www.aglmediagroup.com/placing-small-cells-on-wooden-electric-distribution-poles/

You are probably thinking of the dedicated towers that host multiple operator ones. Those do go on steel structures.

 

[amirm]

https://medium.com/@omarmasry/part-...od-the-bad-and-the-downright-ugly-ea483f83fe7

As you see there and it happened by us, when they replaced the posts, they put in much taller ones for this specific purpose.

 

[RayDunzl]

They're making progress:

Took a drive to the other house. It has an oak tree in the back yard.

Saw very little damage on the drive - about 5 trees down, only one roof with the blue plastic tarp, none with missing shingles, drove through one instance of standing water where it always floods after a good rain.

Found nothing wrong at the house due to the storm.

Relieved.

Power came back on there about 4am this morning.

---

 

[RayDunzl]

There's a camoflaged cell tower near here.

Looks like a California Coastal Redwood. Something like this:

If it were actually a tree, it would be the only one in the state.

Here's a better idea for here:

http://utilitycamo.com/homepage/

 

[NorthSky]

Those are cool pic ideas Ray.

 

[amirm]

Not a bad idea Ray.

 

[NorthSky]

I was just thinking...how can man control hurricanes in a way to diminish them and send them to places where they would be more beneficial?

Anyone?

If only we could use the tremendous energy they have and turn it against them...something like that. Or, use their power to fill our generators and batteries, when they are over the ocean, without any island around, or boat, and after that simply let them to die when we get all their power inside our electric grids.

Like using our brain to our own advantage, by robbing the tremendous bad energy from natural hurricanes, earthquakes, eruptions, fires, floods, rain, winds, tremendous heat waves, etc., and making our own. ...So that they cannot hurt us anymore when they are empty of their power/energy.

...Like man controlling natural disasters. After all we are the smartest living species on Earth, right? So, why do we not use our brain?

 

[amirm]

I was just thinking...how can man control hurricanes in a way to diminish them and send them to places where they would be more beneficial?

I have often thought about that. I suspect though it will trigger unintended consequences that could be quite damaging. It is a big force of nature to try to control that way.

It could even trigger battles between countries. Imagine if we diffuse one, causing another to form on top of another country and kill a bunch of people.

 

[RayDunzl]

11,000 restored this afternoon.

New overall estimate

Not to forget Houston: Start August 25, so 18 days:

 

[iridium]

I have often thought about that. I suspect though it will trigger unintended consequences that could be quite damaging. It is a big force of nature to try to control that way.

It could even trigger battles between countries. Imagine if we diffuse one, causing another to form on top of another country and kill a bunch of people.

Or the one where we spend 100s of billions of dollars building dams; OOPs, dams are bad = Tear Them Down - Blow Them UP
Just can not win.

iridium.

 

[amirm]

Florida Power and Light just said on CNN that they hope to get power to half the customers who lost it by tomorrow.

They also said that they made sure after the last hurricane that their major feeder lines were protected with concrete and that worked. So restoration is faster.

 

[RayDunzl]

I only saw one crew on my trip today.

Oddly enough, they were working on the side of the big road with a concrete poled 3 phase mid-high voltage feeder.

Maybe here: https://www.google.com/maps/@27.846...4!1s0_tPvWH-3jLl3UFioBYZ7w!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

Looking harder, they seem to have a steel/concrete pole then 3 or 4 wooden ones then another steel/concrete along that line. Strength then cheap support then strength again.

---

Overhead power transmission lines are classified in the electrical power industry by the range of voltages:

• Low voltage (LV) – less than 1000 volts, used for connection between a residential or small commercial customer and the utility.
• Medium voltage (MV; distribution) – between 1000 volts (1 kV) and 69 kV, used for distribution in urban and rural areas.
• High voltage (HV; subtransmission less than 100 kV; subtransmission or transmission at voltages such as 115 kV and 138 kV), used for sub-transmission and transmission of bulk quantities of electric power and connection to very large consumers.
• Extra high voltage (EHV; transmission) – over 230 kV, up to about 800 kV, used for long distance, very high power transmission.
• Ultra high voltage (UHV) – higher than 800 kV.

 

[NorthSky]

I have often thought about that. I suspect though it will trigger unintended consequences that could be quite damaging. It is a big force of nature to try to control that way.

It could even trigger battles between countries. Imagine if we diffuse one, causing another to form on top of another country and kill a bunch of people.

OK Amir, we let them be then. ...Like the search of the origin of the universe, with the Large Hadron Collider (LHC).

Science is to experiment. Music is to compose sweet melodies. Living is to be prepared @ any kind of menace and protect humanity (all human life) and work towards saving our planet. ...To protect and serve. No one was born with a hurricane above his/her head. ...Not many anyway.

If man has no control on natural disasters in his own home, Earth, what is he good for then, invest in the stock market?

 

[NorthSky]

▪ http://www.cnn.com/2017/09/12/opinions/power-grid-underground-opinion-anderson/index.html
▪ http://www.cnn.com/2017/09/12/opinions/prisoners-pet-irma-opinion-jones-jackson/index.html
▪ http://www.cnn.com/videos/weather/2017/09/12/residents-return-home-after-irma-lah-dnt-ebof.cnn