Hurricane Sandy Outages

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SIRSPARKSALOT

Member
Location
Northern NJ
I live in NJ and I was without power for 6 days and 4 hours.

I know of people who are still out and the POCO told them to expect another week.:jawdrop:

A friend of mine was almost in tears when I hooked him up with a generator after he was out for three days.

It was really bad this time!
 
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ASG

Senior Member
Location
Work in NYC
Occupation
Electrical Engineer, PE
I was on yesterday for 5 hours until we noticed smoke coming from the basement. Guess the switches and trough wasn't completely dry or free of salt water so the POCO shut us off. They just turned the juice on without checking anything so I wouldn't be surprised if I heard about a ton of electrical fires over the next few days.
 
Dennis Alwon

Dennis Alwon

Moderator
Staff member
Location
Chapel Hill, NC
Occupation
Retired Electrical Contractor
My uncle and cousins who live at Breezy Point were told yesterday that they should not expect to be allowed back until April. :thumbsdown: That's an incredible amount of time to be washed out of their homes.

Now a nor'easter is going to drop a snowstorm on the city. EEks
 
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ASG

Senior Member
Location
Work in NYC
Occupation
Electrical Engineer, PE
Dennis Alwon said:
My uncle and cousins who live at Breezy Point were told yesterday that they should not expect to be allowed back until April. :thumbsdown: That's an incredible amount of time to be washed out of their homes.
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Breezy Point? Ouch. They are lucky they have a home to go back to.
 
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Hv&Lv

Senior Member
Location
-
Occupation
Engineer/Technician
ASG said:
They just turned the juice on without checking anything
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Wait, It is the POCO's responsibility to check out all customers services and inside wiring before heating up a distribution line?
 
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ASG

Senior Member
Location
Work in NYC
Occupation
Electrical Engineer, PE
Hv&Lv said:
The smart way to do it would be to turn off your main, and when the power was available, have a licensed electrician check out the wiring for you.
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How would you even know when the power became available if it wasn't ever on? You think they made an announcement somewhere that the power's back? How about somewhere on their main website in bold urging people who have been flooded to go down to their flooded areas and turn off their main?

May be you don't know the chaos of a storm. We just got our basement pumped out (many still aren't) and are surveying the devastation of our storage areas in the dark. Most of us hadn't even ventured back since day 2. You think our top priority is going to be to turn off house panels and distribution disconnects?

I stand by my argument that is the job of the POCO to at least of some kind of verification a flooded area is safe before turning on their power and risking countless electrical fires.
 
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Hv&Lv

Senior Member
Location
-
Occupation
Engineer/Technician
ASG said:
How would you even know when the power became available if it wasn't ever on? You think they made an announcement somewhere that the power's back? How about somewhere on their main website in bold urging people who have been flooded to go down to their flooded areas and turn off their main?

May be you don't know the chaos of a storm. We just got our basement pumped out (many still aren't) and are surveying the devastation of our storage areas in the dark. Most of us hadn't even ventured back since day 2. You think our top priority is going to be to turn off house panels and distribution disconnects?

I stand by my argument that is the job of the POCO to at least of some kind of verification a flooded area is safe before turning on their power and risking countless electrical fires.
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I know the chaos of a storm better than you would imagine. I have traveled and worked MANY of them.
I would say it is the responsibility of the homeowner and the AHJ.

There are arguments for both sides. I have been cussed by some because I wouldn't turn the power back on, and cussed by others because I did. I was cussed once by the same man for doing both.

Next storm, turn the main off. The POCO gets it to the house, it is your responsibility from there.


BTW, the reason we aren't there now is because we aren't union. Apparently they don't need the help that bad...
 
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ASG

Senior Member
Location
Work in NYC
Occupation
Electrical Engineer, PE
We never thought we'd be flooded. That was the thing about this storm, it wasn't the rain, it was the river coming in. We were lucky to be far enough away where only our basement got the worst of it. I don't think anybody in the town was considered to be part of an evacuation zone.

I will just promise this: if they don't change their policy soon, you're going to be hearing about a lot of fires in Hoboken once those substations get up and running.
 
kwired

kwired

Electron manager
Location
NE Nebraska
When there has been flooding around here they may get distribution up quickly, but they can not wait for all customers to be back to normal before energizing the distribution, or you may be waiting months for some people to be ready. You need to get distribution back up and before energizing it disconnect any services that are questionable and come reconnect them when requested to do so. This may mean remove meter, or maybe cut the service drop, or whatever it takes. The next door guy may not have any damage that he can't isolate and wants his power back as soon as possible. Sometimes around here they get distribution up but will not reconnect a service until an inspector or licensed contractor tells them it is safe to energize the service - especially true if there appears to be a lot of damage.
 
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