Sandy

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ATSman

ATSman

ATSman
Location
San Francisco Bay Area
Occupation
Electrical Engineer/ Electrical Testing & Controls Retired 2025
I have heard that the storm Sandy is unprecedented and the effects will be long lasting.
It would be interesting to hear from members all along the East coast about how it is affecting them first hand.
 
Here in the Philly suburbs, we had some power outages but not as bad as expected. Lots of trees down. Two guys in the office were out for a couple of days.

My wife was counting the number of times our power went out. During the worst of the storm (Monday afternoon for us) we had 12 outages of short duration. It would flicker a little, then go off and come back on in 30 seconds like clockwork. I figure there was a tree branch blowing against a line somewhere and excercising the recloser. It never went off and stayed off.

So far, only one of my clients has inquired about upgrades to his generator.
 
I have several crews loading up right now to head up there. How is the availability of lodging, diesel fuel, etc???? NJ coast is where this group is headed.
 
Depends on which shore point. Obviously the closer the stay the harder it is. Southern shore points you can find hotels and fuel 20 minutes inland I think the northern shore you may have to go a little further. Most of the hotels are price gouging, in fact there was just a piece on the news where they got a hotel owner admitting he was charging almost double to displaced victims. Northern shore points there are still a lot of gas lines, I've heard of a hand full limiting gas not sure about diesel. There is always the base for large quantities but you need to call a few days in advance If you have a lot of equipment. You may be better off having it delivered. If you have more then 20 guys I would look into bunk houses simply because it could be a logistical nightmare putting them all in different places.
 
DISASTER RECOVERY

DISASTER RECOVERY

Yeah we have gotten calls from Siemens and Eaton for manpower support back east but problem is most of our guys
are older and will not travel. We tell them send your young techs and we will pick up the local slack back in CA:D. Ha!
 
Still No Power

Still No Power

I am located in northwest NJ and as of this writting we still have no power. We have more trees down than I can count taking poles and wires with them. I am a volunteer firefighter and we spent the day after the storm cutting trees so we could gain access to our response area. Wires were moved to the sides of the road and caution tape put around them. Saw the first line crews in our area yesterday from Ohio Edison. We got hit bad but not as bad as the shore areas. Thanks to all the linemen coming from around the country to lend a hand.
 
I haven't paid too close attention to news lately, but what has weather been like for the guys trying to restore things? Sometimes that is just as much of a problem as the restoration itself. Still early enough in the year that maybe the weather has not been much of an issue. If this would have happend a month later the risk of a blizzard on top of everything else goes up dramatically.
 
kwired said:
I haven't paid too close attention to news lately, but what has weather been like for the guys trying to restore things? Sometimes that is just as much of a problem as the restoration itself. Still early enough in the year that maybe the weather has not been much of an issue. If this would have happend a month later the risk of a blizzard on top of everything else goes up dramatically.
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Up until last night, not so bad. This morning the thermometer was showing 27F. It's been brisk all day and getting colder again. I have people at work with temps in the house now going south of 50F. Well, at least the food will keep in a deck box now. :thumbsdown:
 
gadfly56 said:
Up until last night, not so bad. This morning the thermometer was showing 27F. It's been brisk all day and getting colder again. I have people at work with temps in the house now going south of 50F. Well, at least the food will keep in a deck box now. :thumbsdown:
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Once a house drops below 50F it is just cold in there. You can go outdoors in 50F and be comfortable, but when it gets below that indoors, it just seems like it will never be warm again. You have to remain active or you are cold.
 
If anything, this storm showed us how robust renewable energy technologies are.

?In terms of renewable energy, it can certainly help the grid come back quickly from weather situations like Hurricane Sandy,? said Carol Murphy, executive director, Alliance for Clean Energy New York. ?It can take nuclear plants a week or more to come back online. Wind and solar, like other generators, do shut down during extreme weather conditions, but they can be back up and produce power quickly.?
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Source: http://www.renewableenergyworld.com...th-and-simplicity-of-renewable-energy-systems
 
Skelufteay said:
If anything, this storm showed us how robust renewable energy technologies are.



Source: http://www.renewableenergyworld.com...th-and-simplicity-of-renewable-energy-systems
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Having generation working is one thing, customers still don't have any power if distribution is all torn up.

There are some truths in there, but anything man makes is vulnerable to mother nature, she is much more powerful. I doubt there is enough generation available from wind or solar to power the normal load should all other generation fail, that just adds to the complexity of just what is the best method to generate power.
 
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kwired said:
Having generation working is one thing, customers still don't have any power if distribution is all torn up.
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Yep, several plants are currently shut down because there was not enough demand on the grid to keep them running due to the damage to infrastructure.
 
kwired said:
Having generation working is one thing, customers still don't have any power if distribution is all torn up.

There are some truths in there, but anything man makes is vulnerable to mother nature, she is much more powerful. I doubt there is enough generation available from wind or solar to power the normal load should all other generation fail, that just adds to the complexity of just what is the best method to generate power.
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Agreed. I didn't mean it as a "let's only build renewables because they survive storms better" but more of an interesting fact that they can be used (in future applications) for critical loads. Like ... having a solar field that can shift to produce power for a medical facility after a large storm or even a few fridges of medicine that would go bad otherwise. I realize underground generators can do the same thing, but in the far future we may not have fossile fuels. Everything has to start somewhere, even if it is a little step :)

The key to energy is several types of generation. I belive that no matter how awesome a source is, there will need to be several types to cover several scenarios.
 
gadfly56 said:
Okay, c'mon!! Why don't you put up a couple dozen 150 meter windmills in Florida right next to 10-20 acres of solar panels (A.K.A. horizontal sails), push a Cat 1 hurricane over them, and come back and tell us how they made out?
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You think they would melt down? Maybe release a small amount of radioactive material like what happened in the Salem Nuke plant during Hurricane Sandy? Or just blow away? Which is worse?
 
Gold said:
You think they would melt down? Maybe release a small amount of radioactive material like what happened in the Salem Nuke plant during Hurricane Sandy? Or just blow away? Which is worse?
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Have you ever used a geiger counter to see how much background radiation you are exposed to in your own back yard? Radioactive material is everywhere.
 
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