RE: Linemen Are Always Wired Up

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Linemen Are Always Wired Up

in hurricanes •  6 years ago 

Well, in most cases the short piece from the side walk to the house is not such a big expense. With a modern cable laying machine you can do 50 or 60 yards per hour, with 2 people operating the thing. A distance like at your house is almost nothing. How far is that? Perhaps 50 ft?
And the durability... As I said, they last many decades. And earthquakes, really? If there is a earthquake strong enough to damage the cable in the ground, then the house doesn't need electricity anymore, I guess. :)

So you had a storm in Noble County as well? Or a tornado?
I hope nobody got hurt, like in the Hurricanes.
I think with the increasing number of such occurances, it would really make sense to introduce changes in traditional ways of doing things. Like underground cables, and building houses in a different way. It may cost more initially, but it could prove to be cheaper than coping with such extensive damage ever so often.

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Earthquakes are notorious for damaging underground utilities, even when there's not much damage above ground. Settling and shifting problems ... it is the earth quaking, after all. Humans have a bad habit of building on landfill areas.

We had a straight line wind storm, accompanying one of those powerful cold fronts that come in from Canada (all too often, in winter). We had wind gusts up to around 60 mph. I didn't hear any report of the wind blowing utility lines down; but the wind blows down trees, which fall on utility lines, with the same results. Hey: Maybe we could bury the trees! :-) No, I suspect that solution would do more harm than good.

Well, may be in regions like California or Alaska earthquakes would be a considerable risk, but not everywhere in the US. I mean you dont have your water pipes mounted on poles either, do you.

Yeah, we are getting into that time of the year with the cold fronts again. I wonder how it will be here this time. We had the most incredible summer ever this year, 6 month of sunshine every day, hardly any rain. I bet it was the warmest summer ever here. Well, at least since before that asteroid wiped out the dinosaurs, and we had a tropical rain forest in Germany.

Can't mount water pipes on poles--they'd freeze. Well, plus they're too heavy.

Actually, most of America is at risk for earthquakes, especially the entire west coast and the entire midwest, which was the site of one of the worst earthquakes in US history. The east coast has also had earthquakes, but not so bad. I was going to say Wyoming's probably safe, but there are frequent earthquakes up around Yellowstone National Park. I suppose northern Michigan is probably safe. I've had nightmares about an earthquake hitting during a blizzard.

Our summer was a little cooler than average, and so far autumn has been way cooler. Fingers crossed ... maybe winter will turn around and be warmer.

No kiddiing, I never thought of that... :)
Of course I just said it as a analogy, because, how many water pipes in the ground get damaged by quakes in the US every year? Well, in the US other than southern California, Hawaii and similar active areas? No that many, I would guess.

Well, the summer here has finally come to an end now. It all feels pretty weird - the sudden drop in temperatures, the changing of the clocks, and that its soon christmas season already. Reminds me a bit of my visit in Brasil, which was just after christmas. Thats the high summer time there, with temparatures way into the 90s every day. And in the shopping mall they had Santas sleigh with the rendeers and christmas trees with artificial snow as decorations. It seems somehow absurd, when you stand in front of it in shorts and flip-flops... :)

I remember seeing a TV show once set in Southern California, in which the main character complained when he saw a Santa standing there in red shorts and flip-flops. What would the kids think? The Santa replied, what would the kids think if they saw Santa laid out with heat stroke? :-)

Well, I guess he's got a point there... :)