Call me crazy?

[Senior Ninja]

Hi Everyone,
I was reminded again today of the wisdom of building a "Bug Out" TD from the news out of the Midwest. Seems every winter there's another ice storm disaster some place in the Midwest, this year it's Kentucky's turn. They are asking people to move south into hotels or motels until they can get the power back on. What's wrong with this picture.

And while I'm at it, why isn't there a long term plan to bury power lines in this country? It would seem that with the continued expense of replacing power lines after hurricanes and ice storms it would make sense to bury power lines where ever possible. I don't really know if it's cheaper in the long run or not. Anyone else ask themselves these kinds of questions?
Steve

[Myke]

Crazy

[Jiminsav]

what are you, a lunatic?

as for burying lines..well, it don't ice underground, but a back hoe will surely do just as much.

[Miriam C.]

Hi Everyone,
I was reminded again today of the wisdom of building a "Bug Out" TD from the news out of the Midwest. Seems every winter there's another ice storm disaster some place in the Midwest, this year it's Kentucky's turn. They are asking people to move south into hotels or motels until they can get the power back on. What's wrong with this picture.

And while I'm at it, why isn't there a long term plan to bury power lines in this country? It would seem that with the continued expense of replacing power lines after hurricanes and ice storms it would make sense to bury power lines where ever possible. I don't really know if it's cheaper in the long run or not. Anyone else ask themselves these kinds of questions?
Steve

The TV had a thing on burying cables. Something to the tune of a Million dollars per mile.

[MidTNJasonF]

The area I lived in in the early 90's had underground power, cable, and phone lines. In the really bad Ice storms of 1994 that hit North Mississippi, Tennessee, and Arkansas we were without power for all of about 8 hours. We had people in neighboring town with out power for two, three, or even four weeks.

When a power company is trying to restore service in a rational order they are going to attack the problems that help the most customers first. If they can get an entire neighborhood with several hundred families back on line by fixing one main line they are going to start there. The poor soul at the end of a run out in rural farm land is going to be waiting a long time.

I say it is worth it to bury the lines if it can serve a reasonably large number of people. Heck I would even be willing to pay a slight premium on my electrical bill to pull it off.

As for the Bug out trailer idea well... ten years ago I would have said you were a little off you rocker. The older I get the more I do things I thought crazy only years ago. I now carry a bug out bag in my car. I have some dry stores in the house and a store of drinking water. I keep a few thousand rounds of ammunition and the raw materials to load a few thousand more. This year I am considering redoing my garage and installing a storm shelter there, we have no basements in this area due to rock and next to no top soil. I am also planning on a reverse osmosis water system this year. Compared to all of that a Bug out trailer is not crazy at all. Simply having some basics ready to go at all times in a nice self contained trailer seems like a great idea to me.

[Roly Nelson]

I live in an unusual residential area of about 1000 homes. When they developed this area, all of the utilities were buried below ground. No power poles, no transformers, phone lines, fiber-optic cables, no cable TV wires anywhere. I think is a great idea.

However when ever I was developing a new shopping center, during my working years, the existing underground utilities always posed a problem. Once I cut a 10,000 wire phone cable with a back-hoe which put city blocks out of phone service. No, I didn't get fired, but lots of folks were very upset. I found out that the Underground Service Alert folks sometimes make mistakes resulting in disasters.


Roly, Ex-midwesterner remembering ice storms years ago.

[Alan Wood]

The downside to underground is as Roly mentioned them getting dug up by mistake. The joke in the computer industry is that backhoes are meant for locating data or voice comunications lines not digging!

[Senior Ninja]

Myke and Jimi,

Sorry but you'll have to get in line. I taught school and have heard the claim that I must be crazy an untold number if times. I enjoyed every minute of it and would have stayed if the Department of Education would have allowed me to do what I had been trained to do.

Steve

[Micro469]

I live in an unusual residential area of about 1000 homes. When they developed this area, all of the utilities were buried below ground. No power poles, no transformers, phone lines, fiber-optic cables, no cable TV wires anywhere. I think is a great idea.

However when ever I was developing a new shopping center, during my working years, the existing underground utilities always posed a problem. Once I cut a 10,000 wire phone cable with a back-hoe which put city blocks out of phone service. No, I didn't get fired, but lots of folks were very upset. I found out that the Underground Service Alert folks sometimes make mistakes resulting in disasters.


Roly, Ex-midwesterner remembering ice storms years ago.

I don't see what's unusual about that. Up here ALL new residential, commercial, and manufacturing centers all have underground service. Heck everything is put underground. The trick is....when you're gonna dig, call these services first and they will come and map where their services are......

I'd love to have them come and bury the hydro lines on my street. They come every few years and trim the trees around the lines, all these beautifull maples now have a huge Y carved out of the center of them......