I thought some of you might be interested in seeing the tremendous damage that the December 18th snowstorm inflicted in the area I live. I was without TV for 5 days so I don't know how much of this was shown and/or reported on nationally. There is a lot of blame to go around for the fact that many power line right of ways were not properly maintained which worsened an uncontrollable situation but Mother Nature showed she can shut down your normal way of life if she desires. Some people affiliated with the electric companies compared the devastation (strictly speaking about the devastation to the power grid) to Hurricane Katrina. Check out the photos. http://www.flickr.com/photos/apcophotos/sets/72157622926250061/show/
That's pretty amazing. With Ike we had a lot of power line problems and I was without power for 5 days some for as long as 2 weeks. Some in newer neighborhoods with underground utilities no power loss. There has been a lot of discussion about planing for the future with underground utilities for the whole city. Problem is that it's incredibly expensive and would require rather large bond float or a significant tax increase. I doubt if it ever gets done. Maybe somebody will come up with indestructable power poles. I wonder why we still use wood?
Some pretty incredible pics of storm damage Aquila, doesn't look like a whole lotta fun. I can vouch its no fun losing electricity for days (13 days in Hurricane Charley) on end but can't imagine doing that in freezing weather...Brrrr.... There's been a lot of talk about underground cables here in Florida as well but like Terry said its too expensive at this time. RC
You probably didn't even get a Presidential flyover. Come to think of it, Obama was in Denmark at the global warming conf. and missed another major snowstorm.
That storm originated near my home in Western North Carolina. It was bad here but didn't compare to what it was as it moved Northeast. I almost didn't make the trip, but on the Sat after that storm we did drive over to Eastern Tenn where my son lives. First we went to the Asheville Airport to pick up one of our grandsons. It was amazing just how much things changed in the 60 mile drive to Asheville. The snow was much worse and affected a lot more. On a 9 mile stretch of road on I 26 from I 40 to the Asheville Airport we counted 47 cars that had been abandoned from the night before. And a number had already been removed. I know it got even worse as it worked it's way north.