Thunderstorms & Power Outages

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Last night, some pretty heavy thunderstorms moved through upstate NY. This is my first summer living in a rural area, and I noticed that the power was out for almost 12 hours after the storm. Around Albany, it was rare for it to be out for more than 15 minutes at a time.

On my street, there was a bucket truck and a dump truck, along with several smaller trucks doing some type of digging, which I found odd since the power lines are overhead. I asked the flagger how severe the outage was, but he had no idea.

This is the second time in a week I've been without power. The first time happened on a perfectly clear night without any wind. I personally don't mind outages, but I can see how people who aren't used to this kind of thing might panic after a while.
 
Where I live in rural Illinois we had two very bad ice storms about three years apart. This took out almost all the poles and old copper wires. They replaced the wire with a heavier aluminum one and put the new poles closer together.

It's much better now and when we do loose power they know immediately due to the two way meters we have. I can even look online to see when and how many outages I've had since they put the meters in.

But when the wind blows down miles of feeder lines for the local area it has been three days sometimes. Bad news in the winter with 0F temps and wind. Best to have a generator and one that runs on propane.
 
Here in the Richmond area people are still getting their power back on (98% plus have their power back). Very strong line of thunderstorms knocked out power to 250k people in the Richmond area. It happens everywhere.

In 2003 after hurricane Isabel there were 2 million plus in the state of Va alone who had lost power. It took some areas 3 weeks plus to get their power back. So if you live in a rural area and truly need power.... get a strong generator and large fuel capacity tank.

Shoz is right on... especially about the propane. Ohh and ice storms even get us here in southeast Virginia. But up in northern NY it can be brutal... aka ice storm of 98 I believe. 4-5 inches of freezing rain took down large transmission lines in the St. Lawrence valley.
 
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I think many people aren't prepared for power outages. Our local PD bemoans the fact that if power is out for more than a minute people are calling them frantically and swamping their dispatchers demanding to know when it will be back on. Even if it's not thunderstorms, lots of other things can cause them. A truck took out a utility pole last year and left about 1/4 of the city without power for about an hour.
 
My apt is on the south end of Joliet, IL. Almost every time it storms our power goes out. I'm just kind of curious as to why it only seems to go out in this particular area, while it rarely seems to go out in surrounding areas such as New Lennox, Plainfield, Romeoville, Chest Hill, etc...
 
Where in Upstate NY? My parents live north of Utica and it's not uncommon for the power to go out for a few hours after a storm. When they first moved to that house in 2006, I remember the power would go out for probably 30 minutes every day. This was for a year or so.

When I moved to Syracuse, I am really surprised that in 5 years I have only lost power once. It does help that I am on the same grid as the hospitals - though, everyone else on my street is on a different power grid. Really strange. The last few times others by me have lost power, I have had it - and my apartment complex was the only one with light
 
Part of your power bill includes a charge for keeping your grid connection working. You're entitled to a rebate if it's out for more than a brief period. Your state Public Utilities Commission can enforce this requirement and the more people the utility has to provide a refund to when the power is out the quicker they will upgrade the system. Lightning protection and back up interconnections are not cheap, but they do work.
 
That's one reason why when we built our home we had a whole house generator installed, and the underground propane tank sized so that we could run the generator, furnace, dryer, etc. should we have an extended outage in the middle of winter.

In the 20 years we've been here we've had a few extended outages during ice/blizzards that have made the generator well worth it. Even in the summer when it goes out from a thunderstorm it's nice not to worry about the freezer or refrigerators.
 
Originally Posted By: Miller88
Where in Upstate NY? My parents live north of Utica and it's not uncommon for the power to go out for a few hours after a storm. When they first moved to that house in 2006, I remember the power would go out for probably 30 minutes every day. This was for a year or so.

When I moved to Syracuse, I am really surprised that in 5 years I have only lost power once. It does help that I am on the same grid as the hospitals - though, everyone else on my street is on a different power grid. Really strange. The last few times others by me have lost power, I have had it - and my apartment complex was the only one with light


I'm on the Great Sacandaga Lake (reservoir.) My house is about 8 miles north of the lake on the Sacandaga River/Stony Creek tributary.
 
Originally Posted By: Pop_Rivit
That's one reason why when we built our home we had a whole house generator installed, and the underground propane tank sized so that we could run the generator, furnace, dryer, etc. should we have an extended outage in the middle of winter.

In the 20 years we've been here we've had a few extended outages during ice/blizzards that have made the generator well worth it. Even in the summer when it goes out from a thunderstorm it's nice not to worry about the freezer or refrigerators.


My stove is propane and I actually lit it with a match this morning to boil water. I also have a gas fireplace downstairs that I could use for heat. There is a stream behind my house I could gather water from and boil if it ever came to that.
 
When we built our semi-rural house 17 years ago there were frequent power outages and we were warned about them numerous times by our neighbors. We're on a pond and are sump-pump dependent (as is everyone else in this area), and indeed during construction the electricity failed multiple times even during what I would call just moderate rainstorms.

Due to that I put in an automatic standby generator but shortly after construction was completed the local utility came through and put in all new feeder lines to our area. Since they did that the electricity has gone out a sum total of maybe 15 minutes in the past 17 years. Even when an F1 tornado hit our town, the electricity was out everywhere except down our road. I couldn't believe it.

So I think the moral is that if you want to improve your electric reliability, install a generator.
 
We put in a 20KW gen set after a storm on the 4th of July a few years ago knocked the power out for 3 days. Since then the utility company has buried a lot of the lines in the frequently damaged spots and things have gotten much better.
 
You need to evaluate your house to see if a generator is warranted. Summer is not all that much of a deal. But in the winter if loss of power caused pipes to freeze and burst, you will wish you had a generator.

Do you have a well & pump?

I have two 5kw generators I am looking to sell. I am 20 min east of Albany.
 
Originally Posted By: oilpsi2high
Last night, some pretty heavy thunderstorms moved through upstate NY. This is my first summer living in a rural area, and I noticed that the power was out for almost 12 hours after the storm. Around Albany, it was rare for it to be out for more than 15 minutes at a time.

On my street, there was a bucket truck and a dump truck, along with several smaller trucks doing some type of digging, which I found odd since the power lines are overhead. I asked the flagger how severe the outage was, but he had no idea.

This is the second time in a week I've been without power. The first time happened on a perfectly clear night without any wind. I personally don't mind outages, but I can see how people who aren't used to this kind of thing might panic after a while.


Rural America = third world infrastructure. It used to inconvenience me but I've lowered my expectations about electric supply, water quality, cell phone coverage and internet service. Gave up on the idea of landline phone a long time ago.

Once your expectations are low, it doesn't bother you any more.
 
Nebraska is the only state that has public power generation, transmission and distribution. We have no investor owned utilities(IOUs). The REA depression era program to put individuals to work electrifying rural America was enormously successful and helped change farm life forever. Our town of 23,000 is the headquarters of the Nebraska Public Power District, Loup Power District and Cornhusker Public Power.I have found these REA systems to be very reliable and well maintained and managed. In the last seventeen years I can only recall two instances where we were without power. An ice storm New Year Day 2007 took down hundreds of miles or transmission lines, and a squirrel managed to take down our local switch yard around 2012. REA public power, only way to go.
 
Originally Posted By: oilpsi2high
Originally Posted By: Miller88
Where in Upstate NY? My parents live north of Utica and it's not uncommon for the power to go out for a few hours after a storm. When they first moved to that house in 2006, I remember the power would go out for probably 30 minutes every day. This was for a year or so.

When I moved to Syracuse, I am really surprised that in 5 years I have only lost power once. It does help that I am on the same grid as the hospitals - though, everyone else on my street is on a different power grid. Really strange. The last few times others by me have lost power, I have had it - and my apartment complex was the only one with light


I'm on the Great Sacandaga Lake (reservoir.) My house is about 8 miles north of the lake on the Sacandaga River/Stony Creek tributary.


Neat! There's some really interesting documentaries about the people who used to live outside of Northville but were forced into the woods a bit when the reservoir was built. I have drove around the reservoir a few times - my father's family is from Wells so we are out that way occasionally
 
Originally Posted By: grampi
My apt is on the south end of Joliet, IL. Almost every time it storms our power goes out. I'm just kind of curious as to why it only seems to go out in this particular area, while it rarely seems to go out in surrounding areas such as New Lennox, Plainfield, Romeoville, Chest Hill, etc...
I would bet it's overhead lines in Joliet vs. buried lines in the other places listed -- they had a ton of new development and with that comes buried utilities.
 
Originally Posted By: Miller88
Originally Posted By: oilpsi2high
Originally Posted By: Miller88
Where in Upstate NY? My parents live north of Utica and it's not uncommon for the power to go out for a few hours after a storm. When they first moved to that house in 2006, I remember the power would go out for probably 30 minutes every day. This was for a year or so.

When I moved to Syracuse, I am really surprised that in 5 years I have only lost power once. It does help that I am on the same grid as the hospitals - though, everyone else on my street is on a different power grid. Really strange. The last few times others by me have lost power, I have had it - and my apartment complex was the only one with light


I'm on the Great Sacandaga Lake (reservoir.) My house is about 8 miles north of the lake on the Sacandaga River/Stony Creek tributary.


Neat! There's some really interesting documentaries about the people who used to live outside of Northville but were forced into the woods a bit when the reservoir was built. I have drove around the reservoir a few times - my father's family is from Wells so we are out that way occasionally


I love how anything north of NYC is upstate. Including Clifton Park region, where I was from. [Been too long to remember much of the area, moved long before I started driving.]

My mother's family is up in Plattsburgh. Now that is upstate! I drove I87 from Newburg to Plattsburgh one fall day, very scenic once I got past Albany--but a long drive.
 
Originally Posted By: supton
Originally Posted By: Miller88
Originally Posted By: oilpsi2high
Originally Posted By: Miller88
Where in Upstate NY? My parents live north of Utica and it's not uncommon for the power to go out for a few hours after a storm. When they first moved to that house in 2006, I remember the power would go out for probably 30 minutes every day. This was for a year or so.

When I moved to Syracuse, I am really surprised that in 5 years I have only lost power once. It does help that I am on the same grid as the hospitals - though, everyone else on my street is on a different power grid. Really strange. The last few times others by me have lost power, I have had it - and my apartment complex was the only one with light


I'm on the Great Sacandaga Lake (reservoir.) My house is about 8 miles north of the lake on the Sacandaga River/Stony Creek tributary.


Neat! There's some really interesting documentaries about the people who used to live outside of Northville but were forced into the woods a bit when the reservoir was built. I have drove around the reservoir a few times - my father's family is from Wells so we are out that way occasionally


I love how anything north of NYC is upstate. Including Clifton Park region, where I was from. [Been too long to remember much of the area, moved long before I started driving.]

My mother's family is up in Plattsburgh. Now that is upstate! I drove I87 from Newburg to Plattsburgh one fall day, very scenic once I got past Albany--but a long drive.


It must be a regional thing. To me, Binghamton is southern tier. Upstate would be Watertown, Ogdensburg , Plattsburg. Eastern NY is Albany area. I live in Central NY
 
Originally Posted By: Donald
You need to evaluate your house to see if a generator is warranted. Summer is not all that much of a deal. But in the winter if loss of power caused pipes to freeze and burst, you will wish you had a generator.

Do you have a well & pump?

I have two 5kw generators I am looking to sell. I am 20 min east of Albany.



I'm not too worried about it, honestly. If you want though, send me a PM with info on the generator and your asking price.

Thanks.
 
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