More than a million in the dark and cold

[malaise]

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/W/WINTER_STORM?SITE=OHCOL&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT
<snip>
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) -- Well over a million people shivered in ice-bound homes across the country Wednesday, waiting for warmer weather and for utility crews to restring power lines brought down by a storm that killed 23 as it took a snowy, icy journey from the Southern Plains to the East Coast. But with temperatures plunging, utility officials warned that it could be mid-February before electricity is restored to some of the hardest-hit places. The worst of the power failures were in Kentucky, Arkansas and Ohio.

Just getting to their source was difficult for utility crews. Ice-encrusted tree limbs and power lines blocked glazed roads, and cracking limbs pierced the air like popping gunfire as they snapped.

In Kentucky, National Guard soldiers were dispatched to remove the debris. Oklahoma, already struggling to restore power there, planned to send crews to help in Arkansas later in the week.

"It looks like a tornado came through, but there wasn't a path; it was everywhere," said Mel Coleman, the chief executive officer of the North Arkansas Electric Cooperative in Salem. The power is out at his house, too, and he spent Tuesday night in a chair at his office.

The storm was "worse than we ever imagined," he said.

[begin_within]

1. How soon 'til Limbaugh and the pukes label this "Obama's first failure?"

[originalpckelly]

2. Our national infrastructure is a disgrace.

Why aren't we using underground cable trunks to send electrical power? Oh I know, we'd have to invest in it, but it seems that it might cost less in the long run repairing these shitty things every time the winds blows/ice falls from the sky.

And overhead lines are an eyesore. If we could at least get it down to putting them in cable trunks in residential neighborhoods, with lines over long distance, we could still manage to kill a lot of the eyesore/vulnerability of them.

[ConcernedCanuk]

6. Putting Hydro underground - really! - we put water and sewers underground don't we?

.
.
.

why not put the hydro line underground too?

initial cost may be more than overhead,

but maintenance would be - hmmm

let me think

ZERO?

gee

AND

think of the land use benefits

whole tracts of cleared land just for hydro lines could be used for

hmm

HOUSING / FARMING

gee - another strange use for land.

We can put pipelines for oil and gas underground coast to coast

why not electricity?

[TayTay]

3. I am so sorry for those folks who are suffering through this

I went through the ice storm in New England last December and it was awful.

I hope the power comes back on soon.

[Autumn Colors]

4. Southern Missouri

One of my transcriptionists (I own a tiny medical transcription company) lives in Southern Missouri and lost her power yesterday morning. She JUST got a generator to use, but her entire town is going to be without power for several weeks.

She said her town looks like a war zone. Every limb on every tree in her yard came down and one went through the side of the house and is pressing on the inside wall of one of the bedrooms.

Our snow turned to rain this afternoon and now it's all freezing up. I hope I don't wake up to no power in the morning. I'm in Northwestern Connecticut.

[malaise]

5. Damn that is bad

Stay safe and warm. :grouphug: