Factbox: Over a million without power on U.S. East Coast and Texas due to winter storms
Source: Reuters
Dec 23 (Reuters) - More than a million homes and businesses were without power on the U.S. East Coast, Midwest and Texas on Friday as winter storms battered much of the country, according to data from PowerOutage.us.
Most outages were in North Carolina, with over 164,000 customers without power, followed by Virginia with over 92,000 and Connecticut with more than 89,000. More than a dozen other states east of the Mississippi River plus Oregon, Washington state, Missouri, Louisiana and Arkansas west of the Mississippi River each have more than 10,000 customers facing outages due to winter storms.
Leading into the holiday weekend, the storm is expected to bring blizzard conditions to the Great Lakes region, heavy rains followed by a flash freeze on the East Coast, wind gusts of 60 miles per hour (100 km per hour) and bitter cold as far south as the U.S.-Mexico border.
Georgia joined North Carolina and Kentucky this week in declaring states of emergency. Temperatures in northern Georgia were forecast to hit just 10 degrees Fahrenheit (-12 Celsius) with subzero wind chills.
Read more: https://www.reuters.com/world/us/over-300000-without-power-us-east-coast-texas-due-winter-storms-2022-12-23/
It just started snowing here in Philly as the arctic cold front has come through and is changing the rain we have been having to sleet and snow.
AllaN01Bear
(18,669 posts)FakeNoose
(32,854 posts)Siwsan
(26,315 posts)It looks like we will have some snow showers, through tomorrow, but nothing significant. It's hard to tell how much fell because the wind is blowing so hard but it's a far cry from the 7+ inches that were in the forecast.
I just checked the Consumer Energy outage page and it doesn't look as if the wind is doing much damage to power lines. Maybe that strong storm, this summer, removed the vulnerable trees and limbs.
The temperatures are brutal. It's 7 in Flint, right now, with a -14 wind chill factor.
multigraincracker
(32,744 posts)They have been cutting limbs and clearing right of ways like crazy. It has paid off.
Siwsan
(26,315 posts)They made a big improvement in Flint Township after the 2013 ice storm. That was a 6 day outage. The one this Summer lasted 23 hours, for me, and there was a whole lot of damage in the area.
I think they did some tree trimming in my brother's back yard, earlier in the week. Good timing.
multigraincracker
(32,744 posts)Ive never had more than 1/2 hour. Pretty rare for all the weather we get.
tavernier
(12,410 posts)in Jackson Michigan. We were without power for two weeks. Fireplace soot and candle wax drippings all over the house. Two months later we moved to Florida full time.
AllaN01Bear
(18,669 posts)the pg and e is clearing row and it should be the utilities issue. good on the coustomers though.
Dr. T
(97 posts)assured Texans that the Texas power grid is in robust condition and they have nothing to fear. If you're in Texas, be afraid, be very afraid.
jimfields33
(16,070 posts)One of the Main job is keep lights on. Big fail all over the country.
yardwork
(61,748 posts)Most of us here in NC are served by Duke Energy. It's not like Texas's system. When the front came through yesterday, after days of rain softening the ground, trees came down. That tore down power lines. I know the folks at Duke Energy are working around the clock in very cold temperatures to get the lines back up.
Blaming this on our governor would be like blaming Biden for this storm.
jimfields33
(16,070 posts)Thats really how all states should run the lines. Saves tons of money. Maybe someday they will.
yardwork
(61,748 posts)If it were, Florida would never have any power.
jimfields33
(16,070 posts)obamanut2012
(26,180 posts)We lose it all the time, snf many places have aboveground power lines.
Texaswitchy
(2,962 posts)Abbott is sorry .
Wood stove , solar and wind
I admire that.
Texaswitchy
(2,962 posts)Now it is much easier now .
Worth every dime.
You have to think about as a investment.
ananda
(28,891 posts)...
LeftInTX
(25,719 posts)The worst cold was last night into this morning.
I worry more about summer
Igel
(35,383 posts)Shifting winds, sort of like before a hurricane. The winds picked up later afternoon. Around sundown the temperature started to drop really fast. I spent the day harvesting the greens in my garden--edible chrysanthemum, bok choy, tatsai, napa cabbage. (They're all frost hardy and like the weather this time of year.)
They all needed a couple more weeks, vortices usually head this way mid-January to mid-February, not mid-late December. Not done blanching them all yet. Yuck. (Hoping the turnips and Korean radishes pull through.)
BumRushDaShow
(129,876 posts)but then your area is under a Hard Freeze Warning and that could generate some mush (unless you have some heavy frost blankets to give you a few degrees of protection.
Texaswitchy
(2,962 posts)Solar and wind running the heaters and light.
So far the vegetables are ok
BumRushDaShow
(129,876 posts)Texaswitchy
(2,962 posts)Being tested right now.
It is warm in the tunnel.
Some wild birds are in the tunnel..
Left them bird seed and water ..
Must have got in yesterday.
EarthFirst
(2,905 posts)Thankfully the standby crews were ready to address the outage and had things working again within the hour
We had one surge since then; so far so good.
I worry for my wife as Im a contractor charged with snow/ice removal; so Im away most times during these difficult weather events.
Shes a superhero tending to the homestead while Im away; I couldnt do it without her!
A quick check in; and Im back at it again
Be safe out there!
wnylib
(21,731 posts)the lights blinked 4 times within 5 minutes and I thought the power would go off, but fortunately it didn't. My city has its own radio stations but they are too conservative for me to listen to most of the time. So I tune in to Buffalo NPR for news and weather since I'm close enough to Buffalo to pick it up. But NPR went off the air here for a while. I wonder if that was the power outage you mentioned.
ificandream
(9,413 posts)CloudWatcher
(1,851 posts)[rant on]... due to winter storms AND really crappy & cheap power distribution networks. [rant off]
Sorry but the power going out is entirely expected when you build a cheap network. Don't just blame it on the weather like there's nothing that could be done differently.
Edit to add some context ... putting power lines underground for protection:
One article, https://www.anelectricalengineer.com/underground-power-distribution-system/
11 Bravo
(23,928 posts)AllaN01Bear
(18,669 posts)subject
(118 posts)IbogaProject
(2,853 posts)I'm in Manhattan at least 60 feet above sea-level, the Mrs got a notify about flooding on FDR highway by 111st uptown. rain mostly dried b4 it dropped below freezing. there are some puddles so that will be frozen awhile.
I hope my Mom's house by Philly has power. I'd hopefully hear from one neighbor if there are blackouts.
Dysfunctional
(452 posts)Rhiannon12866
(206,594 posts)But now, the temperatures are rapidly dropping and there are still high winds. It's unusual in these parts because the wires are underground - I think the last time we lost power here was during Hurricane Irene in September 2011 which caused power outages and devastating damage here in Northern New York and Vermont much more than Hurricane Sandy ever did.
LudwigPastorius
(9,233 posts)Belize? The Bahamas? French Polynesia?
JohnnyRingo
(18,673 posts)At -4 degrees it really got my attention.
Need a plan, just in case.
twodogsbarking
(9,885 posts)So far so good where we live. Centra Pennsavayna.
Lars39
(26,117 posts)Ten minutes every 2 hrs.
DemocraticPatriot
(4,500 posts)(our power is pretty reliable),
but none-the-less I recharged my deep-cycle batteries,
(which I own for another purpose altogether, lol),
and put fresh batteries into my little lanterns...
(I already had some water stored),
and turned up the thermostat in the house, so that it would take longer to get cold if power did go out
(I am in the habit of running the heat very low in the winter, and just dressing more warmly in the house, to save money on natural gas...)
cleaning out the driveway was a bitch, I finished it today, but it is still snowing.
Luckily today the temperature came up to 18 degrees, from 6 yesterday.... but it is still bad to catch the snow in your face from the wind
Merry Christmas all!
mnhtnbb
(31,411 posts)unannounced on Saturday.
I'm in Durham, NC. Saturday am I was having coffee at 6:15 am, thanking my lucky stars that I was in a new development with underground power when my power went out. WTF? We'd had wind gusts of 40-50 mph on Friday and the wind was about 15 mph when the power went out Saturday.
About two hours later we began to hear about the unannounced rolling blackouts. Mine lasted three hours. After the power came back on, 45 minutes later my furnace stopped working. At least half a dozen of my neighbors experienced the same thing. Turned out to be insufficiently insulated condensation lines in our attics running from the furnace, which had frozen. One of my neighbor's put a sensor in his attic which registered 16 degrees on Saturday. Outside it was 10 degrees.
I'll be calling my HVAC guy on Tuesday to set up an appointment to come remedy that problem, no thanks to the builder since I'm past the builder's one year warranty.
It was so windy here Friday that it blew over a wrought iron glider love seat on my covered porch!