Artic blast

blue68f100 · Post by **blue68f100** » Sat Dec 07, 2013 9:13 am

This artic blast basicly shut the DFW area down. The only thing this area has to deal with it is sanding truck, no way to remove sleet and snow. With freezing rain and sleet it blanketed the city. I had over 1/2 of ice on my windshield with the top near 2" think in places. I was one of those without power for ~20 hr. The power went off around 3:30am Friday morning and did not come back on till 11:15pm last night. It made a cold house for the day, low to mid 50's. With the outside temp hovering around the 26F mark. It was 18F when I got up this morning. House nice and warm again

This is the first time in 23yr that I have lived in this house that we have had an extended power outage. The last one wast 15yr ago in the fall and only lasted 4 hr. A transformer at the substation had failed. Normally we do not get power outages in this area. But when these nasty freezing rain and ice storms hit it does cause major problems.

All's good now.......

Hakaman · Post by **Hakaman** » Sat Dec 07, 2013 11:32 am

Having worked at the local electric company here in 'dream town USA' (Detroit), I am familiar with what damage ice storms can cause. Even though it appears that it takes 'forever' in some people's eyes to get their power back, line crews work very hard in hazardous conditions. Much praise they deserve. Here, in the 'garden city' area(Detroit), we have been 'passed over' by the latest storms, it must be because this area is so morally excellent(tongue in cheek)? Hope you get your power back soon, and spring starts early for all.
Haka

blue68f100 · Post by **blue68f100** » Sat Dec 07, 2013 12:13 pm

Were back in the game. With the electricity out we did not have phone service either. Since I have gas heat we did have hot water though. We have the Verizon FO service and the UPS only backups the phone for 2 hr, even though it actually lasted 6 hrs. So all we had was cel phone service in which my battery was low on mine.

The bad thing in this area is most all the tress still had leaves. Our normal avg temp is low 50's this time of year. We went from near 80F (near record high) on Wed down to 26 Thursday. Which means they get all the weight breaking them off. There are a lot of broken tree limbs in my neighborhood. My magnolia tree has lost 5-6 branches. This tree is over 30' tall.

I do know what is involved when it comes to restoring service. When I did work I was one of the guys working with the 134kv and 13.2k feeders. I always hated waling in to the switch yard and the hair on your arm and head stands up. Does not give you that warm fuzzy feeling. Watching the air switches at high was a sight to see. This work very seldom happen on a schedule. When things decide to break it goes then you do what is necessary to get things back on line. It seams to always happen when the weather is the least desirable.

bgreenea3 · Post by **bgreenea3** » Sat Dec 07, 2013 4:19 pm

That last big storm (50-50mph winds) hit this side of the mitten pretty hard. There were a bunch of folks along the lakeshore without power for a week. It was fairly warm though in the 308 most of the time.....

ruger22 · Post by **ruger22** » Mon Dec 09, 2013 12:19 pm

My part of VA lucked out again, just a glaze of ice on everything BUT the streets, and some minor power outages. The one right behind it is supposed to hit MI and New England, so you "lakefront" guys may still get something.........