On 8/29/2011 10:01 PM, rangerssuck wrote:
On Aug 29, 9:26 pm, wrote:
"Ed wrote in message
...
wrote in message
...
http://www.cnn.com/2011/US/08/28/irene.new.jersey/
Street surfing in 'Jersey!
How did it go, Ed?
--Winston
I got some practice on my backstroke in the basement.g This is the
first I've been online, and I'm still on borrowed power.
So...how it went. The wind blew, and stuff flew, and the rain came down.
And down. And down. And down...
My sump pump was handling it well, and I was cleaning up the slurps with
my shop vac until 1:00 AM. Then I laid down for a rest; set the alarm for
3:00 AM.
About 2:00 AM, according to the clocks, a branch from my neighbor's tree
fell across my power, cable, and telephone feeds (the lines are across the
street). All three came down. I woke up around 7:00 AM to find 7 inches of
water in the basement, which wiped out my compressor, several boxes of
tools, my water heater, and God knows what else. I spent hours getting the
water heater pilot tube off (without breaking it), blew out the water, and
eventually got it back together and re-lit. It was making gurgling sounds.
and spitting at me.
I borrowed power from a neighbor, for the sump pump, one light and the
refrigerator. I got the last of the water out this morning. Still no
power. Cable hooked up an hour ago, so I fired up the computer on power
borrowed from my neighbor.
Now I have to get off and re-connect it to the refrigerator.g
No other damage and everyone is well. See you soon.
Oh, if you caught "Good Morning America" this morning around 7: 15 ET,
they had a live feed of a street in NJ with an oak tree around 80 years
old down across the end of a cul-de-sac, with power lines down all over.
That was two doors down from my house. They asked to interview me. Having
been up for 1-1/2 nights with no shower, I declined. d8-)
--
Ed Huntress
Hope you get your power back on soon. My sidewalk was covered in water and I
was paddle boarding down the street. But we never lost power although about
500,000 local utility customers did
I was just in Bergenfield, NJ, and a large section of their business
district is still dark. That's pretty surprising, especially since a
new substation was recently installed (and it's where my power comes
from) right behind some of the stores that are currently without
'lectricity. I know the whole grid is something of a spiderweb, but
jeeze, if the transformer is right in your backyard and you're sitting
in the dark, well I for one would be pretty ****ed off.
Tomorrow, I'm going to take a ride up there and find some utility guy
to explain it to me. These guys love to talk about this stuff.
Middletown, NJ still has a lot of dark areas including a stretch of Rt.
35. Parts of Tinton Falls and Farmingdale are still out (where my sons
live). We are at 2 days w/o power and counting. The generator kept the
sump pumps going but several of the neighbors have 18" of water in
their basements. From what I have seen driving around, there seems to
be little logic in what areas kept power and what ones lost it - as well
as the restoral process. FiOS never went down, something about CO power
and home running the fiber mostly underground.
Seems like the shore area got off relatively light when compared to the
southern shore of Long Island and Connecticut. However, the flooding in
the northern part of NJ, NY, and VT is horrible. It will be some time
before they can even approach normal.
Jim