quote:

Originally posted by tatortodd:

quote:

Originally posted by jhe888:
One of my co-workers makes a good living by suing companies who dig up ATT's cables. The City of Houston does it pretty frequently.

There is a statute that require them to call the hotline before they dig, but they often screw it up - don't call, don't dig in the place they ask about, all kinds of errors.

That is because Texas grants the most exemptions to One Call participation in the US.

IIRC, it's three business days for a regular mark out and during an emergency the utility is supposed to mark out within an hour. Most utility repair contractors realize an hour is pushing it a little and will wait for the mark out man to show up.

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Originally posted by sigcrazy7:
Electricity down, evacuate the area. How did we servive to this point in our evolution?

Residents are not required to evacuate, but the thousands of needy (no flashlights, no generator, etc.) tourists who flood to this area in the summer are being told to leave. There's a big difference.

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Originally posted by rtquig:

quote:

Originally posted by tatortodd:

quote:

Originally posted by jhe888:
One of my co-workers makes a good living by suing companies who dig up ATT's cables. The City of Houston does it pretty frequently.

There is a statute that require them to call the hotline before they dig, but they often screw it up - don't call, don't dig in the place they ask about, all kinds of errors.

That is because Texas grants the most exemptions to One Call participation in the US.

IIRC, it's three business days for a regular mark out and during an emergency the utility is supposed to mark out within an hour. Most utility repair contractors realize an hour is pushing it a little and will wait for the mark out man to show up.

Actually it varies by state and it's 2 to 3 business days (i.e. excluding weekends and holidays) depending on the state. For example, New Jersey is 3 business days, but Texas is only 2 business days.

Emergency laws vary by state as well.

In case y'all can't tell, I've managed oil & gas projects in over a dozen states so I'm very familiar with one call laws.

I was at the corner of Penn and 6th in Reading, Pa one day when the city street repair crew began digging in the street pavement intersection with a powered jack hammer and struck a gas main.

I never saw municipal workers run so fast.

I was right behind them.

We have a home in Hatteras and have been following the situation closely.
Here's the latest as I understand them:

The buried cables are Three Phase (3 separate cables).
The are located approximately 9 feet underground.
One of the cables has been located and it had been cut in two by the steel sheeting that was being driven into the sand.
They are trying to determine if the other two cables are ok and what they have to do to splice the damaged one.
PCL is one of the largest privately held construction companies in North America. They are headquartered in Canada and have annual sales of about 8 Billion dollars.
The lost rental income is estimated to be in excess of 6 Million dollars a week, not counting all the additional spending the renters do...
It's a cluster...

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It's a cluster...

Adding to the "cluster" state emergency officials sent 3 huge generators over by ferry. Problem is upon arrival they could not be used because their transformers were not compatible to the local grid, so had to wait for more generators to arrive. If they didn't work for this situation then they would not have worked for the next hurricane. When it comes to state officials, some of whom are earning the big bucks, I wonder what us NC citizens are paying for.