Certainly, some of the outages are due to pure mechanical faiure. Many companies do little to maintain their system and get big write offs when hurricanes come through.

Speaking of negligence when it comes to trees. This is a Poplar Tree across the street from me. The only thing holding it up at this point is a much smaller Sweet Gum.




That second pic, that is the tree. Not just a branch, but the top of the tree. Neither the owner, the city, nor the power company will do anything about it. It will absolutely fall some day soon and take down the power line. There have been two trees fall from that property in two years, and this will be the third.

We’ve been w/o power for 70 hours. Three adjacent houses in our neighborhood are out, others never lost power. I just looked at the poles and lines, I cannot see any damage from trees.

We’re in Bettendorf IA, next to larger Davenport. We’re both retired (from the Rock Island Arsenal) and rarely HAVE to be anywhere.

Our house was not damaged, a few branches came down but small enough I could cut them with a hand saw. Others have it much worse, and we have hot water. I have two batteries for the IPhone 7 (30,000 mAh) and charge them at a neighbor’s.

The IPhone works for internet access, but for me it’s much easier to read papers, watch videos, and post to SF on the PC with a real keyboard.

Refrigerator food is already in the trash, basement freezer food is darn close to getting tossed out.

It’s annoying but tolerable. It’s not humid out, and others have it much worse.

Micropterus, your pictures and question...why doesn’t somebody fix this before it becomes a problem is something I see every day. The lines truly are holding up trees or huge limbs.

WV Hwy Dept. or county will not do anything until there is a problem. Then, we all get to share in the neglect.

quote:

That second pic, that is the tree. Not just a branch, but the top of the tree. Neither the owner, the city, nor the power company will do anything about it. It will absolutely fall some day soon and take down the power line. There have been two trees fall from that property in two years, and this will be the third.

^^^^^^^^^^^^
These pics make for a good story on a slow news day. Give it a try.

We just got into De Witt, IA to help clean up the Mother-in-law's couple acre back yard. Luckily she didn't lose power. Most of the corn I saw along I-80 was pushed over, some the leaves were ripped off as well. Whole massive fields. You can see this from satellite pictures even. If it was on
hill or terrace it was broken off and ripped away, if it was shielded by a tree row, not as bad. My wife works for a crop company, evidently they could GMO corn to withstand massive wind, but then the stalks puncture tractor tires, so there has to be a middle ground.

Massive 50+ year old healthy trees at test stops were snapped off at the base like balsa wood. We arrived after dark, so we'll see what it looks like tomorrow.

I remember seeing electric company trucks from four different states during the
North Ridge, CA quake.

To help put service back in order,
Not seen anything like that in the hardest hit big city.

Just mid America energy and Asplundh trucks

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You guys must not have agreements with the other power companies. We lend out our trucks and crews all over the place but it is hurricane season so we have to cover that. If a major storm is forecast you will see a line of trucks miles long that stage outside the affected area and fill up he parking lots. I would imagine the Derecho was not predicted and therefore prestaging was not done. We have an agreement with NYFD since we helped them out after 911. They were here for a long time after Katrina.

Ellis spent$5,000.00 last year to have 8 trees cut down.

Only the ninth one that did not get cut ended up on his roof,during this storm last week.

Bendable how did you fare during the Derecho??

oddly , we did not lose power in tiny town ,
Why , I don't know.

it was same old ,same old around here.
16 of the 20 people that I contacted in Iowa
either lost power for three days or had storm damage to their trees and or homes.

A friend leases some hunting land down by Bendable, Putnam, Co IL. Just got word that the 2 man Redneck hunting blind we just put up is down. It was on a 15’ tower.

They say it could be totaled, broken windows, twisted door, etc.. Nothing like the homeowner worries, but still a bummer. It was in a great spot too.

We had it staked well and anchored. A very large Oak right next to it is over too. It’s being evaluated to see if it’s useable.

quote:

oddly , we did not lose power in tiny town ,
Why , I don't know.

it was same old ,same old around here.
16 of the 20 people that I contacted in Iowa

^^^^^^^^^
Thank you. Good to hear.

quote:

Originally posted by ZSMICHAEL:
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
You guys must not have agreements with the other power companies. We lend out our trucks and crews all over the place but it is hurricane season so we have to cover that. If a major storm is forecast you will see a line of trucks miles long that stage outside the affected area and fill up he parking lots. I would imagine the Derecho was not predicted and therefore prestaging was not done. We have an agreement with NYFD since we helped them out after 911. They were here for a long time after Katrina.

Dominion Power in Virginia has such and agreement. After Hurricane Isabel in 2003 (I think) it was a company called Entergy out of Louisiana that got our power on after 11 days. (I saw 7 Dominion Power trucks lined up at IHOP during that day while Entergy was out working.)

A week ago after Tropical Storm Isaias, it was Pike Power out of Missouri (I think) that got our power on after 3 days. I saw exactly 4 Dominion Power trucks during those three days. One was at Chick Fil A. One was at Dunkin Donuts. And two were at a Philly Cheese Steak shop. Only Pike Power seemed to be out working in our area.

[quote]A week ago after Tropical Storm Isaias, it was Pike Power out of Missouri (I think)
^^^^^^^^^^
That is local to me Mississippi. I know a number of the guys personally. They have plenty of experience and are used to rough accomodations while they collect the overtime pay.

Does anyone have contact info for Beatty's nephew ?

He is in the middle of the worst of this.


Never mind,
I got a hold of he and he's fine , just fine.

Min. damage , insurance will cover.

nothing to be overly concerned about.

He was a lucky one

This message has been edited. Last edited by: bendable,

Thanks for checking on me bendable!

My damage was minor compared to most here, couple of trees and relatively minor house damage. I did lose my Big Green Egg grills which shattered when the tables were overturned by the wind. Yes a 220 lb. ceramic grill can be tossed like a softball in 140 mph winds.At present the Derecho is being classed as the same as a Class 4 hurricane. Also lost my ham radio antenna but that was not a big surprise. Basically the entire city's power supply was destroyed. Mine was restored on the 18th, 8 days after the storm but today the 21st we still have 10,000 without. Trees also broke gas lines when they were uprooted.
Alexa play the sounds of chainsaws and generators so I can sleep!