CCS Weather Thread (Snow Season)

airtime143

This place is dead and buried.
CCS Hall of Fame '21
Joined:
Aug 21, 2012
Posts:
14,964
Liked Posts:
16,605
That is impressive.
The trunk runs... especially the most vital... are very commonly built far stronger than everything else in the area for pretty obvious reasons.

What this says to me is that once the main feeds are restored, the feeder lines will likely all be shredded.

It is going to be fucked down there quite possibly until Halloween.

When we had that storm blow through chicagoland a couple weeks back, com ed pulled in contractors from all over.
Dealing with some of them, a recurring theme was that materials are getting harder to come by.

Good luck to everyone down that way. It is going to be a long recovery.
 

Scoot26

Administrator
Staff member
Donator
CCS Hall of Fame '20
Joined:
Jun 25, 2010
Posts:
39,825
Liked Posts:
29,958
That is impressive.
The trunk runs... especially the most vital... are very commonly built far stronger than everything else in the area for pretty obvious reasons.

What this says to me is that once the main feeds are restored, the feeder lines will likely all be shredded.

It is going to be fucked down there quite possibly until Halloween.

When we had that storm blow through chicagoland a couple weeks back, com ed pulled in contractors from all over.
Dealing with some of them, a recurring theme was that materials are getting harder to come by.

Good luck to everyone down that way. It is going to be a long recovery.

Drone shot of said transmission lines.

I have zero education as to the timeline to fix these things. I've also heard rumblings of Entergy lacks the amount of qualified workers for a quick restore of this.
 

Hawkeye OG

Formerly Hawkeye
Donator
CCS Hall of Fame '21
Joined:
Mar 1, 2015
Posts:
33,107
Liked Posts:
39,751

airtime143

This place is dead and buried.
CCS Hall of Fame '21
Joined:
Aug 21, 2012
Posts:
14,964
Liked Posts:
16,605

Drone shot of said transmission lines.

I have zero education as to the timeline to fix these things. I've also heard rumblings of Entergy lacks the amount of qualified workers for a quick restore of this.

All power companies lack the people to deal with large scale damage like this- I cant fault them for that.
There is a massive pool of contractors to pull from though, SOP is to pull them in.

As someone who has responded to large scale messes like this (usually florida hurricanes) The timeline to hit the ground running is frustratingly long.

Early on, most workers responding have to station themselves up to 50 or 100 miles out- local accommodations dont exist.
Then you have to make sure there is fuel- with evacuees and whatnot, the fuel situation can be impossible for up to a week afterward.

Once they get their workers on site, can feed, house, and fuel them, the rebuilds can move fairly quickly.

That drone shot is a nasty fix though. My semi-educated guess it they will re-route and abandon that for now.

That is high tension, high voltage, and that tower is shredded. across the river in the distance you can see the tower it ran to.
Thousands of pounds of lines over a ridiculous distance.
There are really only 3 ways to do that in a short time (until the tower is rebuilt)
Pick that shit up on a pole by the bank and run it through a waterproof weighted conduit on the river bed to a temp pole on the other side... but they wont do that.
Station barges with towers anchored on the river and temp it across...but they wont do that. to dangerous.
Temp it to the nearest bridge and across- they might do that.

but honestly, they probably will just abandon it and back feed from an easier source. They may never build that one again. Looks like a stupid, 60 year old design.
 
Last edited:

airtime143

This place is dead and buried.
CCS Hall of Fame '21
Joined:
Aug 21, 2012
Posts:
14,964
Liked Posts:
16,605
@airtime143 isn't this what you do? How much money can you make going down there? lol
Utilities is my game and storm recovery is an occasional need- but I dont operate in new orleans. The call has already come out for some of the stuff east of that.

I dont think I am going this time around. Michael was the last one I was on, and it was a killer. I am thinking others should take advantage of the opportunity this go 'round...lmao
 

Scoot26

Administrator
Staff member
Donator
CCS Hall of Fame '20
Joined:
Jun 25, 2010
Posts:
39,825
Liked Posts:
29,958
All power companies lack the people to deal with large scale damage like this- I can fault them for that.
There is a massive pool of contractors to pull from though, SOP is to pull them in.

As someone who has responded to large scale messes like this (usually florida hurricanes) The timeline to hit the ground running is frustratingly long.

Early on, most workers responding have to station themselves up to 50 or 100 miles out- local accommodations dont exist.
Then you have to make sure there is fuel- with evacuees and whatnot, the fuel situation can be impossible for up to a week afterward.

Once they get their workers on site, can feed, house, and fuel them, the rebuilds can move fairly quickly.

That drone shot is a nasty fix though. My semi-educated guess it they will re-route and abandon that for now.

That is high tension, high voltage, and that tower is shredded. across the river in the distance you can see the tower it ran to.
Thousands of pounds of lines over a ridiculous distance.
There are really only 3 ways to do that in a short time (until the tower is rebuilt)
Pick that shit up on a pole by the bank and run it through a waterproof weighted conduit on the river bed to a temp pole on the other side... but they wont do that.
Station barges with towers anchored on the river and temp it across...but they wont do that. to dangerous.
Temp it to the nearest bridge and across- they might do that.

but honestly, they probably will just abandon it and back feed from an easier source. They may never build that one again. Looks like a stupid, 60 year old design.
Listened to an interview from local TV station with an Entergy spokesperson, they said exactly that in they will re-route to get some power into the city ASAP (which will still be awhile as they have no timeline at this time). They have 7 other ways or something like that (spoke some lingo I don't understand).
 

airtime143

This place is dead and buried.
CCS Hall of Fame '21
Joined:
Aug 21, 2012
Posts:
14,964
Liked Posts:
16,605
Listened to an interview from local TV station with an Entergy spokesperson, they said exactly that in they will re-route to get some power into the city ASAP (which will still be awhile as they have no timeline at this time). They have 7 other ways or something like that (spoke some lingo I don't understand).

They likely have a smart grid.
Multiple redundant entry points with simple switching to route around things such as this-
In this case it flows from the crushed tower and in.
Lets say 5 miles straight ahead is another feed. the line you are looking at stops between here and there, its extremity butting up to the other feeds extremity.
There will be a closeable link between the two- they throw that switch and it flows the opposite way in to the area served by the damaged link.

super simple analogy- 2 roads lead to a market. One is always gated.
A sinkhole opens up and swallows the open road...no sweat. close that gate and open the other.
 

airtime143

This place is dead and buried.
CCS Hall of Fame '21
Joined:
Aug 21, 2012
Posts:
14,964
Liked Posts:
16,605
I should clarify- super simple for isolated damage, but in this case it wont be.
To my first post, the main trunk feed are built far stronger than the regular transmission lines.
You can see how massive that tower is, and how burly the steel was that was folded like a straw.

That smart grid can only work if the transmission lines between trunk a and trunk b are intact... and based on the condition of that tower, I am thinking there isnt a snowballs chance in hell that it will be a simple process. we are talking street by street rebuild... lines, poles, transformers... it is going to be a logistical nightmare to score equipment at that large of a scale.
 

airtime143

This place is dead and buried.
CCS Hall of Fame '21
Joined:
Aug 21, 2012
Posts:
14,964
Liked Posts:
16,605
So here is my guess on what will start happening soon.
1- source massive generators and mobile hot spots, working inward towards nola. Gotta get coms up.
2- Get water sources powered up and running.
3- Get power to gas stations, so workers can fuel.
4- Place a high priority on getting intact hotels and motels up and running- imported workers need a place to stay.
5- Restaraunts/kitchens so they can eat.

The key is the imported workers- for all parts of this. It doesnt matter how many local workers are around, because they are victims too.
Most companies for any industry wont start sending workers until they can establish safe lodging and the essentials.
Understandably, any time I have wandered in to a mess like this, the local workers are not in a situation where they can help- They have to pick up their own shattered lives first.
 

Hbkrusso

Objective Fanboy
Donator
Joined:
Aug 21, 2012
Posts:
17,627
Liked Posts:
13,260
Location:
wv
Is this why you want us all to move to WV?

To trap us in your soggy swamp and steal all our treasure?

Oh I see you tricky mfer.
No mf we need people just live on the mountain side like I do not down there with the plebs in the flood plane
 

Hbkrusso

Objective Fanboy
Donator
Joined:
Aug 21, 2012
Posts:
17,627
Liked Posts:
13,260
Location:
wv
There's the occasional bear or coyote or possum that terrorizes yer yard sure but we need more people
 

airtime143

This place is dead and buried.
CCS Hall of Fame '21
Joined:
Aug 21, 2012
Posts:
14,964
Liked Posts:
16,605
Just out of curiosity, I looked at the east coast outages telcom wise- must be some pretty solid wind along with that shit ton of rain, becasuse new jersey and Philly are hammered with power and telcom outages.
 

Top