In Dec 2007 Northeastern Oklahoma had the same event. 90% of the city of
Tulsa without power for 3 days. Rural areas out for up to 3 weeks. We got
the same explanation from our power company Who just happens to also be
American Electric Power. They stated that they had never seen an event of
such magnitude before. Maybe they have a very short memory.
Don Mathieson
Tulsa Community College
dmathies@tulsacc.edu
"Edmiston, Mike" <edmiston@bluffton.edu>
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02/02/2010 03:50 PM
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Re: [Phys-l] Glaze Ice
Same thing happened here in January 2005. I was lucky; my power was out
for 1 day. My sister, 15 miles away, was without power for 3 weeks.
Although some lines collapsed under the weight of the ice on the lines,
the majority of downed lines were taken down by tree branches falling on
them. The problem Brian mentioned with people letting their yards
encroach on power-line right-of-ways was rampant in this area. Not only
did that hinder repair trucks getting in to fix the lines, it caused much
of the problem in the first place because people had planted trees in the
right-of-way or next to the right-of-way. Many, many power lines would
not have been taken down if there hadn't been trees to close to them.
Interestingly, here we are 5 years later, and we are just now starting to
get the problem fixed. The power company (American Electric Power) took
quite a bit of heat over that problem in addition to other smaller outages
over the years. People complained to the Public Utilities Commission of
Ohio (PUCO) about the outages and the length of time to repair them, but
American Electric Power (AEP) turned around and complained that much of
the problem was caused by the public planting trees too close to the
lines, and encroaching on right-of-ways. PUCO told AEP to fix the
problem, so in 2009 they began a massive tree-trimming campaign in
northwestern Ohio. Many residents were angry because when they came
through to "fix the problem" they pretty much butchered the trees. Some
people also had yard damage from the trucks getting in to cut the trees
down. Many residents claimed AEP was "getting back at them" for
complaining to PUCO about power outages. So it has been somewhat of
an ugly situation here... 5 years after the original major storm.
I have mixed feelings because both sides of the battle are partly right.
People did encroach on the right- of-ways and they did plant trees too
close. On the other hand, for years AEP let them get away with it, and
for years AEP did not do "maintenance" trimming of trees and enforcement
of adequate right of ways.
Back to 2005... the power got back on for most people after about 3 weeks,
but the general mess continued into the summer. There was a huge amount
of downed wood (branches and whole trees) that had to be dealt with.
Brian... I hope you get power soon, but even after power is restored there
is still a mess to clean up that could take months. And... you may have
to go through a tree-purging and right-of-way enforcement like we did, and
that might take years.
Michael D. Edmiston, Ph.D.
Professor of Chemistry and Physics
Bluffton University
Bluffton, OH 45817
(419)-358-3270
edmiston@bluffton.edu
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