FLECOM
Bay Networks Freak
Premium
join:2003-03-03
Miami, FL
2 edits | reply to Splitpair
Re: [General] Some Wilma Shots
man if you want to talk about light shows with power lines, during wilma about 3 miles of the 500kv lines that brings power from port st lucy to the rest of south florida got hit by a tornado... thats what took out all of dade county at around 6~6:30am that monday morning...
of course all of bellsouth's T1's died shortly after and everyone was having hissyfits at the EOC because of it...
especially the fire department guys since they do all their rip-and-runs (dispatches) over their T1's and their radio system is linked via T1's... every time a T1 would cycle their crappy motorola voters would freak out and they would have multiple sites transmitting at the same time which makes horrible intermod and sounds terrible to boot
oh boy much angry phone calls to bellsouth too cause of all these RT's lead to the "sorry there is no commercial power in that area" response, and these are to fire stations?!
well that takes away one of the VoIP is less reliable in case of an emergency excuse... as long as my RT had power i had dsl... when i lost phone, i lost dsl 
although cable is just a joke, i had just gotten it back a few days earlier from katrina 
also for whoever said that FPL corporate should do something about it...
FPL is the STRANGEST company ever... FPL corporate has very little to do with FPL distribution, which has little to do with FPL generation... the company is very segmented... and in response the constant threat of de-regulation for the past 15 years they have a $0/yr preventitive maintenance budget...
but then again most utilities are like this... i just panic when i see people stacking debries next to cross connects and RT's... i can just see the bulldozer coming to clear it all out and taking the crossconnect/rt with it, which ive seen happen! 
also bellsouth got a few generators stolen down in south dade which isnt very cool imho but whatever there are crappy people in the world
although FPL has been pretty quick about restoring power, i agree with everyone that a lot of the outages could have been prevented... but thats for later review...
bellsouth came out pretty good also, hopefully all these hurricanes will just encourage more underground utilities...
--
BellSouth sucks |
|
lordfly
join:2000-10-12
Homestead, FL
 ·AT&T Southeast
| reply to Splitpair
I partially believe the old pole theory, but I saw plenty of new poles snapped. I had a 30 foot palm tree that snapped in half. Remember that the wind speed increases the higher you go up. What we saw at ground level is not what the poles saw.
I am 50/50 when it comes to burying utility lines. The big issue there is floods/excessive rain, which happens a lot down here in S. Florida. |
|
ackman
join:2000-10-04
Acworth, GA
| reply to Rob
said by Rob  :FPL's failure to properly maintain their wood poles have caused many residents to be without power. I hope they get slammed with some hefty fees. That's the most ridiculous and uninformed statement I've ever read. I experienced Hurricane Andrew back in 1992, and all of our healthy and good condition power poles snapped like toothpicks in my neighborhood's back yards with the winds that hit us in Cutler Ridge, just north of Homestead. Bear in mind that the wires being held up by these poles are extremely heavy, so there's not much chance that they would stand up too long under a 100mph wind onslaught. I have to give props to the boys from Georgia Power, who came down to help with reconstruction. They had our new poles up and electricity turned on just 3 weeks after the storm. It was absolutely amazing and we were grateful for their efforts. |
|
Zoder
join:2002-04-16
Miami, FL | Andrew was a Cat 5 in South Dade. They are saying Wilma's sustained winds barely hit Cat 2. That's a huge difference. The poles are supposed to be able to withstand 118+ sustained winds according to FP&L. |
|
Rob
In Deo speramus, God Bless the USA
Premium
join:2001-08-25
Kendall, FL
 ·Comcast
| reply to ackman
said by ackman :said by Rob :FPL's failure to properly maintain their wood poles have caused many residents to be without power. I hope they get slammed with some hefty fees. That's the most ridiculous and uninformed statement I've ever read. I experienced Hurricane Andrew back in 1992, and all of our healthy and good condition power poles snapped like toothpicks in my neighborhood's back yards with the winds that hit us in Cutler Ridge, just north of Homestead. Bear in mind that the wires being held up by these poles are extremely heavy, so there's not much chance that they would stand up too long under a 100mph wind onslaught. I have to give props to the boys from Georgia Power, who came down to help with reconstruction. They had our new poles up and electricity turned on just 3 weeks after the storm. It was absolutely amazing and we were grateful for their efforts. Andrew: Cat5
Wilma: Cat1-2
Nuff said.
--
YourIP.US - Quickly Locate Your IP!
LiveWhois.Net - It's Never Been So Easy!
RR.CX My Blog.. |
|
ackman
join:2000-10-04
Acworth, GA
| said by Rob :said by ackman :said by Rob :FPL's failure to properly maintain their wood poles have caused many residents to be without power. I hope they get slammed with some hefty fees. That's the most ridiculous and uninformed statement I've ever read. I experienced Hurricane Andrew back in 1992, and all of our healthy and good condition power poles snapped like toothpicks in my neighborhood's back yards with the winds that hit us in Cutler Ridge, just north of Homestead. Bear in mind that the wires being held up by these poles are extremely heavy, so there's not much chance that they would stand up too long under a 100mph wind onslaught. I have to give props to the boys from Georgia Power, who came down to help with reconstruction. They had our new poles up and electricity turned on just 3 weeks after the storm. It was absolutely amazing and we were grateful for their efforts. Andrew: Cat5 Wilma: Cat1-2 Nuff said. Um, "Hurricane"... nuff said. |
|
Splitpair
Premium
join:2000-07-29
Cow Towne
 ·T-Mobile US
| said by ackman :Um, "Hurricane"... nuff said. Na I was involved in Andrew and the damage was what one would expect from that intense of a storm. With Wilma the damage was IMHO way beyond what should have happened. In my area many poles failed as does our power in 40 mph winds way before the storm was actually here.
Wayne
--
If you can't fix it with a buttset and some beanies you ain't a technician. |
|
Rob
In Deo speramus, God Bless the USA
Premium
join:2001-08-25
Kendall, FL
·Comcast
| said by Splitpair :said by ackman :Um, "Hurricane"... nuff said. Na I was involved in Andrew and the damage was what one would expect from that intense of a storm. With Wilma the damage was IMHO way beyond what should have happened. In my area many poles failed as does our power in 40 mph winds way before the storm was actually here. Wayne Kinda of OT but, in the areas that BellSouth has their lines above ground, do they use the same poles with FPL?
--
YourIP.US - Quickly Locate Your IP!
LiveWhois.Net - It's Never Been So Easy!
RR.CX My Blog.. |
|
Splitpair
Premium
join:2000-07-29
Cow Towne
·T-Mobile US
| said by Rob :Kinda of OT but, in the areas that BellSouth has their lines above ground, do they use the same poles with FPL? Yes.
Wayne
--
If you can't fix it with a buttset and some beanies you ain't a technician. |
|
Rob
In Deo speramus, God Bless the USA
Premium
join:2001-08-25
Kendall, FL
·Comcast
| said by Splitpair :said by Rob :Kinda of OT but, in the areas that BellSouth has their lines above ground, do they use the same poles with FPL? Yes. Wayne So then if you have to do service work on the line, do you have to call FPL out there just incase something goes wrong?
--
YourIP.US - Quickly Locate Your IP!
LiveWhois.Net - It's Never Been So Easy!
RR.CX My Blog.. |
|
Splitpair
Premium
join:2000-07-29
Cow Towne
·T-Mobile US
3 edits | said by Rob :So then if you have to do service work on the line, do you have to call FPL out there just incase something goes wrong? No you follow a laundry list of safety and inspection practices with the thought in the back of your mind that missing or over looking any one of them could be deadly.
I love working outside it is a great job but it is a job that requires you to be aware of what is above below and around you at all times as we are sometimes inches from power and an even more dangerous factor the road. 
Wayne
--
If you can't fix it with a buttset and some beanies you ain't a technician. |
|
Hurricane Me
@bellsouth.net
| reply to Splitpair
Here is my Hurricane Wilma picture.  |
|
Splitpair
Premium
join:2000-07-29
Cow Towne
·T-Mobile US
| reply to Splitpair
Great place to work. | 
FP&L lineman inspecting a re-replaced by him neutral | 
This office almost received the no-bell award. |
said by Splitpair :From the trenches.
--
If you can't fix it with a buttset and some beanies you ain't a technician. |
|
SuperSync
Five Star
Premium
join:2002-01-12
clubs:
·AT&T Southeast
1 edit | Seeing that fellow on climbers above the CATV strand makes me glad I get to stop at the telco strand.
I could never climb around all that stuff, there would be gaff marks in all the cables and buried drops and power dips going down the pole; power lineman make it look so effortless, although I have seen some cables damaged from misplaced gaffs.
Keep up the cool pictures from the south end of BST turf. |
|
RJ44
join:2001-10-19
Nashville, TN
| reply to Splitpair
said by Splitpair :said by Splitpair :From the trenches. Nice pics. That first one, the great place to work, reminds me an awful lot of the backyards in Hialeah although I know it's not. Same fences and sheds though |
|
Zoder
join:2002-04-16
Miami, FL | So the line at his feet is the cable tv and the line below that is telephone? |
|
RJ44
join:2001-10-19
Nashville, TN
| said by Zoder :So the line at his feet is the cable tv and the line below that is telephone? Yep. Phone guys have it easy |
|
Zoder
join:2002-04-16
Miami, FL | Thanks. That's what I thought but I wanted to make sure. It confirms why the Comcast cable is still out on my street. |
|
Splitpair
Premium
join:2000-07-29
Cow Towne
·T-Mobile US
1 edit | reply to Splitpair
Oops. |  |  |  |  |  |  | 
Power vs pole |  | 
Power vs tree |  |  | 
Looking for that open fiber "here's your sign." | 
2 smoked potheads. |
said by Splitpair :From the trenches. --
If you can't fix it with a buttset and some beanies you ain't a technician. |
|
pjargon
@bellsouth.ne
| reply to Splitpair
Andrew had a very small radius of maximum winds. Sure, it was a cat 5, but if you were just a little outside of the worst of the eyewall, you got a cat 4, 3, 2, or 1 - maybe even a tropical storm.
Wilma, on the other hand, had a very large radius of maximum winds bringing category 2 (that's gusts well over 100 mph) to a large area.
Also, a lot of damage "from wind alone" could actually have been assisted by large windblown debris. |
|
