Utilities in your town: Power, Telephone, CATV, etc.

[HOrnbrod]

Well, we just went through another two hour power regularly scheduled power shutdown here because a lightning/thunder front came through. Common here. We have a technology challenged cooperative power company and telephone company that have a "small town" monopoly in the courts that effectively keeps out the more progressive companies who would like to market here, like AT&T, Charter TV/Phone bundles, and many others.

 

Last week, tis the season, a huge front passed through, and I guess the powers that be decided to take a chance and NOT shut down. Needless to say, we took a lightning hit that blew out my modem, computer ethernet port, a couple of TVs, several florescent fixture ballasts, CATV, etc. And yes, I have an excellent ground system. I've lived 20-30 years off-and-on in 3rd world countries all over the world where we were lucky to have a good solid 5-6 hours/daily of power; but we all had generators and had to make do. Not that bad here yet, but DAMN, I can't believe this is the norm here. Been back in the States since 02 permanently, and Mama, who is from the Philippines, is making noises to move back there when the kids get out of college and out of house. I'm seriously considering it. If I can ship my MJ of course. :D

 

Are there any other places where you guys live that have these problems? We've lived here off and on between overseas assignments, and the utilities were better 10-15 years ago. I've freaking had it..........

[mvusse]

Here in Strasburg (population ~2000) power is pretty dependable. When it's out it's usually due to a tree or tree limb taking out a wire, but it's pretty rare as they stay on top of trimming any trees that could cause a problem. Used to be Ohio Edison, but now American Electric Power. My cable, telephone and internet all come from Time Warner and are about the same.

 

When Ilived just 5 miles north of here, between Bolivar and Zoar, the power would fail if somebody breathed too hard outside. At least a few hours every week. A former coworker of mine lives there, and everybody n his street has a generator. Pretty funny driving his street after the power has been out a few hours, house after house after house with a generator sitting in the driveway, or in the garage with the door open.

[jpnjim]

Don,

that could've just been a once/twice in a lifetime lightning blast that was VERY close to your house.

 

Did the neighbors have anything blow up in their houses?

 

 

A guy I work with had one of these last year,

his interwebz modem, and cable modem fizzled, and I think a few of his smaller electronics as well,

but his wife's car took the big hit.

 

It was a fairly new car, no physical damage at all, but it sat dead as a doornail in his driveway after the blast.

 

Next time I see him I'll have him refresh my memory to exactly what burned up,

but I remember the ECM got fried, and the dealership had replace it.

His insurance covered the damage.

 

Last I remember he was still having issues with the car, and was looking to dump it.

 

Good luck. :cheers:

[87Warrior]

Wait. They plan outages if it may storm? Even if the circuit switches are flipped open, lighting could still strike a line/pole within the circuit and send all of that power to a smaller concentration customers, increasing damages. Or maybe they take the sub off line.

 

In my short 25 years growing up in the severe weather producing Midwest, I have never heard of such a planned outage due to weather. Sure the power would get knocked out on occasion by squirrels, lighting or trees on the wires. When I was little a lightning strike hit the pole in the back yard or the house. It burned up my PowerWheels Jeep batteries and charger. Talk about depressing.

 

Now that I live in the city, my phone and internet connections are wireless (Clear and Verizon). Power is from KCPL who I work for planning the tree trimming. Cable is Time Warner, it is who my apartment is wired for.

 

I would say Kansas has quite a bit of utility competition, considering.

[terrawombat]

I have never heard of planned outages for an impending storm, but then again, I live in NJ and we rarely get anything that can be considered "severe" weather. However, we did have an outage roughly 10 years ago that knocked the power out. It had been down roughly 10 minutes when lightning struck a pole within a hundred feet of my (parents) home. Even though the power was already out and most of our important electronics were surge protected, it still took out our desktop computer, television, and DVD player.

[jeepdoggydogB]

Well, we just went through another two hour power regularly scheduled power shutdown here because a lightning/thunder front came through. Common here. We have a technology challenged cooperative power company and telephone company that have a "small town" monopoly in the courts that effectively keeps out the more progressive companies who would like to market here, like AT&T, Charter TV/Phone bundles, and many others.

 

Last week, tis the season, a huge front passed through, and I guess the powers that be decided to take a chance and NOT shut down. Needless to say, we took a lightning hit that blew out my modem, computer ethernet port, a couple of TVs, several florescent fixture ballasts, CATV, etc. And yes, I have an excellent ground system. I've lived 20-30 years off-and-on in 3rd world countries all over the world where we were lucky to have a good solid 5-6 hours/daily of power; but we all had generators and had to make do. Not that bad here yet, but DAMN, I can't believe this is the norm here. Been back in the States since 02 permanently, and Mama, who is from the Philippines, is making noises to move back there when the kids get out of college and out of house. I'm seriously considering it. If I can ship my MJ of course. :D

 

Are there any other places where you guys live that have these problems? We've lived here off and on between overseas assignments, and the utilities were better 10-15 years ago. I've freaking had it..........

We used to have rolling blackouts back in 2001 and like you I lamented of the great power service we had in the PI. If you move back you could be the first CC member to have a JeepneyManche! :cheers:

[HOrnbrod]

When I hear from the TV talking heads of a front approaching and the lightning and tornado warnings, I immediately log into a weather channel to watch the front. When it's about a mile away from town, at least 50% of the time the power goes hard down. Depending on the size of the front, it comes on again in about 30 minutes to an hour after the front has passed. It happens too much to be coincidental, and doesn't happen in other nearby towns with a different power company than our crappy Mom and Pop Co-op. And we are stuck with these bastids, as well as telephone and CATV as they are the only games in town. :fs1:

 

The hit last week was definitely close, and power was out for about six hours. Fried a lot of electronics in the house, and blew up two fluorescent fixture ballasts in my storage shed so hard that they blew holes through the roof. The neighbors lost some electronics too, but not like I did.

[Sir Sam]

Man, I'm not sure when the last time the power went out here.

 

Kinda take it for granted always being on.

[camjeep3]

never had an issue here unless its pretty severe... I have always lived near a nuclear power plant though, seems like SC has quiet a few of those.

[alleydog]

I bought a 2500 watt generator 25 years ago "just in case the power goes out". I used it for that reason once for an hour about 8 years ago. Of course I need to keep it in running order, so I've used it a bunch at the race track and the junk yard . Guess I got my $200 purchase price out of it!