Power outage

[kenyerian]

After the big storms that hit the midwest last weekend many people still do not have their electric restored. Lines at gas stations were very long for the ones that were open so people could get gas for their generators. Ice is still in short supply.
i remember back when grandma cooked on a woodburner and we had oil lamps and candles readily available because we had electric but it was out so much that it wasn't a big deal. Most people today aren't prepared for situations like this so they panic and over react. my family was ready so it wasn't ideal we coped with everything just fine. Only thing is that i have been so busy cutting up trees that I am behind on my reloading and casting. The grandkids want to get the 22 hornets out to do some varment hunting.

[fryboy]

put them grandkids to work with debris and stick removal ( tell'em the sooner you get done the sooner you can go shooting )

[10x]

Ah, the things I would miss most during a natural disaster 1) toilet paper 2) electricity, 3) running water.

Now that the kids have moved out and taken their dirt bikes with them I can keep the gas cans for the generator full.

[44man]

We can not do a thing without electric today because everything needs it.
Us old timers do good but the young scream at the power company. The destruction was vast, it takes many workers and a lot of money plus time. They did super great to get us back up.
When I see a power company truck, they deserve a pat on the back.

[GRUMPA]

After the big storms that hit the midwest last weekend many people still do not have their electric restored. Lines at gas stations were very long for the ones that were open so people could get gas for their generators. Ice is still in short supply.
i remember back when grandma cooked on a woodburner and we had oil lamps and candles readily available because we had electric but it was out so much that it wasn't a big deal. Most people today aren't prepared for situations like this so they panic and over react. my family was ready so it wasn't ideal we coped with everything just fine. Only thing is that i have been so busy cutting up trees that I am behind on my reloading and casting. The grandkids want to get the 22 hornets out to do some varment hunting.

I'm just curious how well people cope with it, I've seen some folks go almost into a frenzy when utilities are down, and have seen them flock to the people that are prepared for that just in case something happens situation.

[sharps4590]

The last big ice storm we had locally, 5-6 years ago, some folks were out for 3-4 weeks. I think most did ok but then we're very rural here so most have at least a semblance of knowledge of how to get by. The wife and I didn't have any problems and lived quite comfortably actually. But we're old, came off the farm and as ken said, it wasn't if, it was when power was going down. A great deal can be said for being prepared. Each area has its opportunity for disaster in the guise of some kind of storm. It has happpened in the past and will again. One must simply be prepared for when it does.

[Jailer]

I'm just curious how well people cope with it, I've seen some folks go almost into a frenzy when utilities are down, and have seen them flock to the people that are prepared for that just in case something happens situation.

Power was out for a day and a half here when the storms rolled through with 90+ temps. This is what I did until the power came back on.

http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b180/Jailer/posting%20pics/Poweroutage001.jpg

[GRUMPA]

OH!!! I just love your style of doing things.

[Bad Water Bill]

I don't worry about losing power in the summer. The worst thing to happen would be the food loss.

In the winter however the pipes will freeze and that is when the fun begins.

Most folks do not know how to get all of the water out of ALL of the lines and traps.

The real fun begins when the lines begin to thaw and your NEW sprinkler system kicks in. :bigsmyl2:

[10x]

I don't worry about losing power in the summer. The worst thing to happen would be the food loss.

In the winter however the pipes will freeze and that is when the fun begins.

Most folks do not know how to get all of the water out of ALL of the lines and traps.

The real fun begins when the lines begin to thaw and your NEW sprinkler system kicks in. :bigsmyl2:

Here in the winter a warm day is -20 and a usual day is minus 30 or colder
Pipes freezing are the least of our worries at those temperatures.
Bottom line if the electricity goes off for over 24 hours people start to freeze to death

[DIRT Farmer]

I don't understand it, I worked several tornados in my career, with in an hour people start showing up looking for a drink. Some aren't happy with water.

[quilbilly]

This is how the greenies want us all to live once they get rid of coal, natural gas, oil, nuclear power, hydro dams that harm fish, and any other power source that produces serious energy. Those power outages mean low carbon footprint. That is utopia. They just haven't figured out that they will be in the same boat.

[Dean D.]

When I see a power company truck, they deserve a pat on the back.

Thanks 44man!

I've been working in the power industry since 1976, first as a lineman and then as a system operator/dispatcher. I can tell you from experience that kind words mean a lot to the crews out working a storm. Long hours, usually in extreme weather conditions, wear on the crews. One kind word or gesture showing appreciation for the work they are doing can really go a long way to help improve morale.

[Lloyd Smale]

yup i was a lineman all my life too. We used to get a chuckle out of people who complained. After working 60 hours straight without a break you tend to not have much sympathy for someone complaining becuase they have to sit in there nice home and wait while your out fighting the rain and snow and cold. It also makes me chuckle when people complain about there power bill. Just sit back and figure out all the things you NEED electicity for in your home and then factor in the things you use it for that could be eliminated to save on your bill. In the big picture NOTHING gives you more for your buck then your electric bill. Id bet after going without for 3 days most if pinned down would pay double what they pay now if it were the only way to get it back. Im retired now and dont have to go out and fight the storms anymore. Im one of you guys now that has to sit and wait. But i dont complain because i know what is involved in getting the power to your home and what it takes to keep it flowing. Next time your all upset about being in the dark think about those lineman out there in those conditions trying to put it on. Believe me none of them are goofing off and making you wait longer. they want to go home much more then you dont want to miss your tv show.
Thanks 44man!

I've been working in the power industry since 1976, first as a lineman and then as a system operator/dispatcher. I can tell you from experience that kind words mean a lot to the crews out working a storm. Long hours, usually in extreme weather conditions, wear on the crews. One kind word or gesture showing appreciation for the work they are doing can really go a long way to help improve morale.

[ole 5 hole group]

Really hard to complain about power loss when you can do something about it. When portable generators were affordable to the working class we purchased one to run the refrigerator and furnace in the winter. It was loud as hell but did the trick. Then some genius wrote an article way back when in Popular Science on how to wire your home for a generator – bingo.

The generators are now very quiet and efficient. I have a plug in the garage that goes to an auxiliary electrical box , so when the power goes out I wheel the Honda 6500 si from the garage into the driveway, plug her in, turn a key and like magic I have power for the AC, frig, stove, furnace etc – just like downtown.

[dagger dog]

I got lucky a few years back, we had a sever ice storm in Feburary, I have a wood furnace , and happened to have plenty of wood on hand, the neighboors had to blow the water out of their pipes and leave. I had some deep cycle batteries and power inverters, kept the batteries charged with a small generator.

The power company was 10 days getting it back up and I thought they did a helluva job getting it back that fast, you saw convoys of bucket trucks cruising the back roads and from all over the state, and some others, they were working 24 hrs a day 7 days a week, those guys really deserved everybit of overtime-double time they earned it!

[C.F.Plinker]

If your're supplying your house wiring from a generator remember to open a a breaker between the wiring you are suppling and incoming utility line. If you don't it is possible to feed power from your generator back to the utility system and therby endanger the people who are working on the wires.

[hunter64]

I converted my generator to triple fuel, i.e. Natural Gas, Propane and Gasoline. People thought I was absolutely crazy when I bought a generator for 900 bucks and then another 300 bucks for the conversion kit.

"What are you one of those survivalists or something" well yes I like to prepare for the "just in case" category, I heard it from a few of my friends. I then started to think maybe I shouldn't be telling anyone I have it, you never know.

I installed a BBQ quick connect in the garage as well as a 4" connector on the end of my garage heater vent chimney.

I gave it a trial run one day when the wife and kids were at the zoo just to see how it would work.

I turned off the main power into the house as well as sub panel breaker so that there was no way I could feed power into the main panel.

I have the furnaces, the fridge and freezer one circuit upstairs for lights and one downstairs for lights and the sump pump all on a separate sub-panel so all I have to do is feed it power and I have the essentials covered. The sub-panel also feeds the garage so I simply plug the 240v plug from the generator into the welder outlet and feed power to the garage as well as the sub-panel inside the house to the essential circuits.

I plugged the power cable into the welder, the exhaust vent into the chimney and the NG hose into the quick connect. Turned on the NG and started the generator and tested things out.

Worked good and I went outside the garage to see how loud the noise was and you couldn't hear the generator until you got to be about 100 feet from the house and then it was a gentle hum.

For fresh air for the generator I have a dog door on the man door so I just prop-ed it open to make sure the generator had adequate air.

I thought about installing a fresh air vent and having it plugged off normally and opening it and having a hose feed the generator if needed. Some kind of a box could go over the whole generator with foam on the inside to muffle some of the sound and I could just hook a hose to the fresh air intake and I would be good to go.

[reloader28]

The power goes out alot here from the wind and weather. I love it when the power goes out. Keeps you in touch with reality.

However its amazing the number of people that are scared to death when it goes out. When it does, we wait about 10 min and then call the power com. A friend of mine works there and we always let them know what the wind is doing when they come here. The office lady likes us cause we aint complaining. I've actually thought about offering my friend 2 months salary to have him leave it off and hopefully thin out the newcomers.:bigsmyl2:

We made sure everything was on propane when we built so that we could still cook and hook up the gen to the well and still have hot water if we want. Solar shower is in the works and we have an outhouse.

We heat with a wood stove and for winter. We have 4 generators (2 big enough for the well) and a portable welder with bulk tanks for fuel and an inverter for the camper batt. We have kero lamps and alotta fuel and love using them. The gen will power the frig and freezer tho not at the same time. I've looked into propane appliances but they're expensive. I can fill everything including 1# bottles from the house tank too.

With our food storage, we can 3 go months with no problem plus hunting and fishing. We have a full chicken coop and plenty of beef and goats. I've also made sure we have plenty of hand powered things like grain and meat grinders, hand tools, ect. Also pressure canners and smokers. I need to get a solar panel yet.

This is also in case the SHTF (which I am expecting), but basically, it dont bother us at all when we are stuck with no power. We live basically the same, but with a sense of self reliance. We're constantly trying new things and ways of doing stuff without relying on elect. I have a stockpile of strike anywhere matches, but we usually use the metal flint rods (whatever they're called).

All in all its exactly like camping but you get to do it at home. I just dont understand why more people dont prepare even a little. Its so easy.:bigsmyl2:

[sharps4590]

This is an interesting thread and I'll elaborate on my first post. My Dad is a retired lineman and I've been a Licensed Master Electrician since I passed my test in 1981. Being an electrician is all I've done since 1977. Yes, I know I passed my test without the 16,000 hours some places require before sitting for the test. Things were a lot different in Cole County, Missouri 35 years ago. I have been self employed as an electrical contractor for 25 of those 35 years.

Anyway, when we moved back to Missouri from Wyoming in 2003 our plan was to build which we subsequently did. We moved into the house in September of 2004. Being a native Missourian and having been an electrician all this time I was well aware of the ice storms we occasionally get and tornados also. I set the house up for a generator from the get-go. Emergency panel, manual transfer switch, pin & sleeve cord connector...everything it takes to do it right. We also installed a Hardy outdoor wood furnace as we live on 84 acres of 98% timber land. The Hardy provides heat and hot water in the winter, I can run my well pump, furnace blower, 3 refrigerators, two deep freezers, our micro-wave and 3 lighting circuits. If I felt so inclined I could install a gen set big enough to run the entire house but I won't. The only thing I would ahve to do without given my current set up is AC. But, we also installe a whole house attic fan and unless it's terribly hot it works admirably. During an outage you're kinda in survival mode but I'm going to survive quite comfortably.

Overkill or survivalist? No, simply being prepared. Why would one not be?

[Dean D.]

Emergency panel, manual transfer switch, pin & sleeve cord connector...everything it takes to do it right.

That sentence right there warms my heart Sharps! I wish everyone took all of those precautions. Nothing scares me more than potential back-feed on a line by a generator hidden somewhere on a line I'm working on. Of course, improperly installed gen sets get smoked real fast when the crew installs their personal grounds! :twisted:

[Lloyd Smale]

Dean ive seen cases where grounds didnt do anything to a generator but maybe bog it a little. Also im sure your aware that even a grounded line can give you a shot of electricity for long enough to kill you. Thats why they push the two point grounding anymore. For years we worked storm trouble without even bothering to ground. I guess after about 20 hours of work we tried to get by with as little extra work as possible. About half way through my carreer we did start at least single point grounding tap lines we were working on but in all reality all that did was insure that a guy would only take ones shot before the reclosure locked out. Now the young guys there religiously 2 point ground and when on hooks ground about and below themselves on a pole. Us oldtimers were probably pretty lucky. Heck i remember working old 2400 delta lines hot on hooks with leather gloves. Poles were old dry cedars and you could for the most part get away with it. that was back in my contractor days. We had one guy get killed doing it and that put the end to that practice. Heck it wasnt until the last 10 years of my carreer that we wore sleaves unless we were in tight places on 3 phase lines. Theyd fire you on the spot if they saw you with gloves and no sleaves now. Times change and a linemans job is much safer today because of it. Just ask any lineman thats over 50 years old and im sure he could give you a story about why he shouldnt be here today.

[sharps4590]

Like I said Dean, I've been an electrician for a long time and we install a lot of big generators, for us. Up too 100KW. It's all in the NEC. That, and I would do it out of respect for Dad and all the other lineman even if it weren't.

I'm not a lineman but as I said, Dad is a retired lineman. I very well remember when he got hit by 2400, I was in my early 20's, about 36 years ago. Dad would have been in his mid-40's then. He was strapped in above a telephone line crossarm and only fell about 6 feet.....but it took him 3 days to calm down. When they took him to the doc in my home town, old Doc Brenner told Dad to go home and get down on his knees because that was the only reason he was still with us. Nope, not for me. It doesn't bother me at all to work with 277/480 wye or the old 460 3 phase delta but I'll stay right there, thank you very much. And I'll be d^$*d if I'm going to do anything to put you guys in jeporady.

[gwpercle]

With the high cost of gasoline factored in , gas powered generators can get expensive to operate. My friend got one after Katerina then when Gustave came thru and nocked power out for 12 to 14 days. He had his freezer hooked up to it plus a couple lights. Said he spent $300.00 in gasoline to save $100.00 in food that was in the freezer. Next time he is going to let the food spoil and lay in a supply of batteries for the flashlights . Should be about $150.00 ahead then.

gary

[reloader28]

gwpercle Was he running the generator full time??

If your keeping a frig or freezer cold, you only need to run it for about an hour once or possibly twice a day to keep it cold enough. Thats what we do.

The easiest way to put in an emergency gen is to make a double male ended 6' or 8' extension cord. Turn off the house main power breaker and plug in the gen to an outside outlet. It will only run half your house (half the house is on each side of the breaker box) unless you make a jumper wire, but plug it into different outlets and find out which ones you need to power up (frig, freezer, living room lights). I swapped a couple breakers around in my box (I built the house so I know) and have the living room, half the kitchen, frig, freezer, a couple bedrooms and the main bathroom on the same side of the main box.

If you run this all at the same time it would take a pretty decent sized gen, but even the little 1200 watt one I keep at the house runs this setup easily if your being careful. Especially with the fancy little curly q light bulbs. Those take hardly no juice to run.

I actually prefer the kero/oil lamps and thats what we mainly use. Besides, the lamps sure give off a lot nicer, more laid back atmosphere that we really enjoy in the house.

[sharps4590]

After hooking up generators from little portables up to 100KW diesel gen sets and doing it for 30+ years and having passed my Master Electrician test in 1981 it is my considered opinion that to hook up any generator without some kind of transfer switch is an accident waiting to happen. The life of a lineman is not worth one second of forgetfulness in sequence of operation. I have customers ask me all the time to "fix one so i can just plug it in to a dryer receptacle", or as reloader suggested. I will not do it. If I install any kind of generator hook up it gets a transfer switch, period. Granted such a connection is made all the time but not by this electrician. It is a bad practice, a violation of NEC and against the policy of every utility I have ever worked with.

[Bret4207]

Power was out for a day and a half here when the storms rolled through with 90+ temps. This is what I did until the power came back on.

http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b180/Jailer/posting%20pics/Poweroutage001.jpg

Okay, no offense or insult intended, but what message does that pic send, especially to a kid or anti-gunner? Booze and guns? Not a good idea. Again, I mean no offense, but we live in a culture where it seems knowing enough to have a beer AFTER the guns are put away no longer exists. It just becomes ammo for the anti-gunners.

[gwpercle]

reloader28 ,
Yes , he was running it all the time. This was his first experience with generator and freezer and power outage. he didn't know, but he 's learning.
He is from Stuebenville , Ohio and say's they don't have hurricanes up there.
Country boys will survive but city slickers catch heck during times like that.

gary

[Gator 45/70]

I have one that i converted to triple fuel...
Ran it during Gustave for 13hrs...On Nat.gas...Never had to leave the house searching for fuel.

[waksupi]

Around here, if you are in most any ones house and having a beer, there are firearms pretty much everywhere. Never saw one yet, jump up and hurt anyone.

[Jailer]

Okay, no offense or insult intended, but what message does that pic send, especially to a kid or anti-gunner? Booze and guns? Not a good idea. Again, I mean no offense, but we live in a culture where it seems knowing enough to have a beer AFTER the guns are put away no longer exists. It just becomes ammo for the anti-gunners.

Message? No message, just an image of what I did in near 100 deg heat during a power outage to keep cool and entertain myself.

"Lighten up Francis"

[Bret4207]

Funny, in the "Hug triggers fatal shooting" thread there are people taking the cop involved to task for being careless by having a gun at a bar. What's the difference between you and the cop? None that I can see. Guns and booze shouldn't mix.

[Jailer]

Funny, in the "Hug triggers fatal shooting" thread there are people taking the cop involved to task for being careless by having a gun at a bar. What's the difference between you and the cop? None that I can see. Guns and booze shouldn't mix.

Big difference, I didn't shoot anyone.

[Lloyd Smale]

Sorry but i dont see the big deal in a grown adult having one or two beers on a hot day while shooting. I havent yet seen anyone do anything stupid after drinking one or two beers that he would have done if he had not. Now common sense has to prevail. You dont want to go and pound a 6 pack or two but one beer sure aint hurting a thing. As to exposing a kid to it. A kid sure isnt going to grow up his whole life not seeing people drink beer. I can remember back when i was little my old man taking me into the bar and sitting me on a stool and buying me a pop while he had a beer. I felt like a king being in there and its a found memory. Sure didnt scar me.

[Bret4207]

There ya go. It's okay to have one or two or 3 or 4 or 7 or 12. That's what people always say just BEFORE they do something stupid. No offense gentlemen, but guns and booze, cars and booze, chainsaws and booze don't mix.

[10x]

With the high cost of gasoline factored in , gas powered generators can get expensive to operate. My friend got one after Katerina then when Gustave came thru and nocked power out for 12 to 14 days. He had his freezer hooked up to it plus a couple lights. Said he spent $300.00 in gasoline to save $100.00 in food that was in the freezer. Next time he is going to let the food spoil and lay in a supply of batteries for the flashlights . Should be about $150.00 ahead then.

gary

I ran a 50 KVA genrator for 45 days to power my kids house while the power company (Atco in Alberta) dithered in energizing the line to the house. The unit burned diesel - just over 450 litres in 45 days - light load very little draw.
My electric arc welder gave it no problems and the D.I.L. could run the oven, washer, dryer, and hair dryer and the governor did not open in the least.
Cost of diesel at the time was 90 cents a litre.

[fishnbob]

Talking about linemen, it has to be about the toughest way to make a living I've ever seen. In the winter I've seen them up poles or in buckets with the wind howling and rain freezing on the surface of everything including their beards and they are still gittin' it done. In the summer it's fightin' bees, heat & humidity & listening to everybody bitch about no electricity. My hats off to them! After the June 30th wind storm, I'm looking into a whole house generator. I should have done that when I built the house.

[ole 5 hole group]

I set the house up for a generator from the get-go. Emergency panel, manual transfer switch, pin & sleeve cord connector...everything it takes to do it right. Overkill or survivalist? No, simply being prepared. Why would one not be?

That's the way to do it - I call my panel an auxiliary electrical box while you call yours an emergency panel. After every extended summer outage some neighbor will say they are going to get their home wired for a generator - they just never get around to it.

A smaller unit is really nice a 100 miles from civilization if you've got the steam to pack it and the fuel, as pancakes in the morning and deep fried fish and french fries in the evening is as good as it gets. Propane and the small water heaters are God sent as well.

For those who usually don't store gasoline in engines - just use aviation gasoline as your last two fills and it'll fire up on the second pull every time after setting for 6 months to two years - of course, a battery started generator is even better.

[44man]

The first thing I did was shut off the main breaker to protect the great linemen and to not lose my power to someone else.
I went to my neighbors to shoot the breeze and he has solar on his roof. I told him to shut the breaker, he is a danger from feedback.
Solar is a myth unless you can transfer for your use without feedback. His was useless in a power outage. He spent $30,000 for a useless system. He shuts stuff off to watch the meter to see how much of a check he will get from putting power in the line. He will be dead 20 years before the system is paid off.
Solar works but is too expensive to set up. Then to not be able to use it for a power outage is a very low blow.
He has a small generator but the carb was a pile of muck. I cleaned it for him but said he needs a kit. It kept flooding out because the rubber needle valve seat was shot. he was too stubborn to go buy one.
I understand electric and the effort to keep it coming to my home. My power company workers are hero's and to see many here is amazing, you are my hero's.
Electric should be under ground away from storms. The expense after all these years would be out of sight. Maybe Obama has a magic wand! :holysheep

[odfairfaxsub]

Dean ive seen cases where grounds didnt do anything to a generator but maybe bog it a little. Also im sure your aware that even a grounded line can give you a shot of electricity for long enough to kill you. Thats why they push the two point grounding anymore. For years we worked storm trouble without even bothering to ground. I guess after about 20 hours of work we tried to get by with as little extra work as possible. About half way through my carreer we did start at least single point grounding tap lines we were working on but in all reality all that did was insure that a guy would only take ones shot before the reclosure locked out. Now the young guys there religiously 2 point ground and when on hooks ground about and below themselves on a pole. Us oldtimers were probably pretty lucky. Heck i remember working old 2400 delta lines hot on hooks with leather gloves. Poles were old dry cedars and you could for the most part get away with it. that was back in my contractor days. We had one guy get killed doing it and that put the end to that practice. Heck it wasnt until the last 10 years of my carreer that we wore sleaves unless we were in tight places on 3 phase lines. Theyd fire you on the spot if they saw you with gloves and no sleaves now. Times change and a linemans job is much safer today because of it. Just ask any lineman thats over 50 years old and im sure he could give you a story about why he shouldnt be here today.

whew. tell you what. i do the substation thing for va power and we have to do proximity grounding /work zone grounding. about asking old timers told me once they would go up in the sky and when transfering wire they would lay their 2/4kv on their climb belt until their body position was right then grab it with just their rubber gloves on. kinda scarey. its a wonder most are around but maybe my ultra careful self way of thinking. say the delta configure is that where they have no ground relationship like the mines and quarys use? my boss threw that talk one day and said he heard of guys that would work that stuff in leather gloves b/c you were safe due to the electric isnt trying to go through your feet. wierd. i lent my generator to some friends of ours. had electricity now for 5 days and still havent seen my generator back. they better have not left it out in the freakin weather or ill freak on them.

[wire nut]

It's heart warming to hear someone thank a lineman. I have been working for an electric utility for 33 1/2 years. I have been cursed, threatened to be shot and have about have to fight just because some idiot didn't think we were working hard enough to restore their power.
LLoyd today the lineman are using a new safety belt. It will only allow you to fall about a foot before it tightens around the pole. If they are caught free climbing they get time off. To unbelt and go above the hardware they use a secondary belt so that at no time will you not be buckled off while on the pole.

[Bad Water Bill]

I have a village self designated watch dog and tattle tail in my neighborhood. For many years she has walked the village with pen and paper in hand and called the police or village for any and all infractions she thought you were guilty of. Of course each phone call MUST be checked out and a FULL report filed.

Last year we had a power outage (bird hit transformer) and within 30 minutes the power co was on the block. As soon as she saw the truck out came her pen and paper and she went over and started with name etc of the driver. After about 5 minutes of her keeping the man from doing what he was being paid to do I took out my cell phone and hit 911. I explained what the problem was and I could FEEL the smile on the operators face as she sait THANK YOU SIR we will be right on it.

Less than 2 minutes later THREE squad cars were on the scene and I have never seen cops do more finger pointing and ????? in my life.

The lineman had a big smile on his face as he drove away.

Seems like the police never had legal grounds before to put both boots up her .

She has since turned in her resignation as village pain and all of us gave a sigh of relief.

Thanks MR lineman for giving me the opportunity to see her get the reward she so justly deserved.

[Lloyd Smale]

I used one of those abortions to climb with once. I pitty guys on the crew because they have to use them now. Free climbing may have been a bit more dangerous but most of us were good enough doing it that accidents rarely happened. I think some of the reasoning behind them is that the new guys rarely climb. they have trucks to get into most poles with buckets. the first 4 years of my carreer we didnt even have a bucked truck we climbed everything. I remember when they came out with the rule that we had to keep our belts around the pole when we were climbing. We all just laughed and nobody ever paid attention to it. Lineman are a funny breed. A bit egotistical. Most dont want to be told any aspect of there job even if it means being more safe. telling then they have to do something a certain way is about a guarantee that they wont. The new guys comming up are a bit differnt though. The union protection isnt what it used to be and saying no isnt much of an option anymore if you want to keep your job. But bottom line is if a guy went out in a storm and obeyed every saftey rule there is it woud take twice as long to get power restored. It allways amazed me that the same bosses that would hang you out to dry if you disobeyed a saftey rule during a normal day would be the first to turn a blind eye when @@@ hit the fan. Alot of our problems came too from the fact that in the good old days your boss was a lineman that worked his way up to the foremans postition and you kind of respected him because he had been there and done that. Now most of the bosses are college graduates that wouldnt know how to put a belt and hooks on let alone spend 10 minutes on a pole in a storm to know. I guess its like that in lots of professions now. Just do me a favor guys. Next time your out of power for a long time and you see a lineman out working keep in mind hes likely wore to a frazzle and is bust his but to get your power back on. Offer him a soda or a cup a coffee instead of complaining that things are going to slow. He may remember it and the next time theres a bunch of outages you might get put at the top of his list! I may wine and complain about how crappy a job it was but most days it was a great job. My office was the outdoors and i was usually in a differnt place everyday. Sure i met some real jerks but i also met some of the nicest people around. I also made more money that any non college educated man in the area and more them most that even went to college. But there was sure days you deserved twice what you were making.
It's heart warming to hear someone thank a lineman. I have been working for an electric utility for 33 1/2 years. I have been cursed, threatened to be shot and have about have to fight just because some idiot didn't think we were working hard enough to restore their power.
LLoyd today the lineman are using a new safety belt. It will only allow you to fall about a foot before it tightens around the pole. If they are caught free climbing they get time off. To unbelt and go above the hardware they use a secondary belt so that at no time will you not be buckled off while on the pole.

[Bret4207]

I have a village self designated watch dog and tattle tail in my neighborhood. For many years she has walked the village with pen and paper in hand and called the police or village for any and all infractions she thought you were guilty of. Of course each phone call MUST be checked out and a FULL report filed.

Last year we had a power outage (bird hit transformer) and within 30 minutes the power co was on the block. As soon as she saw the truck out came her pen and paper and she went over and started with name etc of the driver. After about 5 minutes of her keeping the man from doing what he was being paid to do I took out my cell phone and hit 911. I explained what the problem was and I could FEEL the smile on the operators face as she sait THANK YOU SIR we will be right on it.

Less than 2 minutes later THREE squad cars were on the scene and I have never seen cops do more finger pointing and ????? in my life.

The lineman had a big smile on his face as he drove away.

Seems like the police never had legal grounds before to put both boots up her .

She has since turned in her resignation as village pain and all of us gave a sigh of relief.

Thanks MR lineman for giving me the opportunity to see her get the reward she so justly deserved.

HAR!!!!!! Good for you!!!!!