Small disaster today...

[375supermag]

So there I was working in the reloading room when the power went out.
Turns out a tree limb snapped and fell across the power lines. The weight caused the utility pole in the front yard to snap off and catch fire.

Called the power company and the fire department. Fire company got here pretty quickly and blocked the road but didn't attempt to put out the fire. Power company eventually
showed up and after about 30 minutes used their bucket truck to go up and use a fire extinguisher to put out the fire.
And then they left. The entire neighborhood is without power and they just left.
This outage occurred somewhere around 5:00PM.

Power company came back around 10:30PMwith three trucks, a brand spanking new pole and a crew of workers.
They have been digging a hole for the new pole for over an hour.
My front yard is never gonna be the same.

[cwtebay]

Glad everyone is alright!

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[William Yanda]

Power Co.s tree crew does trees. Different crew does poles. Around here Power Co. contracts out the tree work even though all the crews belong to the same union.

[myg30]

Count your blessings it could have been worse. Hope all goes well

Make sure you double check any powder you dropped in cases if that’s what you were doing when power went out. Last thing you need is a double charged case !

Mike

[375supermag]

Glad everyone is alright!

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We are all fine.
More aggravation than anything.
We got power restored about 2:30-2:45AM.
Some nice deep ruts in my front yard from three different utility company trucks and a big pile of dirt mounded up around the utility poles.
Not quite sure what to do about the tree limb that is still laying across the wires at the corner of my property. Guess we will have to have somebody come in with a bucket truck to clean that mess up.

[Markopolo]

trees across lines are a common occurrence here... its why I have a generator.

[375supermag]

Count your blessings it could have been worse. Hope all goes well

Make sure you double check any powder you dropped in cases if that’s what you were doing when power went out. Last thing you need is a double charged case !

Mike

Hi...
No worries on the powder...I was in the middle of priming a few hundred .45Colt cases when the lights went out. Mostly just a disruption of my reloading routine than any thing else.
I typically load big bore revolver cartridges on my RockChucker so I do priming separately on my RCBS APS bench mounted priming tool.

I enjoy doing big bore revolver cartridges on my RockChucker. I am retired so I have plenty of time to do that on a single stage press.

My son and I do semi auto rounds and .357Magnum cartridges on two different Hornady LnL progressive presses.

[mrmachinist]

If you are a squeaky wheel, the power company should send out a restoration crew to fix the ruts and plant grass. You may have to complain for a bit though.


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[375supermag]

If you are a squeaky wheel, the power company should send out a restoration crew to fix the ruts and plant grass. You may have to complain for a bit though.


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This looks like the kind of thing that I can take care of without too much trouble.
More of an unnecessary aggravation than anything. Probably go out there after the next time it rains and tamp it down. If I need to fill the ruts that's a bit more effort but nothing I shouldn't be able to handle.

[popper]

Complain a LOT. Small office park, power went out. Co was replacing poles, auger machine top caught the HV line and got fried/melted, fire had to come put it out. Out 2 days, took a week to get the mess cleaned up.

[375supermag]

trees across lines are a common occurrence here... its why I have a generator.

I probably should get a generator but in 27 years since we built the Estate we have only had three instances that I can recall that the power was out more than a couple or three hours.

I am just happy that the fire didn't jump from the pole to the house. The rest of the stuff is just an annoyance.

[Geezer in NH]

Homeowners insurance.

[panhed65]

trees across lines are a common occurrence here... its why I have a generator.

that's why I also have the generator. lots of trees around me, and the ash and hemlock are all being killed off by bugs from overseas. last month, one came down on the power lines and my car and tractor. lucky for me the car was just scratched a bit and one small dent. tractor was ok, but power out for about 8 hours. one week later, some not too bright people who are buying land down the road from me cut a tree down on the power line. woods on fire and again no power for about 8 hours. heard from the fire co that they will be getting a nice big fine. maybe they will learn something, they have not been back since.
Barry

[375supermag]

Hi...
Yesterday while my wife and I were out and about, the utility company repaired the damage to my front yard.
They removed all of the excess dirt from placing the new utility pole, filled in all the ruts from driving the utility company trucks across the lawn, spread grass seed and covered the seed with straw.

All in all, they did a very nice job.


FWIW, I never called them and requested they repair my lawn. I just had resigned myself to the fact that I would have to take care of it myself.

Pleased with their effort to make it right and quite frankly more than a little surprised that they did it and in a fairly short period of time.

[Handloader109]

Some power companies are great. I've a coop, and they are quick to respond and generally helpful and respectful of your property. Daughter is building home and they came out and put up meter base and lower box for less than I could have hired electrician.

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[Lloyd Smale]

i was a lineman for 30 years. 100s of calls like that. The power company isnt going to take a pole with them. There are just to many different sized poles and they dont know what else they will need like wire transformers ect.. We carried a spare 15kv transformer on our truck fuses spices and wire of different sizes but if a pole was broke there going to always come and assess the situation and run for material or call another truck to get those things while they clean up and get ready. I ran a bucket truck and even having a pole would do no good because you need a pole setting digger truck to set one. Add to that we had cut backs, major cut backs. When i started there was 13 lineman out of our shot and 6 trucks. When i retired we had one bucket truck one digger truck and 5 lineman. Its like that everywhere. Its why the power grid is in such sad shape. Back when i started we always had rebuild projects for sections of line where we set new poles and conductor and hardware. When i left if it wasnt falling down we didnt have time to fart with it. Even a routine outage from a squirrel or bird kicking a transformer fuse is a good 6 hour wait. Poles broke and line down your probably looking at 3 times that. Then if its a storm and theres multiple problems they have to ship in contractors and lineman from other areas and even states and it takes them 24 hours to even get on site ready to work.

It sucks but if it wasnt that way youd probably have a power bill twice what it is now. Public service commission controls rates and the only way to make a profit is to cut people and service. Believe one thing. Those lineman are poking the pooch. They want to get back to there dry warm house as much as you want to watch tv. We used to chuckle at people that would complain they missed there favortie show while we were up a pole with lightning cracking around us or in a 10 below zero blizzard. There was good customers too. Some even brought us coffee and food. More good and understanding people then the but holes. But those but holes would get under your skin. Most of them never did a day of work doing physical labor or in a room that didnt have heat and ac. Its a hard dangerous job. Think about that when your sitting in your house while there out there busting there but. Yup we made good money but I believe i earned it.

[Geezer in NH]

Hi...
Yesterday while my wife and I were out and about, the utility company repaired the damage to my front yard.
They removed all of the excess dirt from placing the new utility pole, filled in all the ruts from driving the utility company trucks across the lawn, spread grass seed and covered the seed with straw.

All in all, they did a very nice job.


FWIW, I never called them and requested they repair my lawn. I just had resigned myself to the fact that I would have to take care of it myself.

Pleased with their effort to make it right and quite frankly more than a little surprised that they did it and in a fairly short period of time.

Nice write them or your local paper thanking them for the service. They will appreciate that thank you.

[Gator 45/70]

i was a lineman for 30 years. 100s of calls like that. The power company isnt going to take a pole with them. There are just to many different sized poles and they dont know what else they will need like wire transformers ect.. We carried a spare 15kv transformer on our truck fuses spices and wire of different sizes but if a pole was broke there going to always come and assess the situation and run for material or call another truck to get those things while they clean up and get ready. I ran a bucket truck and even having a pole would do no good because you need a pole setting digger truck to set one. Add to that we had cut backs, major cut backs. When i started there was 13 lineman out of our shot and 6 trucks. When i retired we had one bucket truck one digger truck and 5 lineman. Its like that everywhere. Its why the power grid is in such sad shape. Back when i started we always had rebuild projects for sections of line where we set new poles and conductor and hardware. When i left if it wasnt falling down we didnt have time to fart with it. Even a routine outage from a squirrel or bird kicking a transformer fuse is a good 6 hour wait. Poles broke and line down your probably looking at 3 times that. Then if its a storm and theres multiple problems they have to ship in contractors and lineman from other areas and even states and it takes them 24 hours to even get on site ready to work.

It sucks but if it wasnt that way youd probably have a power bill twice what it is now. Public service commission controls rates and the only way to make a profit is to cut people and service. Believe one thing. Those lineman are poking the pooch. They want to get back to there dry warm house as much as you want to watch tv. We used to chuckle at people that would complain they missed there favortie show while we were up a pole with lightning cracking around us or in a 10 below zero blizzard. There was good customers too. Some even brought us coffee and food. More good and understanding people then the but holes. But those but holes would get under your skin. Most of them never did a day of work doing physical labor or in a room that didnt have heat and ac. Its a hard dangerous job. Think about that when your sitting in your house while there out there busting there but. Yup we made good money but I believe i earned it.

We do that a lot down here,The people treat a power company convoy like an ambulance in full blown response to an emergency.
No one moves when they come to an intersection and are given the right of way.
Food and drink? I'd like to say none of the power guys go hungry here, We offer everything from sandwich's burgers etc,
Thirsty? Cold water to coffee or cold beer is offered up and its all free to them.

[fivegunner]

Lloyd, VERY WELL SAID!

[Lloyd Smale]

We do that a lot down here,The people treat a power company convoy like an ambulance in full blown response to an emergency.
No one moves when they come to an intersection and are given the right of way.
Food and drink? I'd like to say none of the power guys go hungry here, We offer everything from sandwich's burgers etc,
Thirsty? Cold water to coffee or cold beer is offered up and its all free to them.

good for you. People like you made us proud to do what we did. Put a smile on our face after working 30 hours straight in terrible conditions. Thats another reason you wait more now. Osha in there infinite wisdom made a rule that lineman cant work more then 16 hours without a 8 hour break. Screwed you and it screwed us because after 12 hours we went to double time. They send us to Wisconsin to work and by the time we got there and on the job wed work a couple hours and have to go to the motel for 8 hours. All we wanted to do was get things fixed and get home. We used to go till we about dropped. I once worked 41 hours straight. We were told we could work till we wanted a break. We were even told back then that if we got tired to feel free to catch a couple hours of sleep in the truck on the clock. I could see a 24 hour rule but 16 is just silly and it adds to outages and cost customers more money in the long run because they not only have to pay for motels but they need more lineman because there always some off on rest time. Even lineman were controled by a socialist organization. As is the rate you pay for power which is determined by the public service commision and the rates you pay a direct result of this green energy bs that has shut down so many coal fired plants that produced clean energy. Hold on to your wallets because your going to soon see electricity so expensive it will be a luxury not something you take for granted. I have a buddy who still works in the main office. He told me that what going to happen is the power companies already are allowed to charge more for green energy and you have an option to buy it if you want. There changing it and giving government incentives to power companies to subsidize it in the future and you will pay for it whether you want it or not. He said they had a meeting last month and the board was talking a 25 percent increase in the next 2 years and another 25 percent spread over the following 2 years. All with the blessing of the government. Socialism plain and simple. Power for the rich and free power for the poor and you and I will foot the bill. That is if we can even afford it.