Hurricane Ida coming my way...Which arcades will I sacrifice?

I think you mean high water table (close to the surface).

There are ways to mitigate that. There are:
1. Special cables designed for such service with appropriate jacketing
2. You can install cables in PVC pipes which are sealed to keep the water out
3. Install sealed cable ways, which provide the necessary water exclusion features.

We have the technology. It is do-able.

Someone just has to decide to do it.

Yes, thank you. But I think you may be overestimating the commitment to quality infrastructure in that particular city (which I love dearly, but my God, to pick a lone example, the roads might as well be the surface of the moon)...
 
Sure. I misunderstood you. I thought you point was that there was no reason why anyone should STILL have aboveground utilities. One argument that could be made in LA now is, people are suffering, and we need to get the power back as quickly as possible. It'll take a couple weeks to prop the lines back up and get everyone whole, but could take months or years to bury everything. So while underground may be ideal, after a hurricane is not the time to do it.
Quite the contrary. When everything is torn from the poles - that's the perfect time to do it.

You incur the expense once, and eliminate the risk.

I can pretty much assure you that if they buy every transformer available, they won't have enough to do EVERYTHING.

But they'll have enough to do SOME. And every time, if that approach is used, eventually, the risk will be eliminated.

Think about it:
Trees down
Wires down
buildings damaged
Yards a mess
It's the perfect time to go direct burial. With the new rigs where you can actually do horizontal drilling, you can run the PVC jackets, install the sweeps, drop down the pad mounted transformer and pull the wires. Then install the service drops.

Yes, it's work, but they are already doing the work.

It's a decision. Everyone knows how hard it is. But the journey of a million miles begins with a single step.

We can talk ourselves out of it because it's too hard. But we're lying to ourselves - it never gets easier, or less expensive. Next year, it's more, and the year after, more.

Carpe diem. Or repeat this next year or two years from now when the next hurricane blows in.
 
Or a better question, if not now, WHEN?
The answer is apparently "never", if you're DTE Energy in Detroit. Those idiots keep putting in new lines, on new poles, and then wondering why they have nearly 1 million people without power for a week after a relatively minor storm.

...AGAIN.

...and AGAIN.

Also....they are willing to trim the trees around a line if you report it to them.

...for a fee!
 
The answer is apparently "never", if you're DTE Energy in Detroit. Those idiots keep putting in new lines, on new poles, and then wondering why they have nearly 1 million people without power for a week after a relatively minor storm.

...AGAIN.

...and AGAIN.

Also....they are willing to trim the trees around a line if you report it to them.

...for a fee!
Sounds like reform is needed there.
 
2:37am, 9-3-21...just got in the gas line...im in my little work car with ac kicking and im 4th in line...im filling 2 and a half gas cans for me and 2 for my neighbor. This place supposed to open at 6am. I have 3 bottles of water and some cookies and some grapes.

I spent last 4 days in clean up mode...my house is now all cleaned of debris and all damage has been mitigated (for now). Basically all of the "heavy lifting" is done for me, so now its just a waiting game for power to come backon. I had to half ass the fixes/repairs which should buy me some time till things get back to normal somewhat. So until we get power back my only thing to contend with is getting gas. I have enough gas cans to last me 2.5 days at a time.

I am also trying to upgrade my window ac i keep just for hurricanes...i currently have a 5200 btu..i just ordered an 8000 btu from home depot..the website says they have 21 in stock but when i purchased it online it showed as being deliviered on sept 9th...so i dont know whats up with that. I will go to home depot today and see if they took mine off the shelf...oh..and all stores like grocery and home depot and lowes..they only let a certain amount of people in at a time..as people leave they let others in..so there is always a long ass line and hours of waiting to get in the store. I guess they do this to keep it from being a mad house.

Here are some pics of my clean up efforts aftermath...everything u see lined up in front of house, i hand sawed...it about killed me..all of that was mostly on my roof. The other pics are of the townhouses behind me...one of their trees were uprooted and laying on my fence and the shed with the 3 projects games (robotro, lunar lander, stunt cycle)..i bought a chainsaw and went to town on that tree and left it all in their yard. I wasnt being mean but that tree is their responibility, not mine, and no one there seemed to give a shit so screw it..i handled it for them and let them deal with the clean up of their tree
 

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Wow, you've been busy! Glad to see that you're slowly getting back to normal.

From what I've read, Louisiana is getting swarmed with power crews from all over to help get power on for you. Hang in there!
 
The answer is apparently "never", if you're DTE Energy in Detroit. Those idiots keep putting in new lines, on new poles, and then wondering why they have nearly 1 million people without power for a week after a relatively minor storm.

...AGAIN.

...and AGAIN.

Also....they are willing to trim the trees around a line if you report it to them.

...for a fee!
Oh man, I can back this up. It seems I'm preparing for an outage every time it gets cloudy over here. Its getting ridiculous.

Glad OP made it through ok, stuff can be replaced.
 
Holy cow - that's a lot of wood! All hand sawn. Your arms must look like Ahnold!

I bought a chain saw years ago when I moved to an area with lots of trees. It's incredibly helpful and dangerous.

I know your choices are limited, but try to feed it non-ethanol fuel or you'll have carb problems in a year. The website is puregas.org.
 
Holy cow - that's a lot of wood! All hand sawn. Your arms must look like Ahnold!

I bought a chain saw years ago when I moved to an area with lots of trees. It's incredibly helpful and dangerous.

I know your choices are limited, but try to feed it non-ethanol fuel or you'll have carb problems in a year. The website is puregas.org.
That's the same thing I was thinking; I hope the OP is experienced with chainsaws because otherwise they can be really dangerous. One tragedy at a time is plenty.
 
Hurricane Eloise trashed my hometown when I was in the first grade. Went right over our house, my sister and I sat on her bed and watched trees fall in the back yard. The aftermath was like the world's biggest playset to a six-year-old: trees knocked over everywhere, interesting debris to poke around in, and school was out for a couple of weeks. Remember how awesome I thought it was that my dad "got to" spend that week chopping up downed trees with a chain saw.

Most fun hurricane ever; all the ones after that I was old enough to understand I should have been terrified...
 
2:37am, 9-3-21...just got in the gas line...im in my little work car with ac kicking and im 4th in line...im filling 2 and a half gas cans for me and 2 for my neighbor. This place supposed to open at 6am. I have 3 bottles of water and some cookies and some grapes.

I spent last 4 days in clean up mode...my house is now all cleaned of debris and all damage has been mitigated (for now). Basically all of the "heavy lifting" is done for me, so now its just a waiting game for power to come backon. I had to half ass the fixes/repairs which should buy me some time till things get back to normal somewhat. So until we get power back my only thing to contend with is getting gas. I have enough gas cans to last me 2.5 days at a time.

I am also trying to upgrade my window ac i keep just for hurricanes...i currently have a 5200 btu..i just ordered an 8000 btu from home depot..the website says they have 21 in stock but when i purchased it online it showed as being deliviered on sept 9th...so i dont know whats up with that. I will go to home depot today and see if they took mine off the shelf...oh..and all stores like grocery and home depot and lowes..they only let a certain amount of people in at a time..as people leave they let others in..so there is always a long ass line and hours of waiting to get in the store. I guess they do this to keep it from being a mad house.

Here are some pics of my clean up efforts aftermath...everything u see lined up in front of house, i hand sawed...it about killed me..all of that was mostly on my roof. The other pics are of the townhouses behind me...one of their trees were uprooted and laying on my fence and the shed with the 3 projects games (robotro, lunar lander, stunt cycle)..i bought a chainsaw and went to town on that tree and left it all in their yard. I wasnt being mean but that tree is their responibility, not mine, and no one there seemed to give a shit so screw it..i handled it for them and let them deal with the clean up of their tree
Great job on that clean up. That would have killed me in that heat. Just saw this morning that Entergy posted estimated restoration times. Westbank is Sept. 8, so I'll be camping out here at the in-laws at least until the end of next week. I'm fortunate that I didn't have any clean up and repairs like you did. Games all safe and sound, neighbor watching them with his several guns!! 🤪
 
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I upgraded the ac this morning (home depot, $327)....in stalled in 19 minutes..its a massive difference. And got a text from Entergy this morning that projected power date is 9-8.
 

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Man, that's a long time to be without power. You'll get through it. My worst was we had a Derecho come through, and it blew the top off a local pole and knocked down wires around the service territory. That was 3 full days. It's why I have a generator now - this house has a full basement with sump pump. My games would be underwater by then due to the battery only lasting enough for a typical loss of power and return. That, and our city decided it needed it's own electric utility.

Be aware - your fuel burn may go up with the bigger AC unit. More amps mean more fuel burn.
 
Man, that's a long time to be without power. You'll get through it. My worst was we had a Derecho come through, and it blew the top off a local pole and knocked down wires around the service territory. That was 3 full days. It's why I have a generator now - this house has a full basement with sump pump. My games would be underwater by then due to the battery only lasting enough for a typical loss of power and return. That, and our city decided it needed it's own electric utility.

Be aware - your fuel burn may go up with the bigger AC unit. More amps mean more fuel burn.
Yeah..i bought two more 5 gallon cans when i bought the ac anticipating more gas useage....so now i can have up to 35 gallons on hand...plus a little 2 gallon can for reserve.

All that runs is the ac, fridge and tv...some lighting at night if need be.
 
Yeah..i bought two more 5 gallon cans when i bought the ac anticipating more gas useage....so now i can have up to 35 gallons on hand...plus a little 2 gallon can for reserve.

All that runs is the ac, fridge and tv...some lighting at night if need be.
Sounds like you are on top of it. If you are buying ethanol gas, start saving those twist ties off the bread bags and what not. You'll need that "tag wire" (you strip off the paper) to clean out the very small idle pickup ports that get plugged up using ethanol supplemented fuels. They plug up when idle when the ethanol breaks down. Plus you get green, fuzzy crap in the carb bowl.

In my experience, your best bet (once power is back) is run the generator fuel system until it's empty, then dump and clean the carburetor bowl to get out any remaining fuel, and and those tiny ports in the carb using the tag wire.
 
Sounds like you are on top of it. If you are buying ethanol gas, start saving those twist ties off the bread bags and what not. You'll need that "tag wire" (you strip off the paper) to clean out the very small idle pickup ports that get plugged up using ethanol supplemented fuels. They plug up when idle when the ethanol breaks down. Plus you get green, fuzzy crap in the carb bowl.

In my experience, your best bet (once power is back) is run the generator fuel system until it's empty, then dump and clean the carburetor bowl to get out any remaining fuel, and and those tiny ports in the carb using the tag wire.
Thanks for the tip...and i will run it dry when power returns.
 
this area without power for that long would have already resulted in WW3.
did most folks down there ride it out, or run for the hills?
you planned well, but despite the extended nature of the event you also seem to be taking it in stride (y) keep up the great work!
 
9-4-21 I got to the gas line at 1:47am this morning...im first in line ..i lucked out because i live two blocks from the gas station. I parked my car, waited for a few more cars to park behind me, locked up the car and went home for about an hour...im back in my car now sucking up the ac...about to take a nap. Im getting 20 gallons of gas (4 containers)....this, plus what i have left at home will carry me till tuesday morning.

No atms running yet but Lowes is now giving cash back so I will hit that up later today. Home Depot as of yesterday is not giving cash back yet. Both are accepting debit and credit cards now. At first EVERY place was cash only. The gas stations are still cash only.
 
Hopefully, they aren't gouging on gas prices as well.

Do you have natural gas available? For the future, you may be able to run your generator on natural gas with an adapter.
 
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