Electrical Outage Due to Sandy

There is a road I pass daily that has been closed since super storm Sandy went through Oct. 29 and 30.

The sign on the road stated it was closed because of flooding. Two days past the last of Sandy, the road was still barricaded. Sandy didn't deliver enough rain for that kind of flooding. I decided to investigate.

It was fifteen minutes before sunrise and birds were singing and chirping all around. I parked just past the barricade and walked towards the stream where the flooding would occur. As I progressed farther, I could hear the drone from one electrical generator.

In front of the house with the droning generator I saw a large branch of a Catalpa speciosa(cigar tree) lying atop the power lines. It was putting a severe amount of tension on those wires.

Beyond the broken branch, on the ground, was a electrical transformer. Due to the tension on the wires the utility pole, on which the transformer was mounted, was broken and dangling upside down. When this incident originally happened, this was a very dangerous situation. Live wires on the ground. The ground wet with rain. A deadly situation.

The transformer was definitely off the pole and on the road pavement. It was fairly obvious the electricity had been turned off to this section of the road. But you can never be sure. It is best to stay far from the wires and transformer if you were to come across this situation.  Electricity is not forgiving.

At the time this photograph was captured, except for the one house with the generator, the houses on this road were without electricity for four days.

As sure as the sun will rise again, electricity will return to the houses on this road. Just not sure when.


©Damyon T. Verbo - all rights reserved

Super Storm Sandy Clean - Up

Thursday morning, two days after Sandy blew through my neighborhood, with the sun above the horizon just twenty-five minutes, I noticed an impressive mass of trucks in the nearby Target parking lot. There were, by my estimations, thrity-some six wheel bucket trucks, utility pole lifting trucks, trailers, 12 passenger vans and pick-up trucks from out of town. Originating, I figured from the license plates, in North Carolina and Florida.

Organizing amongst the trucks were dozens of safety vest wearing workers - lineman, flagmen/women, tree trimmers and supporting crews. Workers that left their families and put their regular lives on hold. They traveled hundreds of miles north to help clean up and re-energize my neighborhood. An unfamiliar community hard hit by a powerful super storm.

They arrived the night before and stayed at a new hotel in the area, Hilton Garden Inn in Oaks, PA. A facility that opened its doors just three weeks earlier upon finishing construction. The hotel is a few hundred yards away their hot tired trucks rested overnight in the Target parking lot.

According to Nicole Ream, Regional Director of Sales, the hotel embraced the arrival of the workers. "After three days on the road",  Ream said, "Garden Inn wanted to make the workers feel at home. These are great group of guys. They will be working long hours doing dangerous work with high voltage. Once they are here in the hotel we want them to relax and provide them with good food and comfortable surroundings." 

"We here at the hotel are very interested in our community," Ream told me. "The owners and staff are grateful for the sacrifice of these out-of-town workers are making to help our community," she said. She added, the chef has put extra effort into making sure the breakfasts are hearty and will last the men through their mornings. He personally baked cookies to include in the box lunches to bring a little bit of home to their mid-day break and meal. And lastly after sixteen hours of hard labor, the workers should have good hot filling dinners before they get to lay their heads down and close their weary eyes.

Hilton Garden Inn usual guests are corporate and leisure travelers was well as guests from the community. Guests such as grandparents visiting for the holidays or those storm victims without electricity looking for a dry comfortable place with a hot bath to stay for a few nights.

The hotel is located in Marketplace of Oaks /422 Business Center. It shares space with large retail stores Target, Lowe's, BJ's, indoor entertainment and The Greater Philadelphia Expo Center. There are also several eateries such as Bob Evans, Max and Erma's, a hot dog and a sushi restaurant and a pizzeria.

The inn also contains a bar and restaurant that are open to the public as well as a banquet facility for meetings, parties and wedding receptions.

If you see one of these men sacrificing their lives to bring our community back to full functioning, stop and say thanks, thanks a lot.

©Damyon T. Verbo - all rights reserved

Valley Forge Park Pre-Hurricane Sandy

I stopped by Valley Forge National Historical Park to see what preparations were evidenced before the impending super storm named Hurricane Sandy.

The sky was overcast with very little contrast.

The arrival of Hurricane Sandy was little more than 24 hours away and no preparations were in site. 

©Damyon T. Verbo - all rights reserved

Hurricane Sandy Preparations

As much as the media has reported on Hurricane Sandy, I just need to add my two cents. Sandy was not just a category one hurricane, it was a category one hurricane combined with several other weather systems to create a super storm. Some in the media were calling Sandy, Frankenstorm, because of the timing near Halloween. (In my mind Frankenstein's monster was manmade. Is it a conscience or sub-conscience tying of this storm to man's influence on earth's weather?) Mind you, meteorologists did not call this the storm of the century. We suffered through one of them just twenty years ago. With this century just started, I think the meteorologists are waiting until later in this century to use that term again. I am somehow comforted by the fact that I will not see another storm of the century.

In any event, I spent most of Monday raising everything off the floor of my basement. (Note to self - bring a large trash can down to the basement.) My house is built on what appears to be solid rock. Rain water or melted snow runs down hill, finds the hole that is my basement and begins to fill that hole. I have a sump pump that runs with the slightest rain. When the sump pump is working correctly, I do not have a problem with water in the basement. However, twice in the last nineteen years, I have walked through the basement with water up to my ankles.

The first time, most of the family was out visiting my eldest daughter at University of Pittsburgh. My son stayed behind to mind the dog. There was rain at home, the sump pump did not work and water quickly accumulated in the basement. The next time the sump pump was working fine. The check valve, however, was not. With the super storm approaching, both the sump pump and the check valve were in good working order. However, there were predictions of power outages. Without power water will rise in the basement. That is why I spent most of Monday in the basement.

During the three days before the arrival of Sandy, I found two battery operated radios, three flashlights, both a propane camping lantern and camp stove, a dozen large candles and several boxes of matches. Friday I purchased, bread, milk, eggs, two cases of bottled water, propane cylinders and food that could be eaten without heating.

I collected all items outdoors that might become missiles in high winds and brought them into the garage. I tied down the large swing on the patio. I was fairly confident all the gutters were clear because of the gutter guards installed on them. My biggest concerns were the twenty year old shingle roof, my large windows on the ground floor and the sump pump and loss of power.

Once everything was complete, I went into the garage to build a bedside table for my youngest daughter, currently at Millersville University. It was either that or watch TV and media coverage of the advancing storm. I opted for the garage. I was prepared as I was going to get.

The power was interrupted at 21:37 on Monday.

©Damyon T. Verbo - all rights reserved

Irene Moving Out

Immediately upon awakening I went to my bedroom window to assess the damage from last nights storm.  A few branches down but no trees.  More importantly, the electricity was never interrupted.  I did the rounds of all the second floor windows and saw about the same.  There is significant water puddled or shall I say ponding in the rear of my backyard.  My neighbor's yard, to my NE, has ponds where water usually never stands.  The fact that the two large trees within 10 feet of my house did not fall on my house has my nerves calmed quite a bit.

This is the rear of my house from the rear of my backyard.  The large trees can be seen on the left of the house.

Irene has Arrived

I write this entry just arriving upstairs from shelter in our basement due to a tornado warning.  This is the first time in my 60 years living in the Philadelphia area that I have ever even thought of taking shelter from a tornado.  Don't get me wrong this area has seen some tornados. A tornado hit in Limerick, PA July 24, 1994 not far from my present suburban home.  That destructive tornado took the lives of a young family and destroyed many a home on that street.  There was another that reportedly lifted a telephone booth (remember them?) along with someone talking on the telephone and set down both the booth and the person across the street.  This happened within the limits of center city, amongst those narrow streets and tall buildings.  Tornadoes rarely happen here.


From my bedroom, I continue to hear tornado warnings on TV.  The Governor of Delaware suggests that all Delaware residents sleep in their basements tonight.  Unthinkable for this area.  Toto, are we in Kansas?  If we are to sleep in the basement tonight, I will need to straighten up down there.  Could be that by the time I am finished, it may be morning.  Looks like a big job ahead of me.  I might not be getting any sleep at all tonight.  I hope the electricity isn't interrupted by a fallen tree.  If the electricity is interrupted the basement may flood because the sump pump won't have power.  It won't be a bad idea if we make ourselves comfortable in some large RubberMaid totes tonight.

Local TV coverage of hurricane Irene