Power and Water, how often do you have an outage?

[Pi R Squared]

Right now where I am we are having a terrible windstorm, the wind is gusting to 50mph with 25-35mph sustained winds, this is all through the puget sound area of Washington state. The high wind warning is in effect until 6:00pm pacific time. This is bad here because I am deep in the forest and surrounded by trees, everytime this happens there are roads blocked and trailers damaged or destroyed by trees. My power has now been out for about 90 minutes and the water is just now trickling off to nothing, it usually takes about an hour after the power is off for the water to stop completely, then when the power comes back it can take another hour or more to build up water pressure again. I would say this happens an average of about four times in a year. Sometimes the power is out for as little as an hour, other times it can be up to 12 hours. Verizon Wireless is still working so maybe the outage isn't too large, but my battery doesn't last so long after 3 1/2 years.

I feel like I live in a third world country, the U.S. Needs to spend more on maintaining infrastructure. Here in Snohomish County, Snohomish County PUD has a reputation for not being reliable.

Where you live how often do you have a power outage? And do you ever have a water outage too?

Alan

 

[GSS]

I live for now in the city of Fall River MA in 14 story building. As im in the highest part of the city where the wind does its number I would say 10 times a year. Backup generators dont bring up the water supply to the apartments. Then we have to run the water for an hour to get it clean again. Flooding is a major issue down the the lower parts after a storm. This is a bad problem for a city that is active and theres no excuse. My residence near Boston doesnt have any on going problems. Pi I can imagine what a problem an danger it is for you in a rural area.

 

[crazyspaz]

That's another thing the UK has done right- run their power lines underground (IDK what other countries do this, I just know the UK does). More expensive, but less power outages.

We don't get power outages too often, we do get some crazy wicked storms though (and the occasional tornado). The longest I remember our power being out was 2 days or something like that.

 

[gozert]

I live in The Netherlands and rarely ever have a power outage or water outage. Our infrastructure is pretty solid compared to many other countries. We had a windstorm a little longer than a month ago, and there were quite a few trees on the road. This windstorm however, was literally nothing compared to what you guys have to deal with quite frequently. Yet it was the worst windstorm we've seen in a hundred years. That's just how easy we have it here when it comes to weather.

 

[NightExplorer96]

Here, near Sacramento, we rarely have storms strong enough to knock power out. Water as far as I know has never gone out(at least in my town). We did have a couple storms this year however that shut off the electrical grid for a few minutes

-Alex

 

[Gabe]

Never in my life time (not a whole lot of time, actually) have I ever had a water outage, and I only remember a power outage once, I believe due to lightning striking the power station, and they had to shut it off to do repairs. Must've been out for no longer than an hour. However, I am in the middle of the city as opposed to you being in a more rural setting it seems, Pi.

 

[BowtieGuy]

Pi, I feel your pain, my power goes out often also. The duration is usually 1-3 days, the last time was just this past Friday, it was out for only 12hrs.
A year ago last Christmas, our power went out in a severe ice storm, and was out for 7 days; Christmas till New Years, a not so merry Christmas and happy new year!

I'd love to get a whole house automatic generator, instead of dragging out the old portable one every time, but I say that every time the lights go off.

 

[marcuspeh]

I live in Singapore and we rarely have a power outage. As far as I can remember, we never had a water outage. The worst windstorm I could remember caused tress to collapsed and block roads. Roof tiles are also blown off.

 

[Dr_Evil]

A lot of the electric lines near me are buried. The power will flicker on a rare occasion during a storm though. I don't think the power has ever gone out for more than a few minutes in my 5 years of living here.

The only time water has gone out is if there is maintenance going on or they are flushing the lines using hydrants. The water here tastes horrible though. The main problem I have is getting dirty water in the lines. I have no idea why it happens. The whole subdivision I live in has that problem once in a while. It sneaks up on you though. Unless you have white sinks, tubs, toilets, etc, you might not even know it's happening. I mostly notice when flushing the toilet. The water coming in will look worse than my urine.

 

[Ehgemus]

I have lived in the same place for almost 15 years and have never ran out of water. In that 15 years are power has flickered here in there, than in 08 we had an ice storm and the powder was out for 8 days. We had power company's from 6 different states helping to get it back going.
I wouldn't of minded it if it wasn't for having a saltwater fish tank. Anyone that has a saltwater fish tank will know where I'm coming from.

 

[GR3EN]

Where I'm at in NJ we lose power often. Almost every storm. It may not always be for long but we do. If not due to the weather then it's because the local township does not do their part on cleaning up tree branches hanging over power lines which in return break and hit or slam against the lines causing an outages it's a real problem in the winter as well when the snow and ice weigh down tree branches. Then there's always the person who runs into a power line pole once or twice a year.

At my job about 3 miles from my house we lose power literally every storm. About 15 times this year minimum.

 

[DashApple]

Last major power outage where I live was a long time ago and was due to a substation fault , around 10 years ago , lasted about 10 hours . No water outages

That's another thing the UK has done right- run their power lines underground (IDK what other countries do this, I just know the UK does). More expensive, but less power outages .

Yeah In most new sites built its all run underground , on all the blocks in my area its all underground including two new estates that have been built , but we don't get that many big storms here either .

 

[Pi R Squared]

Well my power came back on after 23 hours, and another 1 1/2 hour for the water to come back on. Virgin mobile (Sprint Network) is still out so there must still be outages in the area but Verizon Wireless is working or I couldn't post this. We had some serious storm cells come through and there was really heavy rain. I see I am not alone with this problem and some other places don't have this problem. I have to let my battery finish charging, will be back on later.

Alan

 

[diachi]

We haven't been too bad for outages here in the last year, but previously things weren't great. We had one outage towards the end of December 2013 I believe, it was -40 out and the power was off for 3 hours. The whole city is mostly powered by Diesel at the moment, which seems more reliable than the Hydro plant.

 

[Pi R Squared]

Well I guess the storm was worse than I thought, there are still 25000 people without power, down from 88000 yesterday, and that's just in Snohomish county. I am lucky to have power and water, I live in a giant RV park with 2500 lots, 1/3rd is still without power and water because one of the 4 power lines in still isn't connected. They are without water because our water comes from wells and there are 3 of them, we are divided into well areas 1, 2, and 3 and they aren't connected to each other and of course the pumps are powered by electricity. It's not a good system. This also means I can't do laundry because the laundry is in the area without power.

Alan

 

[Alaskan]

No outages in Anchorage, Alaska for years now.