You are currently browsing the Diesel Generator News and Reviews weblog archives for September, 2008.
20. September 2008 by admin.
Hank Dorman and the rest of Utica’s residents are still without power six days after the wind storm that caused the biggest and longest blackout in Duke Energy Corp.’s history.
And the prospects for power to come back Saturday, as Duke previously said, are slim.
“We’re a mess up here,” Dorman said. “I haven’t seen a Duke truck in sight — I guess we’re sort of on the back burner. We’ve got about 600 people without power — they’re on edge.”
The town of Utica has taken it upon itself to clean up brush and trees, but residents and officials can’t fix the electricity, so they have to rely on Duke.
The Michael L. Becher Adult Corrections Complex work crew also is working to clear limbs in Utica.
According to Dorman, about 90 percent of Utica residents were still without power as of Friday afternoon, though Duke said that only a handful of residents there are without power.
Duke also said Friday that power will not be restored to everyone in its Clarksville District — which serves Clark and Floyd counties — until late Sunday or Monday. About 26,000 customers around the state are still without power, about 14,000 of those in the two counties as of Friday evening.
The Clarksville District had three times the number of individual cases — poles down or branches on wires — than in any of its other service areas in the state, said Angeline Protogere, a Duke spokeswoman.
“You may have a crew work an hour and only help a handful of people,” she said. “At this phase we’re tackling problems that bring on a smaller amount of customers. Power restoration in the final stretch is often more tedious because you’re working on a lot more individual problems.”
Statewide, there are 2,500 “cases” that need to be resolved to turn power back on to 26,000 customers — 1,600 of those cases are in the Clarksville District.
Protogere said that 1,100 of those cases only involve between one and five customers, 300 of the cases affect between six and 50, and 72 of those cases affect between 50 and 500 people.
“Power restoration is going to take longer than expected for some of our customers,” said Duke Energy Indiana President Jim Stanley. “Some of the North and South Carolina crews that we were fortunate to have assisting us are now moving to Ohio and Kentucky to help address the more than 130,000 outages we still have on our system there.
And in the past four days, 1,800 new cases have developed in the Clarksville District caused by fallen limbs that were weakened by Sunday’s winds. Though Duke is sending its North Carolina crews to Ohio and Kentucky, it is pulling other crews from around the state to come to Clark and Floyd counties.
Rumors of copper theft from downed lines as a cause for the delay in restoring power were denied by Duke. Protogere said that is an issue, but not particularly during the aftermath of the storm.
Harrison REMC, which serves parts of Floyd county, has about 4,700 customers without power, but has said some might be in the dark until Wednesday.
Clark County REMC has been able to more quickly reduce the number of outages since the storm. With 9,000 customers out of power Sunday, now only 1,000 remain to be fixed.
“I’ve been here 31 years and I don’t recall us ever having an outage this widespread,” said Denise Adams, with Clark REMC. “I’ve never seen this many outages for this long of a time period.”
Adams said Clark REMC is hoping to have restored all of its customers’ power by Sunday.
“Certainly customers are frustrated,” she said. “There are people that this is the straw that broke the camel’s back and for some it’s just an inconvenience.
“For a lot of people, their just enduring it and finding creative ways to spend time with their families.”
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19. September 2008 by admin.
Generator Sparks House Fire
HOUSTON — A generator sparked a fire that gutted a west Harris County family’s home, officials told KPRC Local 2.Community volunteer firefighters battled the flames on Monte Vista Drive near La Grande Drive on Thursday afternoon.Officials said the owner bought a generator on Thursday because his power was out from Hurricane Ike.
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18. September 2008 by admin.
PORT ARTHUR, Texas — The first fatality related to a generator fire in a home that lost electricity due to Hurricane Ike is being reported in Port Arthur.
Sgt. Kris Boneau with the Port Arthur Police Department says a woman died Wednesday night after the generator she was refueling ignited.
Boneau said the fire happened in a house that didn’t have any electricity.
Port Arthur television station KFDM reported Thursday morning on its Web site that the fire happened around 7:40 p.m.
Boneau said the woman was taken to a hospital and was pronounced dead.
He said the victim’s age and name cannot be released pending next of kin notification. He said it was the first generator fire fatality related to Hurricane Ike in this Port Arthur-Beaumont area.
The Ike death toll in Texas stands at 18, with 51 deaths in the U.S.
Across Texas, 1.9 million people are still without electricity.
Port Arthur is located 22 miles northwest of Beaumont.
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17. September 2008 by admin.
TORONTO, Sept. 17 /CNW/ - Hydro One announced today it has dispatched
crews to Ohio to assist with power restoration efforts after Hurricane Ike
devastated the State’s electricity system earlier this week. The Company will
send 170 line maintainers and other personnel as well as equipment to the
Columbus area.
In Ohio, where a state of emergency has been declared, more than
1.3 million homes and businesses have been without power since Monday. Ohio’s
American Electric Power (AEP) has asked Hydro One for assistance to repair its
badly damaged electricity infrastructure. Hydro One crews are expected to
remain in Ohio until Monday, working in the Columbus and Canton areas where
approximately 600,000 residents are without power.
“I am proud of the employees of Hydro One for lending their knowledge and
expertise in a time of great need,” said George Smitherman, Deputy Premier and
Minister of Energy and Infrastructure. “Hydro One’s commitment to corporate
citizenship demonstrates how organizations and people bound by a common
purpose can make a significant difference even in the aftermath of terrible
disasters.”
“Hydro One has a longstanding tradition of answering the call for help,”
said Laura Formusa, President and CEO, Hydro One. “Outages of this magnitude
can be crippling to any community. This is why our support to this restoration
effort is so important.”
Hydro One has reciprocal agreements in place with North American
utilities to provide assistance during significant power outages. Hydro One
crews have assisted U.S. utilities following other emergencies, including
providing assistance to the State of Florida following hurricanes in 2004 and
2005. In 2006, the Company dispatched crews to Buffalo, New York to assist
with power restoration following a freak snow storm. In 2007, the Company also
dispatched crews to Vermont following a severe weather event that resulted in
significant outages.
Hydro One delivers electricity safely, reliably and responsibly to homes
and businesses across the province of Ontario and owns and operates Ontario’s
29,000 kilometre high-voltage transmission network that delivers electricity
to large industrial customers and municipal utilities, and a 122,000 kilometre
low-voltage distribution system that serves about 1.3 million end-use
customers and smaller municipal utilities in the province. Hydro One is wholly
owned by the Province of Ontario.
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16. September 2008 by admin.
Most schools remained closed and a half-million households were still dark on Tuesday morning in Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky, following the Sunday windstorm spawned by Hurricane Ike.
About 520,000 Duke Energy customers were without power as of 9 a.m. Tuesday, according to the utility’s Web site.
About 275,000 of those were in Hamilton County, and about 75,000 in Butler County, where there are “water supply emergencies” in several areas of the county, according to the Hamilton Journal-News. The city of Fairfield issued a “boil water” advisory and officials warned residents that they may experience low or no water pressure until power is restored to the city’s water works.
Cincinnati Public Schools closed for a second day, saying in a statement that about 20 of its school buildings had no electricity as of Monday afternoon, and another 30, plus the district’s back-up storage site, had spoiled food due to lack of refrigeration.
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16. September 2008 by admin.
HOUSTON — More than 30 Houston residents have been treated for carbon monoxide poisoning after using gas-powered generators because Hurricane Ike knocked out their power.
A spokeswoman at Memorial Hermann Hospital’s Texas Medical Center emergency room said Tuesday that 34 cases had been reported since Saturday.
Ike slammed ashore early Saturday, and as of late Monday, more than 1.6 million people were without power.
Three carbon-monoxide deaths in Southeast Texas have been linked to the hurricane.
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16. September 2008 by admin.
FAIRFIELD COUNTY - Residents and employers can rest assured utility crews are working as fast as they can to restore service to customers in Fairfield County.
But that might not be fast enough for the more than 22,000 AEP and South Central Power Company customers still without power in the county Monday night. Power company officials estimate it could be Friday before all power is restored in the county.
The after effects of the wind storm - remnants of Hurricane Ike - that blew through the state on Sunday still are being felt as residents clean up debris in their yards, schools determine whether to have classes and thousands sit in the dark or seek shelter elsewhere waiting for the lights to come on.
“It’s the worst I’ve seen in Lancaster,” said Sue Hanaissian, who lives on Kanawha Drive, of the wind storm. “Never seen anything like it. It just kept on and on and on.”
Hanaissian had a 30-foot tree in her front yard that spilt and left several large branches in her yard. Neighbors helped the 89-year-old remove what was left of the tree on Monday.
“We were standing on the porch talking, and we heard a crack,” Hanaissian said. “Half of it went one way, and half of it went another.”
Hanaissian has lived in her house for 51 years. She said Sunday’s weather took her by surprise.
Five deaths in Ohio including four by falling trees and one person electrocuted while working on a generator are blamed on the storm.
One of the storm victims was Baltimore resident Randall Shaffer. A tree limb fell on him in his backyard late Sunday. It’s the only storm-related death in Fairfield County, according to Fairfield County Sheriff Dave Phalen.
Gov. Ted Strickland declared a state of emergency Monday in response to the widespread power outages and damage around the state that left nearly 2 million customers without power.
The declaration will allow greater flexibility of allocation resources to help with local roads in need of clearing and to assist utilities in moving crews from around the state and nation to where they need to be to help get power restored as quickly as possible, according to a news release from Strickland’s office.
Many school districts closed in Fairfield County Monday, and at least one school district - Lancaster City Schools - remained closed today. County offices also closed Monday as electricity was either sporadic or absent inside office buildings.
But there’s good news, said Jon Kochis, director of the Fairfield County Office of Emergency Management and Homeland Security.
“Most of the roads (in the county) are opened up, though there is some debris - tree limbs and trees down,” Kochis said. “The big problem still is the power. I’ve seen a lot of road crews, and they’re doing as much as they can do. It just takes a long time; it’s a big job to do.”
Lisa Hooker, spokeswoman for the South Central Power Company, said the service provider had about 51,000 customers without power at the height of the wind storm Sunday.
But by Monday evening the number of customers without power in the company’s service area - 24 counties - decreased to about 14,493 customers. About 2,800 of those customers were in Fairfield County.
“So we’ve really come down, and we made good work (Monday),” Hooker said. “We’ve brought in contractor crews, and we’ll continue to bring people back on. We would like to think we can have all the power restored on Friday.”
Hooker said this is a big improvement from the Christmas winter storm of 2004 when residents in some of the company’s service areas - not Fairfield County - were without power for 13 days.
AEP Spokeswoman Rachel Dutton said the power company is working to restore power to residents in the Lancaster area by midnight Friday.
About 20,300 AEP customers were without power as of 8:15 p.m. Monday, according to the company’s Web site.
Dutton said some priority could be given to restoring power to fire and police stations first, but she couldn’t provide a specific timeframe.
The power outages aren’t preventing Lancaster workers from conducting city business.
Lancaster Mayor Dave Smith said his office and a number of related departments operated off natural gas and diesel generators Monday.
“We’re able to function as much as we can on a regular basis,” he said. “We’ve got the necessary power and the necessary computers to operate our fire and police departments.”
Smith said there hasn’t been any issues with city utilities not being functional.
The city’s wastewater treatment facility, Smith said, is operating on a diesel generator. Although the cost for the generator is expensive - Smith said it burns 50 gallons of diesel fuel per hour - it can remain functional for even the longest of outages.
Smith said he surveyed the wind damage throughout the city Sunday night and throughout the day Monday.
“It’s odd to be without power and not see icicles hanging from the rooftops and piles of snow in the streets,” Smith said. “Nothing’s flooded. There are no puddles, and it’s relatively warm outside. It’s one of those oddities.
“It is bad, but it’s not hopeless.”
Smith encouraged residents to help their neighbors and check on the elderly.
That’s exactly what 10-year-old William Dansler of Lancaster did when he helped his elderly neighbor Orlin “Ike” Iacobellis clear his yard of branches Monday.
Ed Drobina, service director for Pickerington, said work crews spent most of the day collecting tree limbs and will probably be doing so for the next couple of weeks.
“We put in some OT last night to clear some of the streets, and we had four guys going in and sawing (tree limbs) to make streets passable,” Drobina said.
“I hope everybody’s patient with brush pickup because it’s going to take a while.”
Lancaster Street Superintendent Mitch Nusser said 10 employees were dispatched Sunday night to begin preliminary clean-up operations. That number ballooned to 22 employees Monday. The city rented an additional chipper and bought a handful of chain saws to cope with the overwhelming amount of limbs and branches.
“There was a lot,” Nusser said. “It’s all over the entire city. With straight-line winds, you see damage contained to three or four blocks that travels six to eight blocks. This was different. The entire city got hit.”
Like everyone else, Nusser and his crews are at the mercy of AEP and South Central Power to clear potentially live power lines.
“Some trees we’re dealing with have power lines tangled in them,” Nusser said. “They’ve called crews in from outside the area. They said it could take 48 hours to get them here.”
Nusser said his department cut trees and limbs and piled them up at 60 locations throughout the city on Sunday and Monday. The calls continued to pour in Monday, Nusser said.
Nusser said his crews won’t be able to clean up small limbs for a week to two weeks. Instead, his department will rely on homeowners to do the bulk of the clean-up.
“Anything in the yard is the property owner’s responsibility,” he said. “We ask that the clean up and dispose of what they can.”
The unique nature of Sunday’s wind storm made for a difficult clean-up for his crews, said Nusser, who has worked for the city for 33 years.
“I’ve seen ice, tornadoes and straight-line wind events,” he said. “As far as damage to the entire city, this is the worst I’ve ever seen. The ice storm from a few years ago was pretty bad.”
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16. September 2008 by admin.
TORONTO — More than 25-thousand customers are without electricity Monday morning across Ontario after a night of rain and gusting winds.
Worst-hit areas include Alliston, Peterborough and Bancroft, while Hydro One isn’t reporting any outages in some southwestern regions. In Fenelon Falls, more than 5,300 customers are affected by outages.
Service isn’t expected to be restored until later in the day.
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16. September 2008 by admin.
As of 9 p.m. Monday, 591,000 people are still without power in the Tri-State.
Ohio and Kentucky have both declared state of emergencies.
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14. September 2008 by admin.
HOUSTON — A 4-year-old boy has died of poisoning from carbon monoxide from a gas-powered generator operating in a house in the wake of Hurricane Ike.
Joshua Aguirre died about 1 p.m. Saturday in the one-story house north of the city. He was one of four children inside at the time, the Houston Chronicle reported.
The generator was operating at the back of the house and Ortiz said the children’s father, who was working, called his brother and asked him to check on his family. Houston Police officer Gabe Ortiz said the brother found the occupants in the house unresponsive and called for help.
Joshua died at the scene and the others were taken to Memorial-Hermann Hospital. Ortiz did not know the names or ages of the other victims and their conditions were not immediately known on Sunday afternoon.
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