[TowerTalk] GUYING and trees

[Dale L. Martin]

We just had an presentation on emergency preparedness and
response by one of the FEMA people who oversaw the emergency
response operations at the Murrah Federal Office Building in
Oklahoma City.  It was quite a talk--almost 3 hours, with a lot
of video that never made the networks.  (He did speak positively
about amateur radio comm support.)

Anyway, that was the bulk of his presentation.  He just left New
England, having spent the last two months up there working.  He
said that the power companies were hard pressed to get things
going again.  A lot (not all) of the problems there could have
been prevented by guying the power poles--interesting side note:
none of the power lines or poles are insured! Also, homeowners
caused a lot of problems for themselves because earlier they
would not let the power company trim back (not stupid) trees near
the power lines.  When they (branches and trunks) snapped, they
took out not only the neighborhood high tension lines, but the
individual feeds running to the houses. So, there are many
instances, according to the speaker, where the neighborhood high
tension lines are back up and operational, but the homeowner is
without until someone can be made available to do the individual
run to the house.

73,
Dale, kg5u




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