Houston-area residents enter sixth day without power, air conditioning
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Re: Houston-area residents enter sixth day without power, air conditioning
#2frustrated seems like an understatement
Re: Houston-area residents enter sixth day without power, air conditioning
#3Not angry enough to get their elected officials to make the power grid changes needed to make it more robust to such things.
I mean how can they when reps like Ted Cruz fly off to Cancun when the weather gets really bad.
Re: Houston-area residents enter sixth day without power, air conditioning
#4TL;DR:
> “The grid is a whole different issue which we’re addressing, have been addressing, and will continue to address,” Patrick said. “The power is down because the lines are down, and the transmission lines are down primarily because trees fell on them.”
Re: Houston-area residents enter sixth day without power, air conditioning
#5Not angry enough to get their elected officials to make the power grid changes needed to make it more robust to such things. I mean how can they when reps like Ted Cruz fly off to Cancun when the weather gets really bad.
Notice the deflection by the Lt Governor:
“People have a right to be extremely frustrated with CenterPoint. People are suffering through terribly oppressive heat, a lack of food and gasoline availability, debris everywhere, and much more,” Patrick said. “The poor and most vulnerable are suffering the most.”
Not, “People have a right to be frustrated with the government,”
Re: Houston-area residents enter sixth day without power, air conditioning
#6TL;DR: > “The grid is a whole different issue which we’re addressing, have been addressing, and will continue to address,” Patrick said. “The power is down because the lines are down, and the transmission lines are down primarily because trees fell on them.”
Is the grid not composed of power lines?
Re: Houston-area residents enter sixth day without power, air conditioning
#7TL;DR: > “The grid is a whole different issue which we’re addressing, have been addressing, and will continue to address,” Patrick said. “The power is down because the lines are down, and the transmission lines are down primarily because trees fell on them.”
Yes, building the infrastructure in the cheapest way possible has consequences.
Underground lines would not be vulnerable to falling trees. But they are a lot more expensive to install, and when they require maintenence for any other reasons.
Re: Houston-area residents enter sixth day without power, air conditioning
#8To me it's crazy people run so much AC at home.
It's like making global warming a worse problem with AC, so it gets hotter and we use more AC.
I live in Rome, Italy, we had 40C (104F) degree max temperatures during day, and even at night it doesn't fall below 29C (84) and we survive without AC just fine, not just me but the rest of my family in their houses too, of course it is sometimes uncomfortable, but that's summer.
The worst offenders though are the many shops that blast AC 24/7 and have their doors open! Put some goddamn sensors and sliding doors!?
I just can't look at it. Even worse, electricity comes and goes all time during summer and it's hard to work at times (I'm full remote).
I'm fully convinced nobody gives two damns about global warming and our own impact. It's better to just ignore our actions and focus on evil corporations so we keep avoiding doing anything, maybe buy and change our EVs every 3/4 years as it didn't make it worse.
Re: Houston-area residents enter sixth day without power, air conditioning
#9I was there last weekend & for the day of the hurricane. This was just a cat 1 hurricane at the time it passed through Houston, and there was SO much damage. I can't imagine the city is remotely prepared for (god forbid, and idk how likely it is that far inland anyway) a cat 4 or 5. We were staying in a hotel that had a backup generator, but every single other building that was visible from our hotel had lost power during the storm.
Everyone I talked to in the area lost power at home for at least a day, and many people said they expected to lose power for a full week.
I'm interested if anyone familiar with the local state of the grid knows whose "fault" the enormous turnaround time in restoring power is:
* Not enough employees at the electrical companies
* Infrastructure regulation (e.g. requiring buried lines in critical areas) is insufficient in Houston specifically
* Infrastructure regulation is insufficient in Texas specifically
* (or nationally? are there national guidelines for the power grid in various weather-prone areas?)
* The Texas grid being separate from the rest of the country's
* Other??
Re: Houston-area residents enter sixth day without power, air conditioning
#10To me it's crazy people run so much AC at home. It's like making global warming a worse problem with AC, so it gets hotter and we use more AC. I live in Rome, Italy, we had 40C (104F) degree max temperatures during day, and even at night it doesn't fall below 29C (84) and we survive without AC just fine, not just me but the rest of my family in their houses too, of course it is sometimes uncomfortable, but that's sum…
>To me it's crazy people run so much AC at home.
Tell me you've never been to Texas in July without telling me.