All of the news stations are running Public Service Announcements on how to report outages and telling people to stay 25 feet way from downed wires.
I don't know about you guys, but all of my 25' measuring tapes have steel tapes. The last time I looked, steel is conductive.
Hmmmm!
Weird. We never got below freezing, although we did get over 2 inches of rain.
ReplyDeleteJust a wee bit... conductive, that is...
ReplyDeleteI can (and have for years been able to) judge 100 yards up to a 1000 yards reasonably accurately 'by eye' (it might have something to do with practice and some obscure hobby of course).
ReplyDelete25'? not a chance. I just know there'll be some 'simple' geometry trick to do so but (sorry Mrs. Brewster, my long suffering maths teacher) I can't remember (and would probably get the wrong answer if I did - I'm 'gifted' that way).
My automatic immediate response was ... "Why 25 feet?", why not 24, or 26? Does the voltage, cable material, pole construction or terrain vary the recommended amount? I started wondering about weather, soil-types, ground-cover and then realised ... like every other recommendation by 'experts' they ... made it up off the top of their heads [I believe the formula for such is:
R = A(I/Hb)M
R – Recommendation
A - Actual safe amount
I – the IQ of the typical recipient (as perceived by the ‘experts’)
Hb - the Hold-my-beer factor of the recipient population
M - the Media-multiplication-factor (the amount needed to make it sound ‘scary/news-worthy’)
Usually rounded up to make it easy for media talking heads and celebrities to remember and sound panicked about.
E – the amount the ‘experts’ would personally use, can be added as numerator or denominator depending on whether they are getting paid to encourage or discourage the peons].
Meanwhile, I'll just walk far enough away I can 'just' see it (no further or it may catch me unawares - gifted like I say).
What caused the power outage? Was it ice and snow or something else?
ReplyDeleteAnd yes, the safe distance varies by situation; sometimes 25 feet is more than enough, sometimes it isn't.
Freezing rain, 40 mph gusts. I assume most of the outages were due to tree limbs breaking off and falling into the wires. In some cases, entire trees might have toppled into the wires.
ReplyDeleteStill a mess here in Jackson.
ReplyDelete