Typhoon Phanfone - Ursula (18 Dec 2019)

[Irenicus 8,259]

17 hours ago, shadow said:

Meanwhile, in Dumaguete the clouds burned off. We attended a friend's Christmas party on the beach, a gorgeous day it has been down here!

It was the most beautiful day I have seen in Dumaguete in the past six years.  Sunny, dry-ish, cool and WALAY TRAPEK!!

If it was like that every day in the Philippines, it would be a lot closer to paradise.

[shadow 18,483]

6 minutes ago, Irenicus said:

It was the most beautiful day I have seen in Dumaguete in the past six years.  Sunny, dry-ish, cool and WALAY TRAPEK!!

If it was like that every day in the Philippines, it would be a lot closer to paradise.

Yeah, we didn't actually make it to downtown (Mangnao only), but saw some pics of the deserted streets. Looked pretty appealing.

[easy44 5,564]

Ursula kicked our asses on Christmas Eve. Very strong winds here in NW Leyte.  Power still out as of now, lots of wind damage but mostly downed trees, not so much houses. We are in Ormoc now buying ice to keep our refrig and frozen food from spoiling. Many power poles leaning severely on road from Polompon to Ormoc. These we're the poles that replaced the damaged ones from Yolanda. Wonder if they are still under warranty? Looks like it's gonna be a couple of days before they are fixed. 

[+to_dave007 5,914]

3 hours ago, easy44 said:

Ursula kicked our asses on Christmas Eve. Very strong winds here in NW Leyte.  Power still out as of now, lots of wind damage but mostly downed trees, not so much houses. We are in Ormoc now buying ice to keep our refrig and frozen food from spoiling. Many power poles leaning severely on road from Polompon to Ormoc. These we're the poles that replaced the damaged ones from Yolanda. Wonder if they are still under warranty? Looks like it's gonna be a couple of days before they are fixed. 

Here in rural Cebu.. in the north..  CEBECO seems to be in a major program to replace the short wooden poles with quite tall concrete ones... double the height of the old poles..  high enough to move the wires above the treetops.  Seems to be happening only on national highway around the island plus along the tie across the island from Sogod to Tabuelan.  I'm guessing this is part of program to become much more typhoon tolerant.

[+Dafey 15,226]

Lost electric about 7:30 Christmas eve. Thank God for the GenSet! saved all our food as we ran it for an hour every 2 hours or so. Internet just came back last night and the electric has been off and on. It pays to prepare for even the small storms. As @easy44 said...it kicked our asses good.

The kids were amazed that Santa found us in the storm!

[SkyMan 23,709]

20 hours ago, easy44 said:

Ursula kicked our asses on Christmas Eve. Very strong winds here in NW Leyte.  Power still out as of now, lots of wind damage but mostly downed trees, not so much houses. We are in Ormoc now buying ice to keep our refrig and frozen food from spoiling. Many power poles leaning severely on road from Polompon to Ormoc. These we're the poles that replaced the damaged ones from Yolanda. Wonder if they are still under warranty? Looks like it's gonna be a couple of days before they are fixed. 

 

16 hours ago, to_dave007 said:

Here in rural Cebu.. in the north..  CEBECO seems to be in a major program to replace the short wooden poles with quite tall concrete ones... double the height of the old poles..  high enough to move the wires above the treetops.  Seems to be happening only on national highway around the island plus along the tie across the island from Sogod to Tabuelan.  I'm guessing this is part of program to become much more typhoon tolerant.

Just a thought, but buried power lines are pretty much impervious to typhoons.  True that earthquakes can be a problem but not as bad as a whole line of poles down.

[Jawny 4,617]

I’d expect the  replacement of overhead lines with underground is not a likely prospect for the Philippines.  Primarily due to cost. The attached report, and there are others, suggest that initial costs can run 4 to 14 times greater than the cost for a similar line using above ground technology. As well, the maintenance costs can be higher over time of usage. 
 

https://www.power-grid.com/2013/02/01/underground-vs-overhead-power-line-installation-cost-comparison/

[Headshot 29,350]

2 hours ago, SkyMan said:

Just a thought, but buried power lines are pretty much impervious to typhoons.  True that earthquakes can be a problem but not as bad as a whole line of poles down.

Underground power lines are ten times the cost of overhead lines, and they have one-tenth the life expectancy. The other thing is that typhoons tend to bring a lot of water with them, so ground level connections are more susceptible to flooding than connections high above the ground. The solution to having reliable power in typhoon-prone areas is to build on tall poles with good separation of conductors. BTW, separation of conductors is also good for birds, since they are unlikely to come into contact with two conductors simultaneously. However, there is no sure way to maintain power during strong storms. If things are flying around in the wind, there will likely be outages. The difference comes when it is time to re-establish power to an area. Power in properly constructed lines will be re-established quicker than poorly constructed lines.

Edited December 27, 2019 by Headshot

[shadow 18,483]

The weather all during the typhoon was absolutely glorious down here, then this morning between 3-6 it had to have dumped an inch or two of rain, accompanied by a two hour brownout.

All gone now, bright and sunny again...

[+Salty Dog 69,056]

1 hour ago, shadow said:

The weather all during the typhoon was absolutely glorious down here, then this morning between 3-6 it had to have dumped an inch or two of rain, accompanied by a two hour brownout.

All gone now, bright and sunny again...

What the hell are you talking about? What does this have to do with underground power lines… 

[shadow 18,483]

3 minutes ago, Salty Dog said:

What the hell are you talking about? What does any of this have to do with underground power lines… 

Well that 2 inches of rain may have soaked down into those underground power lines!

[Headshot 29,350]

17 minutes ago, Salty Dog said:

What the hell are you talking about? What does this have to do with underground power lines… 

Hey... The typhoon is long gone. We have to talk about something.

[Paddy 1,434]

I used to live in a subdivision of Toronto that was built with all services underground. The only things above ground were the street lamps and distribution boxes for cable and telephone - even the transformers were in vaults. It looked much better than older subdivisions, definitely seemed to be more resilient but, according to a utility manager I worked with at one point, was much more expensive to install and maintain. 
Having watched Masbate road and utility crews consistently fail to consider drainage or use simple tools like spirit levels when putting up a pole for the last 18 months ish, I shudder at the thought of a buried electrical distribution system here...

[Sibonga Simon 61]

As a former Aussie, who lived in the US for donkey years, I can only agree with your thoughts.  I lived in a rural subdivision just outside of DC, where all the utilities were underground.  BUT, all the transmission/cable/telephone lines to the subdivision were overheard.  So, pretty much every winter, or whenever a ice storm came done from Canada (dig,dig), the lines would be broken from fallen tree limbs.

The problem was not the platform, but the fact that they allow trees taller than the power lines to grow right next to the lines.  In most of OZ, and I guess a lot of places, trees are 'culled' so that they cannot fall on major transmission lines.

My point being... underground or not, it takes a little more planning, and upkeep, as you suggested, than our Filipino friends are likely to do. 

Edited December 28, 2019 by Sibonga Simon
spelling correction

[SkyMan 23,709]

23 hours ago, Headshot said:

Underground power lines are ten times the cost of overhead lines, and they have one-tenth the life expectancy. The other thing is that typhoons tend to bring a lot of water with them, so ground level connections are more susceptible to flooding than connections high above the ground. The solution to having reliable power in typhoon-prone areas is to build on tall poles with good separation of conductors. BTW, separation of conductors is also good for birds, since they are unlikely to come into contact with two conductors simultaneously. However, there is no sure way to maintain power during strong storms. If things are flying around in the wind, there will likely be outages. The difference comes when it is time to re-establish power to an area. Power in properly constructed lines will be re-established quicker than poorly constructed lines.

Maybe it would work for some of the longer runs though, X miles of conduit might cost more than X miles of poles but not if you have to replace them every 5 years.