Day Seven... Already?

please note im doing this on my phone and the program does not work all that well.

Quick description on the photos below.

• this is a job we pulled up to with multiple spans of primary down and broken transformers
• flooded and closed streets
• our 12-bunk trailers
• somehow a large stick got wedged bee
• between the  passenger door handle and tire making an annoying sound
• another broken pole, lines, and transformer
• just some snow
• our base camp from top of bucket truck during our 6" snow fall

It is now day seven and things seem to be on the upswing.  We survived the nor'easter receiving more wet snow than wind.  As far as customer outages go we are still relying on the local news channels and radio foe updates.  JCP&L (jersey central power and light) have been getting a lot of negative public press as their lack of information  and progress are upsetting customers to local government.  Many customers are onto day 11 without power and some of those have no heat.  The word around is to have everyone back on by this Sunday but others say by thanksgiving... that should give you a sense of what we are dealing with. Liz, my co-pilot and I, are currently getting call outs for non-outage lights found on jobs coming from a dispatcher in Pittsburgh.   Our VP Rodney Blevins and few others flew up today to thank us and check in on everyone for the day. My director drove up the other day at 2am to check and visit with  us all as well.  the food has been good giving the situation.  i should know more today regarding how much longer we will be in New Jersey.

talk to you all soon!

update on Day 3

Good morning all, this is day three of our restoration efforts in new jersey.  Are base camp is set up at the First Energy stadium. Dominion has brought in enough 12 bunk sleeping campers for roughly 300 men.  We also have our mobile command unit set up for communication throughout our unit.  it wasn't until this trip that i have finally realized how advanced and superior our company truly is.  Below is a panoramic of some of the buckets set up in our parking lot.

Now to let you know the conditions quickly. there are 12 people per trailer in bunk style. we have a large base camp style tent for food around the clock. one bonus is that they bought a 55" Led samsung screen for us to watch football and news. the food has been good, just normal things like soup, chicken, salads, etc.  showers are in a different trailer as well as bathrooms. everything is heated and ventilated.  

So far the utility company we are working for seems quite overwhelmed.  Thus we have yet to be as productive as we would be in Virginia, which is expected. they have no maps for us to let us know how the circuits run from the substation. W

at Dominion we have everything on computers from which we upload are damages.  regardless a long couple days...

a few pictures above show the beach area near point pleasant and Belmar nj. 

that's all for now. i hope this gives a little idea about things. the beach are spared alot of electric utility damage but expansive flooding and wind damage. We are at Redbank today where alot of damage from trees has been identified. 

Talk to all of you soon.

Andrew

Beginning Details

Dominion has asked all of their employees for volunteers to proceed with our storm restoration efforts to help our neighbors to the north.  Our territory seemed to escape much of the wrath from hurricane Sandy.  Our total system peaked with roughly 150,000 customers out, which by comparison the summer storm Derecho caused outages for nearly 1.1 million.

Tuesday morning (10/30)  I was told to report to our Leesburg office for patrol duty.  I then spent the next 3 days there patrolling.  The damage compared to large thunderstorms but Sandy brought much more rain and flooding damage than expected.  Many roads and roads were closed or washed out.  There were numerous trees that were up-rooted from the wind and saturated soil (see image below).  Leesburg is a more rural territory, bordering Maryland and West Virginia towards the Mountains.  Many of our lines will go miles to serve one customer so working all day to put up 4 spans of primary for one customer makes the recover longer than most.  One job required us to hike a mountain (950ft accent in a half mile) to ensure the line was clear, all this for a cell tower.  Clearly there was not a road otherwise we would have driven.

On a brighter note, since we were in the countryside there were an abundant amount of pets and wildlife.  I saw about a dozen bucks and couldn't count the number of horse farms and cattle ranches we drove by.  The best house I came upon had two little golden retrievers and two little kittens.  I must say that I would have loved to take them home with me, but unfortunately that would not have gone over to well. 

Well now for the little bit of information I know about for my departure tomorrow morning.  We will be departing at 6 am Saturday morning (11/3) from Alexandria.  Our base camp is located in the town of Lakewood New Jersey, specifically at the Lakewood Blue Claws Stadium.  I am told we are perusing hotels, but in all likelihood we will be staying in bunk bed style camper trailers.  I will know more tomorrow and hopefully be able to provide some updates.  

Feel free to forward this site to anyone, but warn them that the grammar and punctuation will only get worse!  

talk to you all soon!

Love Andrew