When did a month become thought of as a long time for electric service to be

[krispos42]

166. The wires are already there

All the really hard work to setting up a grid is done.


The wires are made... thousands of tons of copper and aluminum, strung out on poles or buried underground, thousands of miles of it. Some of them are broken, but they can be spliced.

The poles are in the ground... most of them. Some are knocked over or broken, but most of them are untouched.

The transformers and substations are there. The land is already purchases, the transformers and towers and insulators and other critical parts are already there. Some are damaged, but that's a repair job, not starting from scratch.

The grid is already designed. Capacity and use is well established already.


In this part of the country at least, it seems to be a matter of removing the tree limbs and splicing the broken wires according to a plan. A plan based on what happened with Irene and the Halloween Nor'easter within the last 14 months.

A week is reasonable for most areas. 2 weeks is reasonable for remote areas. A month is indicative of a major infrastructure crisis.