Afterthoughts of Frankenstorm Sandy

Afterthoughts of Frankenstorm Sandy

Wednesday, November 7, 2012

It's been roughly ten days since the storm came through lower New York and the surrounding areas. Personally, I am still without power and gas is also a concern. Until classes started again, the only solid connection I've had to what's happening outside is by way of transistor radio and conditional phone service. In the meantime, I've thought a great deal about what has been going on and what I've heard from several sources; both media and public.

Electricity

After the storm hit, nearly 1 million people on Long Island lost power. Crews were sent in from all across the United States to help work on restoring power. There was a daunting figure given later in the week after some work was done which reported NYC, NJ and CT combined had 125,000 still without power while Long Island had 425,00. That's nearly 3 times the amount of the most populated city in the U.S. and two entire states combined. This was also before most of my town had power; approximately 8,000+ in the dark.

An ETA for power to most communities is today, which is coincidentally when we are scheduled to receive a nor'easter storm. However, it seems some extra precautions are being taken for the rest of the outages; now just below 200,000 from the last report. Crews are being deployed to areas to assess for water damage. If water damage is found, they are taking that house off the power grid. This is being done on a house-by-house basis. I've heard reports approximating power returning to some parts of Long Island around Thanksgiving. Considering this power company threatens to turn your power off if you don't pay your bill on time, I don't see how this is acceptable.

This is an example of reactive behavior instead of proactive behavior. For instance, power lines that are obviously intertwined with trees should have been assessed in good weather. One person explained while her house had water to the driveway, she had power because the storm before that took all the trees down. The trees seem to be the majority of the problem. Stop growing them near power lines, put them in parks. Sure, trees cam be beautiful but I don't see anyone praising trees now that they've cut power to their house.

I also heard there were power stations located near the water. This is a terrible idea unless the facility is using water to power the generators. I haven't heard of any such facility on Long Island, and it seems there are less than 10 facilities in the United States (although there are two in NY state). In my opinion putting anything against the water (i.e.: houses) is asking for trouble. Think of it like a theme park; a nice place to visit but not a place to live. It's all a matter of separating recreation from tranquility.

Gas

The problem started mostly around Wednesday from what I noticed even though it was probably active prior to that since most of Long Island was without power. This was also about the time the roads began to open up to civilians. However, if Long Island doesn't have power; the gas stations are included on Long Island and therefore could not pump gas.

One of the issues that compounded the problem was the influx of generators that perpetually became available. The vast majority of these generators run on gas. Now, not only did each adult on Long Island need gas for their car, they also now needed gas for electricity to their house.

Politicians and authorities in the state were interviewed regarding the gas crisis soon after. It was reported that the ports which accept the tankers for gas were closed due to storm precautions. However, opening the port is apparently a complicated process. However, the quick alterations to the ports in order to accept gas are again reactive measures instead of proactive.

Some time toward the weekend, I heard of another issue that was not being reported on the radio. Prior to the storm, gas stations had a regular schedule when they received gas. After the storm, gas stations were required to call their supplier for another shipment. Phone calls were not being received by the dispatch office and therefore no transaction could be processed. This was during the time where it was said "gas was flowing". Flowing in the distribution center perhaps, as these were all open at this point. The gas just wasn't getting on the road.

Mostly recently, another problem arose with an additive that was mixed with the gas to make it more environment-friendly. There was a shortage in this additive that again halted the process. Another reactive measure was put in place to bypass this step. This was when my understanding was clear; those people responsible with putting a plan in place were not knowledgeable of the entire process and therefore was inevitably doomed to fail. I attribute this to over-complicating systems for the sake of jobs and / or politics.

Phone

One of the things most people can depend on is phone service, both landline and cellular. The days directly after the storm, it was difficult to make phone calls. This is the most understandable but also most directly frustrating result of the storm. Indeed, cell phones are relatively new technology in comparison to electricity and gas however we have been accustomed to being able to contact others in the event of an emergency without needing to find a working landline phone. This limited service halted much communication between the population, including those responding to hazards. Alas, I have no corrective ideas for this proactive or reactive other than identifying the problems and solving them.