This is my first blog posting and I'm energized! Right now, my intent with this blog is to chronical events and post random thoughts.
Like today, for instance. I went up to the local observatory, where I volunteer (http://www.vbas.org/), about 10am this morning to work on fastening the right-ascension optical encoder mount to our 21" diameter telescope. I worked on it a little while and then had to go downstairs to drill a couple of holes using the drill press. So I was downstairs talking with our newsletter editor, Steve, and preparing to drill the holes, when all of a sudden... CRASH---POP... and the power goes out. There were four of us up there: I, Steve, John, and Jared. Everyone walked outside to make sure everyone else was OK. Thankfully, all were fine. We then walked down the drive to find a dead tree that had fallen across the road and snapped the power and phone lines. It was about 11:30am when the power went out.
The energized line was lying across a tree and down onto the pavement. Because of a storm the previous night, the street was wet, which allowed the line to arc to ground. The line sizzled like bacon on a hot griddle. Worse, the branch that the line laid across started smoking and sparking. The current going through the branch and down the tree to ground was slowly turning the branch into charcoal. The observatory is in the midst of the Monte Sano State Park (www.alapark.gov/montesano), so John contacted Kent, the park ranger, immediately. Kent reported no further power outage and then called the power company.
Meanwhile the live wire had burned its way through the first branch and was now lying across a lower branch, which also started smoking and even flamed up for a bit. Lucky us, after three weeks of drought, we just had nearly two inches of rain the night before and everything was still quite wet - so there was little danger of starting a serious forest fire. The ranger drove down to take a look at the situation. He stuck around only briefly after seeing that there was no immediate danger and returned to his post to await the power company. About a half hour later the line burned its way through another branch and we could tell it would soon fall to the gound. After a bit more smoking and sparking, the line finally burned its way completely through the branches and as it fell it touched the other broken line, the return line, and we heard another loud POP. This time it shorted out the system further back up the road and, this time, about half of the park campground lost power. It didn't take long for Kent to drive back down to see what had happened. The power company was contacted once again to let them know the situation had worsened. By now, Kent was headed back to the office to deal with the upset campers with no power. But hey, they're camping right? They should know how to deal with no power.
Once the second short occurred and knocked out a wider swath, our downed lines were now de-energized and posed nearly no threat (I still wouldn't trust the things not to suddenly get re-energized). Steve and Jared left about 2pm. Since the lines were already down, John and I decided to take the opportunity to cut down another dead tree that might one day fall and cause a similar calamity. We finished that about 4pm and the power company had still not arrived. We were tired and decided to drive out and leave contact information with Kent.
It's now after 9:00pm and I just got an email from John saying that he spoke with Kent and the power is back on - Praise Be Unto TVA!
Like today, for instance. I went up to the local observatory, where I volunteer (http://www.vbas.org/), about 10am this morning to work on fastening the right-ascension optical encoder mount to our 21" diameter telescope. I worked on it a little while and then had to go downstairs to drill a couple of holes using the drill press. So I was downstairs talking with our newsletter editor, Steve, and preparing to drill the holes, when all of a sudden... CRASH---POP... and the power goes out. There were four of us up there: I, Steve, John, and Jared. Everyone walked outside to make sure everyone else was OK. Thankfully, all were fine. We then walked down the drive to find a dead tree that had fallen across the road and snapped the power and phone lines. It was about 11:30am when the power went out.
The energized line was lying across a tree and down onto the pavement. Because of a storm the previous night, the street was wet, which allowed the line to arc to ground. The line sizzled like bacon on a hot griddle. Worse, the branch that the line laid across started smoking and sparking. The current going through the branch and down the tree to ground was slowly turning the branch into charcoal. The observatory is in the midst of the Monte Sano State Park (www.alapark.gov/montesano), so John contacted Kent, the park ranger, immediately. Kent reported no further power outage and then called the power company.
Meanwhile the live wire had burned its way through the first branch and was now lying across a lower branch, which also started smoking and even flamed up for a bit. Lucky us, after three weeks of drought, we just had nearly two inches of rain the night before and everything was still quite wet - so there was little danger of starting a serious forest fire. The ranger drove down to take a look at the situation. He stuck around only briefly after seeing that there was no immediate danger and returned to his post to await the power company. About a half hour later the line burned its way through another branch and we could tell it would soon fall to the gound. After a bit more smoking and sparking, the line finally burned its way completely through the branches and as it fell it touched the other broken line, the return line, and we heard another loud POP. This time it shorted out the system further back up the road and, this time, about half of the park campground lost power. It didn't take long for Kent to drive back down to see what had happened. The power company was contacted once again to let them know the situation had worsened. By now, Kent was headed back to the office to deal with the upset campers with no power. But hey, they're camping right? They should know how to deal with no power.
Once the second short occurred and knocked out a wider swath, our downed lines were now de-energized and posed nearly no threat (I still wouldn't trust the things not to suddenly get re-energized). Steve and Jared left about 2pm. Since the lines were already down, John and I decided to take the opportunity to cut down another dead tree that might one day fall and cause a similar calamity. We finished that about 4pm and the power company had still not arrived. We were tired and decided to drive out and leave contact information with Kent.
It's now after 9:00pm and I just got an email from John saying that he spoke with Kent and the power is back on - Praise Be Unto TVA!
1 comment:
Your new blog has sizzle, and pop. It's electric! I'm going to link to it!
Post a Comment