<p>Yes, mine are underground too and we were out for over a week during Irene and have more outages than any of my neighbors.</p>
<p>ebm103 and cartera - are your own lines to your property underground, or are all the feeder lines underground? I can understand if your lines are underground, but your neighbors’ aren’t, that means that the feeder lines aren’t and are vulnerable. </p>
<p>When most power goes out, it doesn’t happen at one person’s house, it happens closer to the power source.</p>
<p>Ours was an underground problem. It only affected our court a few houses on the street leading to it. Because so few were affected, we were at the bottom of the totem pole during Irene. They had to dig to fix it. The problem was that they didn’t know where the problem was underground so there were several attempts before they found the spot. We think there had been a re-occurring problem at that spot over the last year because we had lost power several times.</p>
<p>Our town message board is having the debate to bury lines. Most houses in our town were built from 1895-1930, so no one thought of it and frankly some houses probably didn’t have electric when they were built. </p>
<p>The cost estimate to bury existing lines is $1 million/mile, which no one has disputed. For new construction there is supposedly no difference in overhead or underground, so most people chose below for aethestic and practical reasons. </p>
<p>One of my co-workers lives in a newer community in Bergen county with underground wires. He told me today their block’s power is going in/out and the electric company can’t figure out where the problem is. So underground wires don’t appear to be a problem-free solution</p>
<p>Interesting. Why are underground lines so much more tempermental than gas lines? We never have a problem with gas lines.</p>
<p>Our development was built in the 1970s and has wires underground and it has been wonderful. In general, we get our power early because it’s off a main road and trees and branches coming down in the neighborhood don’t affect power, phone, and cable.</p>
<p>There’s always the potential of problems underground but I think that I’d trade them for the aesthetics and safety anyday.</p>
<p>We’ve been here for 22 years and I can’t recall any problems with underground wiring.</p>
<p>I wondered if it is because the electric lines are so sensitive to moisture and maybe they didn’t do a good job of completely keeping out moisture. We didn’t get much info from the power company as to what happened with ours. We were lucky though. After the power had already been off for a week they told us that it could be off another week while they looked for the problem. Fortunately, they found it within a day.</p>
<p>Sorry if this is a random post, but this is the first time I’ve been online since we lost power on Sat at 5pm. I don’t really have the time to read all the previous posts right now. We’re in north-central CT where we got about 12" of snow, lost several trees, branches, shrubs (but nothing hit the house). The temp in the house is now about 48. Fortunately, we don’t have to worry about freezing pipes.</p>
<p>According to our electric company, we should have power by 11:59pm on Sunday, but nobody is believin that will happen. Right now, I’m at my local library where they have power & wifi. I think I’ll be camping out here for the next several days.</p>
<p>I’m sure I’m not the only one enduring this. We’ll all get through it. At first, I joked to DH that I felt like a pioneer. I don’t find it so funny anymore.</p>
<p>We live in a NH neighborhood with underground wiring. The problem is the main roads leading to our development have tons of trees and wires down. It’s like driving o an obstacle course. </p>
<p>Our power went out at 6:30 on Saturday and the power company’s restoration estimate is midnight on Friday. This is the third multiple day outage we have had in the last three years. It’s getting very old! We’re staying in a hotel about 45 minutes from home.</p>
<p>Hi Shellfell, you must be near me, I am also in North Central CT. I agree, nobody believes the “Sunday at 11:59” baloney. Sounds like they were told they had to put all the towns on the list, so they made up a default answer.</p>
<p>The house is cold. I want a hot meal. And a hot shower. And some running water. And something besides candlelight at night. </p>
<p>My son attends Univ of Hartford. Classes cancelled AT LEAST until tomorrow morning (Thurs). Power hasn’t been restored to West Hartford so it’s doubtful they’ll be good to go in the morning. They’ve missed 3 days this week, and 2 days at the beginning of the semester during Irene. So that’s a full week out of a 14 week $eme$ter.</p>
<br>
<br>
<p>Hotel business around here is booming. Restaurants are packed. People using schools, libraries, YMCA for shelters with power, showers and internet. One of the national fitness chains is offering free showers for non-members. Bottled water at the supermarket was cleaned out. Lots of people with the same problems. Hopefully 99% are back online by Friday night as promised by the power companies.</p>
<p>Our power company is promising Sunday. At 11:59 pm.</p>
<p>Tho ymca where I teach is open and is my scheduled class night, so I can get a shower there wh</p>
<p>Sent from my ADR6300 using CC App</p>
<p>Oops.</p>
<p>When done. They have opened showers up to the community so it will be a long wait.</p>
<p>Sent from my ADR6300 using CC App</p>
<p>Sunday? O M G ! Good luck. I would give you a hug, but well… oh, you were able to shower at the Y? OK, Hug!</p>
<p>I feel for all of you. The evening news says there are still 1million w/o power.</p>
<p>Just got ours back!!! YEA!!! It is such a relief, everything came back phone, internet, lights, everything. Already started a load of laundry and I don’t even mind!</p>
<p>We’ve been without power since 1pm Saturday. </p>
<p>The next person who says we don’t need to infest in infrastructure is invited to come to my house and try to get dressed in a completely dark room -n 40 degrees.</p>
<p>Thanks for the kind thoughts. Yes, I was able to shower at the Y, the line wasn’t too long. On the way home, I found that the Chinese restaurant in town was operating on generator power so I stopped for some hot food. One of my ymca students runs the place so she took care of me.</p>
<p>The Sunday date is definitely a “default” value, there are dozens of towns with the same estimate. I really think they have no idea. So frustrating.</p>
<p>Sent from my ADR6300 using CC App</p>
<p>Haha hayden…or sit on a 40 degree toilet seat. </p>
<p>Sent from my ADR6300 using CC App</p>
<p>I have an excuse to stay in a motel tomorrow. I have to be in Philly at 6:30 a.m. to accompany a bunch of German teenagers to NYC. It’s about an hour and a half drive, and first I’d have to stop at the church to cat bath and such, so I’m going to just get a motel room closer to Philly. And since we won’t get back to Philly til midnight… </p>
<p>A girl’s gotta do what a girl’s gotta do.</p>