Massive Power Failure May Last A Week In PA

[JiminyJominy]

just heard this on the news.

anyone else hearing this?

[BlueDemKev]

1. All I know is if voter turnout in Philadelphia...

...is adversely affected by this damn storm, we will lose the election. We cannot win without Pennsylvania's 20 electoral votes, and we can't win Pennsylvania unless we carry Philadelphia by at least 300,000+ votes.

[LisaL]

2. How could they vote at all if they have no power?

[Mutiny In Heaven]

5. And what's more likely to be hit longer - The major cities or the rural, GOP heavy areas?

Regardless of affiliation, I would rather the election be postponed than a significant number of people denied their opportunity to vote.

[DarthDem]

3. Calm Down

You're worrying about something that is about 0.5% or less likely to happen.

[LisaL]

4. Says who?

[DarthDem]

11. Me

I lived in Philadelphia for years. Worrying about Philadelphia residents getting to the polls isn't worth your time. It's not going to be an issue.

[BlueDemKev]

13. I sure hope you're right, Darth.

I'm concerned that if people's homes are totally destroyed and they lose everything, voting next Tuesday won't exactly be high on their list of priorities. And, as we learned from Katrina, rescue teams aren't overly-concerned with the inner-city poor.

[DarthDem]

14. I Understand

But Philadelphia isn't New Orleans. And the storm's aftermath is more likely to cause issues for the rural areas than for those in Philadelphia. Philly's infrastructyre is pretty tight. We'll watch and see but I imagine everything will be fine on a macro level. I certainly feel for all my friends and former colleagues there.

[BraKez2]

22. NH, OH, WI, IA, CO and NV

would put us at 270 (all look good for us anyway)...plus we are winning Virginia and North Carolina will be close and looks more of a possibility with the early turnout...we might even win Florida numbers so far are looking good there....and even if Romney would somehow win PA because of the power, he could also win VA, NC and Florida and still NOT be at 270...

[politicaljunkie41910]

6. So is the plan to let Pennsyvania go dark for a week with the hope that

voters will blame President Obama and not their Republican Governor?

[fugop]

7. Cityfolk will vote. Bank on it.

It's the rural zone that will be challenged if the power stays off.

[MSMITH33156]

8. I used to work for a utility company in Florida

and this is not what it sounds. When they say that power outages may last a week, that is:

1) A worst case scenario.

2) Not everyone.

Once the storm passes, they immediately start restoring power. The process is to first restore emergency services, then areas where there are a lot of businesses (grocery stores) and schools (so kids can get out of the house), while simultaneously looking at root causes for the power outages, and restoring those things that will get power on to the most people first.

For example, if a main line goes out, and it powers 300, 000 people, those people will have lost power. But they can restore that 1 line, and bam, 300,000 people now have power restored. And so on. The last people to get power back are people who might have had a local transmission line cut. Those lines that might effect only a handful of people will be the last to be restored. That's why anytime you lose power during a storm, as long as your neighborhood doesn't have power, you are still good. If your neighbors get power back, and you are still out, that's when you worry that you could be in for a long wait.

The summary of it, though, is that most people will have power back in a day or 2, and that the week long stuff will be isolated pockets of people. Sucks for them, but widespread effect will in no way be present by election day, and polling places which are usually municipal buildings or schools will definitely have power, making this a non-issue.

[justiceischeap]

9. Folks, they have these things called generators

And the DoD has already agreed to mobilize if need be (National Guard, possibly Reserves). There is NO politician that is going to let the election be screwed, if the Mayor of a city has to peddle a bike to generate power, there will be some way to vote if the power remains out.

[FBaggins]

17. Can you explain more about these generators?

Do they move the polling place to wherever voters have gone in an evacuation? If their home was flooded and the closest hotel is two states over... will a generator get them back?

If a person's priority shifts from voting to recovering belongings from a storm-damaged home (or helping a neighbor)... Will the generator reset her priorities?

Let's face it... Heavy rain affect turnout. Recent (ongoing?!) disasters will do so as well. A generator doesn't solve that.

[justiceischeap]

18. But it does solve the power problem. nt

[MSMITH33156]

10. I have no idea

what they would have done if this was next week, but a week to get infrastructure back online, it won't be a problem.

[FBaggins]

12. The eastern portions of PA and VA could swing the election

I can already see dueling court hearings re: getting people access to vote.

[Jennicut]

15. I went through the winter storm in Connecticut last year and Hurricane Irene.

The areas most effected were rural areas. My brother was out for more then a week from Irene but he lives in the middle of the woods down a dirt road. The transformer was knocked down near their house. I never lost power, in a well populated suburban area. Sandy will be worse then Irene but the remote rural areas are going to lose power for a long time. Suburbs less so and then cities probably less that the suburbs. Aren't more Repubs in the rural areas?

[HopeHoops]

16. Yes. Our township already sent out a robo call to tell us we're in a state of emergency.

A no unnecessary driving order is in place and the cops WILL enforce that. We're fucked.

[outsideworld]

19. Dont want to be called a concern troll by starting a new thread but

Have repubs always let in absentee ballots in PA? They are touting a huge gap between them and dems

[ShadowLiberal]

20. Some say up to 10 days in parts of the country, but I'm doubtful right now

I live in PA, and so far no problems, though I was working from home today (I'm a software developer), as was the rest of the company I work for. Our office is next to a creek and floods often in big storms, hence we did more preparation then most would for this storm. If you wanted to you could still drive on the roads this morning and some in the afternoon, as long as you don't mind driving through the rain.

[BraKez2]

21. Heavily populated areas will more than likely

get there power restored first...

[UCmeNdc]

23. If all else fails go to paper ballots.

[LeftInTX]

24. During Hurricane Ike my sister in Houston lost power for 2 days

Rural areas, it dragged on for much longer.

[LisaL]

25. In some areas of Houston power was out for 2 weeks or longer.