A friend of mine in Columbus, OH didn’t have electric power at home for 4 days. She had clean water, a functioning natural gas water heater, a car with a full gas tank, cell phone service, and power at work to recharge the cell phone. Take away any one of water, gasoline, or natural gas and her living conditions would have been much worse.
The common theme with inland Ike damage was strong wind knocking down trees onto power lines. Maybe we need to watch for potential tree/power line problems in our own neighborhoods. Not sure how I would report potential tree problems to my local utility. I have underground electric lines in my Plano, TX neighborhood with power lines on major streets at the perimeter.
Would requiring new gas stations/convenience stores to have a transfer switch for a generator be a reasonable local regulation? Not being able to buy gasoline due to electric power outages is a big problem.
The lack of neighborhood level information for evacuees is an interesting problem. I’m a ham radio operator and would likely have the ability to get information out, but not sure how one would make detailed local information available to people outside the area. I’m sure evacuees want to know if their roof is intact and when electric power has been restored.
