Louisiana snowpocalypse 2017

Grimm_Medic · Dec 8, 2017

Things just got fun.. Two days ago it was 85 and sunny and now this, power company has no eta on return at the moment. Glad I was prepared for the unexpected to happen!

Greybeard · Dec 8, 2017

Be careful running sensitive electronic equipment on generator produced power. I burned up a pair of electronic halide ballasts that way once. The power most generators provide is pretty spiky.

What, 2" of snow? Why is the power out?

Grimm_Medic · Dec 8, 2017

Greybeard said:
Be careful running sensitive electronic equipment on generator produced power. I burned up a pair of electronic halide ballasts that way once. The power most generators provide is pretty spiky.

Thanks for that advice! For now I am just running heaters and return pumps for both my setups and bubbler for QT. Vortechs are on batteries and I plan on just leaving everything else unplugged for the duration.

What, 2" of snow? Why is the power out?

Good question; my only guess is because the infrastructure down here can barely handle a good thunderstorm let alone the 10 straight hours of snow we received

Greybeard · Dec 8, 2017

Thunderstorms, hurricanes... violent, high winds... hard on most anything above ground level.

Most of the snow we get around here comes under fairly calm conditions. It's a bit heavy, but the little bit your photo shows isn't enough weight to hurt anything. I was in Dallas once when they got an inch or so of snow. The entire city closed down. Couldn't buy a gallon of gas or a pack of gum... nothing. I can understand that places like this don't have snow removal equipment, and the roads are going to be a nightmare, but the power lines? Huh. I wouldn't have thought it'd be a problem.

Radman73 · Dec 8, 2017

Greybeard said:
Thunderstorms, hurricanes... violent, high winds... hard on most anything above ground level.

Most of the snow we get around here comes under fairly calm conditions. It's a bit heavy, but the little bit your photo shows isn't enough weight to hurt anything. I was in Dallas once when they got an inch or so of snow. The entire city closed down. Couldn't buy a gallon of gas or a pack of gum... nothing. I can understand that places like this don't have snow removal equipment, and the roads are going to be a nightmare, but the power lines? Huh. I wouldn't have thought it'd be a problem.

Have you seen Atlanta when it snows? Shuts everything down. What happens is the snow turns to ice and then trees/tree limbs start falling and take out power lines. Or drivers who have no business, including fools with 4x4's or AWD, being on the road run into stuff. We were there for the snowpocalypse in 2014 I think it was. Watched a lady with a nice Lexus with AWD drive into a ditch and then she was angry because she was stuck. Too funny to me. Way too many people trying to make it up a hill with bald tires and convinced that if they floor it somehow they'll make it. Took over 12 hours to make it home that day. I was able to park my car at a Wendy's, walk a mile to where my sister in law was stranded, and then parked at an auto body shop 4 miles from home and walked the rest of the way past multiple wrecks and cars abandoned in the middle of the road. My kids' teacher was from Illinois and asked where the salt trucks and snow plows were ;Facepalm. Never again, moved to Florida lol!

Bender · Dec 8, 2017

We got this in four hours. No power outages and nothing shuts down

Fin · Dec 8, 2017

Yeah, in south Louisiana, this happens about once a decade, on average. One snow day every 8-10 years is tolerable. Not really a big deal to me, I spent 4 years in North Dakota.

There are lots of trees here that are too close to power lines. So, when there is a build up of snow and ice, branches fall and damage the lines. Fortunately for us, no power loss at the house. But, it's all good. Tomorrow it will be sunny and 60°. Back to winter as usual in south Louisiana.

Grimm_Medic · Dec 8, 2017

Radman73 said:
Have you seen Atlanta when it snows? Shuts everything down. What happens is the snow turns to ice and then trees/tree limbs start falling and take out power lines. Or drivers who have no business, including fools with 4x4's or AWD, being on the road run into stuff. We were there for the snowpocalypse in 2014 I think it was. Watched a lady with a nice Lexus with AWD drive into a ditch and then she was angry because she was stuck. Too funny to me. Way too many people trying to make it up a hill with bald tires and convinced that if they floor it somehow they'll make it. Took over 12 hours to make it home that day. I was able to park my car at a Wendy's, walk a mile to where my sister in law was stranded, and then parked at an auto body shop 4 miles from home and walked the rest of the way past multiple wrecks and cars abandoned in the middle of the road. My kids' teacher was from Illinois and asked where the salt trucks and snow plows were ;Facepalm. Never again, moved to Florida

Exactly THIS!! Far too many people out and about sight seeing and driving like they shouldn't be! I think our biggest problem is the tree limbs falling over onto the lines causing the outages.