More than a million customers in Texas were without power Tuesday as powerful storms delivered another round of violent weather to the state still reeling from an almost unrelenting parade of destructive and deadly storms in recent weeks.
Storms unloaded hurricane-force wind gusts across the Dallas area, with Dallas Fort Worth International Airport recording a wind gust of 77 mph early Tuesday as power outages in the area started to skyrocket.
The same damaging storms that tore through Dallas hit Houston with hurricane-force winds Tuesday afternoon. Houston’s George Bush Intercontinental Airport recorded a wind gust of 75 mph.
For these events it’s people not keeping their trees trimmed and away from power lines. Nevermind Oncor refuses to bury the lines because the upfront costs are too expensive.
The outages we saw last year because demand outpaced supply was definitely because we have a shitty power grid.
Unless Texas is somehow different than Ohio (possible, I know) people aren’t responsible for this. The power company is the one that should be maintaining proper clearances, installing protective devices to isolate sections, etc.
Source: I worked for a power company for almost 2 decades and now am doing grid mod consulting.
But look at how close those trees are to the power line!
Dude, electrical substations were in shambles and high voltage towers were knocked to the ground in the storm that hit Houston a couple weeks ago. This isn’t a tree trimming issue, there were 100mph sustained straight-line winds
TIL: Texas is the only state with trees.