posted 04-07-2004 01:20 PM                       

I recently bought a 5500 watt emergency generator. After finishing installation of the 10 circuit "EmerGen" control box to my house's main panel, I invited my neighbor over to see how it was done. While I was pointing to the wiring I had done in the main panel (my hand was a foot away from anything "live"), he recoiled in fear that I would electrocute myself.

I "fire up" the generator once a month and run the entire house (or at least the 10 circuits) on it for an hour or so, just to be ready for the next prolonged power outage. Our worst was during the "great Rochester ice storm" of March 1991, when we were without power for over a week. Last April, we had a three day outage.

http://www.democratandchronicle.com/news/forprint/0406story19_news.shtml

quote:

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'91 ice storm was far worse
Patrick Flanigan and Cory Ireland
Democrat and Chronicle

(April 6, 2003) — The difference between the ice storms of 1991 and 2003 could be summed up as the difference between a tree limb and a trunk.

If there’s one thing that people who lived through the ice storm 12 years ago remember, it’s the number of fallen trees that took out whole swaths of the Rochester area’s power grid and eventually prompted the federal government to label 12 counties disaster areas.

While no two weather events can be fully compared until they’re over, this year’s storm so far has featured mostly fallen tree limbs and scattered power outages.

“I had to cut a tree down to get out of my driveway to get to work (in 1991),” said Rochester Police Capt. Fred Bell.

“Just about everybody was without power. This is nothing like that.”

The great ice storm of 1991 started about 6 p.m. on March 3 as freezing rain.

A total of up to 1.5 inches of ice accumulated on trees and power lines, bringing the city to a near halt for several days. Some 200,000 Rochester Gas and Electric Corp. customers were without power for at least several days.

“We didn’t have power at my house for 14 days,” Bell said. “The first night we had a fire in the fireplace and it was romantic. But that got old and we spent the rest of the time in a hotel.”

The National Weather Service in Buffalo estimates this year’s storm brought ice accumulations that were þ to 1 inch thick.

Cindy Flannigan of Perinton woke up at 2 a.m. Friday as limbs from iced-over trees snapped and fell.

The same sounds awakened memories of 1991’s storm, which destroyed an estimated 120,000 trees.

Tree damage this time around “is significant” -- but “definitely not in any way” the same as 1991, said city of Rochester forester Ian Nadar.

“But I’m keeping my fingers crossed.”

In 1991, after 19 straight hours of freezing rain, an average 50-foot fir took on an extra 50 tons in weight.

On Friday, full city crews were out by 3 a.m., clearing crashed branches from city-owned street trees, said Nadar. Calls of downed branches averaged about 10 an hour. Silver maples -- weak-wooded and no longer planted by the city -- fared the worst.

There are 60,000 trees in Rochester’s city-owned urban forest. That’s back up to pre-1991 levels.

RG&E -- which in 1991 lost 3,000 miles of power line -- has also stepped up its right-of-way maintenance. In 1991, the company trimmed 195 miles of trees overhanging utility lines. These days, crews trim 1,700 miles or more a year.

During the 1991 storm, police officers ran 12-hour shifts to respond to all the calls for service, Bell said.

This year’s storm has generated an increase in motor vehicle accidents on par with any other winter storm, he said.

Deputy Fire Chief Bob King remembers crews of firefighters running from house to house, responding to one power outage call after another. Firefighters had to cut trees out of the way to get down some streets, he said.

This year’s calls have been more sporadic, with crews mostly dealing with wires pulled away from individual houses rather than primary power lines felled by downed trees.

“We’re not seeing the type of magnitude that we had in ‘91,” King said.

John Merklinger, director of Monroe County’s Emergency Communication Department, said this year’s storm might not reach 1991 levels. But it still has been enough to keep dispatchers and telecommunicators in the 911 center busy.

“We really got crushed during the night,” Merklinger said. The 911 center took about 3,000 calls between midnight and 3 a.m. Friday, a time when the center typically logs about 400 emergency calls.

By midnight Friday, Merklinger predicted the center would handle about 10,000 to 12,000 calls.

A busy summer night would bring about 4,100 calls to the center, he said.

Still, 1991 was busier. The center handled 24,000 calls during that storm, he said.

“The biggest difference seems to be the weight of the ice,” Merklinger said.

“The trees don’t look to be as bent over as they did in 1991.”

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