DonSchap
06-19-2010, 03:23 AM
I know this is my little center of the known Universe, but yesterday was a day from Hell!
I snapped this shot of the cloud pattern, over my house, just as the 80-mph sheer winds came in and leveled the entire set of power line poles along Mannheim Road, in Des Plaines. Between the loss of that line and a power distribution site being struck by lightning, all power was down immediately, in a huge area of the town (yeah, where I live, too! :rolleyes: ). It actually stopped the Wisconsin Central freight train that goes through town, blocking traffic for miles. We had news helicopters hovering over the incident for a good hour, getting images of the devastation. That close to O'Hare International Airport ... you know it was "big time" news!
53740
I mean, they are talking about it talking about it taking 5-full-days to rebuild this run and are suggesting that people with power needs look for other shelter in that part of town, because of the outage. It is a five square mile, high density residential area and corporate park. :eek:
The power in our area came back up for about thirty minutes, then our local transformer arced with a brilliant blue flash, three times, and the power was gone, again. I cut the main breaker to keep any more of these false starts from whacking the electronics in the house and was on generator power for a good part of the night, until the power system was fully restored to the transformer on our side of the block. Another five $3/gallon of gas for some juice ... energy costs on the rise.
Rough Friday! More images to come ...
Here, a main cut-through street was blocked as this tree top took out the power lines to a house.
53741
This "weeping willow", at Lake Opeka, weeps no more ... as it was snapped off, at the roots, as the wind swept over the lake and brought it down.
53742
The entire thing lasted only about twenty minutes, but there was Hell to pay!
In one of the more bizarre items of interest, yesterday, .. and kind of personal ... this was MY corner's telephone pole ...
trying to disguise itself to look like a tree! :eek: You can also see the 'news chopper' (red arrow), hovering in the distance,
examining the power pole devastation along Mannheim Road.
53745
I mean, look at that sky!!! You'd think nothing was wrong ... the weather front was that tight! I know it was not the horror of a tornado, but still, It just came, kicked us in the groin ... and LEFT! :rolleyes: Things happen fast ... get a picture!
EDIT: (12:06P, Saturday) The transformer just arced, again! Power's gone! ... UPS to the rescue!
I snapped this shot of the cloud pattern, over my house, just as the 80-mph sheer winds came in and leveled the entire set of power line poles along Mannheim Road, in Des Plaines. Between the loss of that line and a power distribution site being struck by lightning, all power was down immediately, in a huge area of the town (yeah, where I live, too! :rolleyes: ). It actually stopped the Wisconsin Central freight train that goes through town, blocking traffic for miles. We had news helicopters hovering over the incident for a good hour, getting images of the devastation. That close to O'Hare International Airport ... you know it was "big time" news!
53740
I mean, they are talking about it talking about it taking 5-full-days to rebuild this run and are suggesting that people with power needs look for other shelter in that part of town, because of the outage. It is a five square mile, high density residential area and corporate park. :eek:
The power in our area came back up for about thirty minutes, then our local transformer arced with a brilliant blue flash, three times, and the power was gone, again. I cut the main breaker to keep any more of these false starts from whacking the electronics in the house and was on generator power for a good part of the night, until the power system was fully restored to the transformer on our side of the block. Another five $3/gallon of gas for some juice ... energy costs on the rise.
Rough Friday! More images to come ...
Here, a main cut-through street was blocked as this tree top took out the power lines to a house.
53741
This "weeping willow", at Lake Opeka, weeps no more ... as it was snapped off, at the roots, as the wind swept over the lake and brought it down.
53742
The entire thing lasted only about twenty minutes, but there was Hell to pay!
In one of the more bizarre items of interest, yesterday, .. and kind of personal ... this was MY corner's telephone pole ...
trying to disguise itself to look like a tree! :eek: You can also see the 'news chopper' (red arrow), hovering in the distance,
examining the power pole devastation along Mannheim Road.
53745
I mean, look at that sky!!! You'd think nothing was wrong ... the weather front was that tight! I know it was not the horror of a tornado, but still, It just came, kicked us in the groin ... and LEFT! :rolleyes: Things happen fast ... get a picture!
EDIT: (12:06P, Saturday) The transformer just arced, again! Power's gone! ... UPS to the rescue!