Thanks Tom. This was the first time ever me and Ed have left. Crazy.
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Mikey was back , talked to him the day before the storm. Glad a lot of you guys did well.
Skeeter still in Big Pine ?
:iagree:
On the infrastructure tip, I'm sorry for what you guys are going through. Buried power is ridiculously stable, but doing that in a string of islands I'm sure is a big challenge, plus water table issues, etc. Hopefully the community along with local and federal governments can come together to get everyone up and better than ever.
Jim the biggest issue with buried anything in the keys is the fact they are limestone islands...very stable but very hard to dig. Power is supplied via our "tieline". It runs the full length of the keys (120 miles) and bring us 128k volt power from the mainland and a nuclear plant just south of Miami. The tieline poles are 115' tall and either steel or concrete depending on location. The tieline survived the storm (as it usually does) and was re-energized this morning. It's the rest of the grid that is the issue. They've been replacing the old wood poles with concrete for years, but that project was far from complete. Looks like Irma took care of most of the remaining wood poles. Water is supplied underground and along the bridges all the way from the mainland via a 36" main running at 275psi at its biggest to 18" near key west. It can supply 22 million gallons a day. Water pressure is being restored quickly as the transmission main is intact. Again it's the rest of distribution system that has breaks (mostly due to uprooted trees breaking pipes as they go) that is the issue.
News reports say 90℅ damaged or destroyed. 25% gone. Lots of trailers tipped etc.
No nat gas out there?
Figured maybe with the restaurant hotels etc
They have multiple TS down the line for separate distribution on various keys or one then distribution throughout?
Yep I took a job working for the water utility about a year and a half ago so I'm right in the middle of it. The stuff in the keys is big, but is nothing compared to some of the big city utilties. Our difference is only the unique terrien. I'm going to try to head in tomorrow. Leaving my gf and dogs at her moms place in Miami. Going to try to daily or two commutes for the next couple weeks.
The gen plant, fuel? How many MW?
Just looked it up, 42MW low sulphur fuel. Wow, fuel oil.
A couple dozen class one wind turbines at 3+ MW each would do great out there if not for the storms.
We got lucky with irma little damage if I can help anyone else in Fla let me know we in Palm city if you need place for boat or any help give me a call 772-215-7174 george
Thanks ! Hope you weren't to beat up and life gets back to some sort of normal sooner rather than later. Good luck guys. Mike