utilities reliability after a storm (Miami, Orlando: power lines, house, refrigerator)

[nekochan999]

I was just wondering how reliable the utitlities (electric/gas/cable etc>) are in Orlando after a storm such as a Hurricane? Are most of the cables underground?

Thanks in advance

[kyle19125]

It depends on whether the utilities in your area tend to be underground, who your utility provider is and if anything of great importance is anywhere within your power grid (hospital, utility plant, municipal services, etc). I would say most power lines are above ground here while cable/phone is mostly underground. It seems FPL (Florida Power and Light) is back up the quickest.Gas utilities are rare here though some have gone with propane which obviously isn't affected. Investment in a generator is a good idea if in an area prone to outages (ask your neighbors), a decent one runs around $700 and is sufficient enough to power the refrigerator and a few circuits worth of lights and fans. For what it's worth I recommend DirectTV which rarely has issues (only in very severe storms, just like cable) and is back on once the hurricane has passed....while cable TV can be out for days.

[FL2MT]

It's so specific to your certain area that it's hard to give a blanket statement. If you're the guy who loses power for a week then the utilities are worthless/incompetent/lazy/money-stealing-crooks but if you're on a stretch that gets power back on shortly afterwards you probably don't think twice about it. They have to prioritize these things too, so if a tree falls down and knocks out power to your one home, and another tree knocks out power to 1,000 homes it's not hard to guess which one will get fixed first. After a storm there could be thousands of trees and lines down so the single outages could end up waiting awhile.

If it's a major concern to you, then look for areas with utilities underground (I know my area is like this and most of the other subdivisions around me seem to be the same way), and as Kyle mentioned possibly get a generator as backup just in case. No issues here so far, but in Miami we went 9 days without power after Wilma since we were one of those smaller outages.

[Rabflmom]

Originally Posted by FL2MT

It's so specific to your certain area that it's hard to give a blanket statement. If you're the guy who loses power for a week then the utilities are worthless/incompetent/lazy/money-stealing-crooks but if you're on a stretch that gets power back on shortly afterwards you probably don't think twice about it. They have to prioritize these things too, so if a tree falls down and knocks out power to your one home, and another tree knocks out power to 1,000 homes it's not hard to guess which one will get fixed first. After a storm there could be thousands of trees and lines down so the single outages could end up waiting awhile.

If it's a major concern to you, then look for areas with utilities underground (I know my area is like this and most of the other subdivisions around me seem to be the same way), and as Kyle mentioned possibly get a generator as backup just in case. No issues here so far, but in Miami we went 9 days without power after Wilma since we were one of those smaller outages.

But having underground utilities in your neighborhood does not necessarily mean you won't lose power for a week or so. Happened to us in 1995 when Erin hit . Our whole subdivision had underground electricity and cable, but the feeder lines coming into the neighborhood were wires on poles. We didn't have any businesses like gas stations, etc. near the neighborhood so priority was areas that effected more people. We are in Brevard County,though. During 2004, my son was at UCF and they did not lose power for long, even though they had some damage on campus.

[FL2MT]

Originally Posted by Rabflmom

But having underground utilities in your neighborhood does not necessarily mean you won't lose power for a week or so. Happened to us in 1995 when Erin hit . Our whole subdivision had underground electricity and cable, but the feeder lines coming into the neighborhood were wires on poles. We didn't have any businesses like gas stations, etc. near the neighborhood so priority was areas that effected more people. We are in Brevard County,though. During 2004, my son was at UCF and they did not lose power for long, even though they had some damage on campus.

True enough, but if the concern is to find a house less susceptible to extended loss of power, an area with underground utilities is a better bet than an area with above ground utilities. That's why I said it's impossible to give a blanket statement. Every storm brings down trees and lines in different areas. If one of those happens to be in your area, you're out of luck. I realize we can all come up with a million different anecdotal examples but I'm looking at it from an all else being equal point of view. All else being equal, a single home or small subdivision or place with above ground power lines is more likely to go an extended time without power than a large block of homes with underground utilities.