Before you imagine some kind of anti-little people conspiracy: the places where utilities are buried, like Columbia, Maryland (a DC suburb that was built about 35 years ago) have air, water, and power. But the DC area is heavily wooded, every street lined with magnificent, gracious old trees. Any ice storm, heavy snowstorm, or high speed wind causes branches or entire trees to fall on the above-ground power lines. For a very old area like this, it isn’t financially practical to bury utility lines in residential areas. It can only be done in newly-constructed areas of the region. We’re just going to always be vulnerable.
After Snowpocalypse, the power companies aggressively trimmed trees and branches from near power lines so that falling branches would be less likely to take out power to an area. But then liberals complained that the tree-removal process was too aggressive and the power companies were preparing for an event that would never happen.
It really isn’t necessary to bury these lines in the older neighborhoods. There is a process using PVC pipe of the highest crfush resistence species and junction boxes, all laid on the ground rather than under it. There is even a raised sidewalk cover drawn up, to be used where sidewalks provide a substantial access to neighborhoods. I have wondered since I saw that system on the Internet why it isn’t in use in alot of tree lined areas. I suspect it has something to do with ‘handicap accessibility’ or some such federal rigamarol as that.
Looks to me like never happened. I heard the DC mayor whining on the news about how long it would take to repair. Sounds like he is part of the problem.
I would still bet most government offices are equipped with back up power sources and are in full operation.
i live on a small cul-de-sac where the utilities are all underground, but we are linked to an older rural area which has power lines on poles, and we lose power sometimes even if the sun is shining, but more frequently in a bad storm because of the weakest link issue. underground utilities aren’t always the solution as we have experienced in our situation.