Idalia and Power Issues

Hey everyone.  Made it through with some power glitches, and now intermittent Internet access from my cable provider.  Local streets saw minor road flooding.  Certainly nothing like Charleston. 

I'll update if we have any more power issues. 

Equally interesting is what happens to all the battery powered cars in the storm surges

@bolong I thought Tesla's were powered by lightning?? Should definitely leave those plugged in during a lightning storm to maintain maximum battery life.

One of the unexpected joys of living here is when your UPS kicks in and the power glitches and then 2-4 seconds later you hear a "boom" sound. Pretty sure they just lost another transformer.

Weather wise we are doing really well.  There was minor street flooding, and light wind, but no lightning today, which is a surprise.

An SPD, (Surge Protection Device), will do nothing to protect from Utility Power surges, overvoltages, caused the high winds and storm water of the storm. SPDs only protect from high voltage transients lasting in a duration of a few milliseconds. Voltage surges, overvoltages, caused by the storm will last far more in duration than a few milliseconds.

Not always true. Furman protectors with Extreme Voltage Shutdown (EVS) provides protection against lower but longer lasting voltage issues than the surge protection feature (SMP) .

These voltages can be otherwise undetected until equipment starts to fail.

Also, of course I will turn things off from power strips and breakers if the storm gets bad near me. For now I need it working so I can keep up with the news.

Hey @jeffrey125

Depends where you are. For sure Florida will have that problem from the storm surge (the ocean moving inland) and the rain.

The further away Idalia moves from the ocean the less moisture and energy it has.

Given the long path over land Idalia will have, and where my home is the storm surge isn’t a problem, but wind and rain will be, but not nearly as bad as Florida.

That 80 MPH wind will definitely challenge our power lines with an abundance of trees falling on them, and other such problems.

PS - Here is the other thread:

https://forum.audiogon.com/discussions/why-whole-house-surge-protectors-are-not-enough

I should also say that if I can I absolutely WILL turn off the power to my equipment before a major storm, but that may or may not be possible, and I do intend to leave my telecom equipment on 24/7 as I need it for communication.

That last part is kind of iffy though as my cable provider and T-Mobile seem to be colocated nearby, so when the power goes out to the tower, so does the Internet.  You would think these two systems would provide me with redundant coverage but about half the time they do not.

I missed the important part. I’m NE of Hilton Head along the South Carolina coast. No fear of a hurricane surge here but we are expecting heavy rain and lightning over the next 48 hours, along with 80 MPH winds.

Around 5 AM this morning an unexpected thunderstorm hit. Around 10 AM during a rain shower my power glitched forcing a momentary UPS intervention. Odd because there was no reason I could tell for it. No local lightning, no sounds of transformers popping.