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NASA Images of Puerto Rico Reveal How Maria Wiped Out Power On the Island (jalopnik.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Jalopnik: Hurricane Maria was the most devastating hurricane to make land in Puerto Rico in nearly 100 years and the country is still reeling in its wake. Much of the island still doesn't have running water, reliable communication or electricity. Recently, NASA published a set of date-processed photos that show the island's nighttime lights both before and after the storm. Here, you can see images of the country's capital, San Juan, on a typical night before Maria. It's based on cloud-free and low moonlight conditions. Conversely, the following composite image is of data taken on the nights of Sept. 27 and 28 -- nearly a week after the storm hit -- by the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite, a scanning radiometer that collects visible and infrared imagery of land, atmosphere, cryosphere and oceans, according to NASA's website.
Puerto Rico's government drove the island to bankruptcy.:
With its creditors at its heels and its coffers depleted, Puerto Rico sought what is essentially bankruptcy relief in federal court on Wednesday, the first time in history that an American state or territory had taken the extraordinary measure.
The action sent Puerto Rico, whose approximately $123 billion in debt and pension obligations far exceeds the $18 billion bankruptcy filed by Detroit in 2013, to uncharted ground.
Of course the pols in charge in Puerto Rico are now casting about blame to deflect attention from their own contributory negligence.
One word: flooding.
Sorry, thanks for playing, but there is no easy answer.
My rural Cooperative charges $3 per foot for overhead lines to a private dwelling. They charge $15 per foot for underground. Overhead lines make much more sense especially when such great devastation is not expected each month. Privately owned generators can be used to power pumps for water, refrigeration, or lighting and are used here for our power outages that can be expected every year or 2.
The location of junctions and transformers is the most important consideration, and if you get those above the flood level, you are likely in good shape.
Underground municipal infrastructure is usually saturated with water and sewer lines, so even if money isn't a factor in the design, space constraints often are.
Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.
Ernest Hemingway
A large part of the challenges that Peurto Rico faces is that it is not in fact a country, but rather it is an "unincorporated territory of the United States located in the northeast Caribbean Sea".
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
https://www.thoughtco.com/puer...
Peraps if Peurto Rico was a country (or a "state" within the United States), they might have been better able to respond to the types of problems that this storm has caused.
WIth a population of a bit more than 3.4 million, the territory seems to have more people than twenty-two other US states:
http://worldpopulationreview.c...
Nope, they got it right in a somewhat awkward way. They aren't counting those lights, but rather mapping the overall intensity at given locations. If it's not a countable quantity but rather one of magnitude, then "less" is correct. The use of "lights" rather than "light" may be throwing you off.
How is the Riemann zeta function like Trump rallies? Both have an endless number of trivial zeros.
The design and construction of underground transmission lines differ from overhead lines because of two significant technical challenges that need to be overcome. These are: 1) providing sufficient insulation so that cables can be within inches of grounded material; and 2) dissipating the heat produced during the operation of the electrical cables. Overhead lines are separated from each other and surrounded by air. Open air circulating between and around the conductors cools the wires and dissipates heat very effectively. Air also provides insulation that can recover if there is a flashover.
Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.
Ernest Hemingway
Because our $20 trillion in debt is caused by $400,000 grants. Give me a break, our debt is caused by our defense spending (your "heroes"). They are protecting our Homeland after all.
Mississippi's per capita income is approximately $20k, not $40k.
You probably meant median income for both Mississippi and Puerto Rico.
To further support your point, National Electric Code requires a much thicker wire gauge for buried/raceway applications. Or rather, for any given wire gauge the allowable amperage is much lower if buried, so I suppose it doesn't matter if you're already going to massive overspec your run.
Take 4/0 copper and 75C rated wire. In free air it's legally rated to 360 amps. Buried, it's legal up to 230 amps.
Why not? Its done in a lot of places in europe.
How deep is the water table?
What might they be drilling through? Dirt, or rock?
Just saying...the easy assumption to bury might not be as easy as "Just do it".
During/after Hurricane Isabel a few years ago, my neighborhood was the only one in the area with power. But is not always 'the answer'.
If you don't know anything about high voltage and power distribution you probably shouldn't be commenting like this.
Underground wires fail all the time, I have had six power outages this summer in Arizona due to exactly that. As cables heat up their insulator breaks down and becomes brittle and then dust. When the wire is exposed it is now very close to the ground where it will bleed current. Worse yet, if both + and - lines lose their insulation they could short, typically they are run in separate conduit though so it is more of an issue where the wire surfaces.
If you have ever loaded an extension cord with too much current you'll see what I mean. I used to work in tents with temporary power all the time. Extension cords for lighting were always so hot you couldn't touch them. You solve that problem by using a thicker gauge which also allows you to go further. I had a hell of a time getting 208 power 500 feet from the generator. It takes real thick wire if you're going to actually power a server rack or two. 20 amp 208 for 500' ends up being 10 gauge preferably but you can probably get away with 12. Either way that is some THICK wire and is very hard to work with. Now imagine doing that with transmission lines while are way higher voltage and pulling waaay more current.