As a utility engineer for the local Power Company in the Mississippi gulf coast area, I can say that all houses/businesses/etc... that CAN take power have power. So, electricity is somewhat available.
The areas that can not take power are so destroyed that all that really needs to be done is to have the debris cleaned up from the lot. you might even have to help tear the entire house down.
If you do come here to help, bring enough materials, raw goods, supplies to sustain YOURSELF, As if you don't then you'll be a strain on the little (if any) resources available locally.
Bring heavy steel-toed shoes, work gloves, latex/rubber gloves, dust masks (it is stinky and mold spores are abundant), basic first aid supplies, gel hand-sanitizer, baby wipes (few hotels are available, so bathing will have to be done with baby wipes - it's gross, but you get used to it), water for drinking (it is still very hot, in the 90's with high humidity), gatorade, soft drinks (our safety & health advisors recommend 1 soda, 1 gatorade/sports-drink, and 4 waters in the time between meals), non-perishable food items (canned cheese!!!, granola bars, protein drinks (that don't require refrigeration), crackers, cookies - remember, you're trying to keep enough calories in you to keep going - no "heavy" meals every day, whatever you can bring to eat that will not spoil, and enough gas to get you "out of the zone" and back on your way home.
You might also want to consider a tent, sleeping bag, etc... Whatever you'd normally take camping.
Don't forget sunblock & bugspray (with DEET). The gulf coast area is very sunny and hot during the day and very buggy at night.
Tools you'll need to bring - electric saws (circular and reciprocating), chain saws, shop vac's, TRASH BAGS, shovels, an axe, whatever else you want.
Trust me, if you come ready to work (which is what most people still need is just somebody to HELP THEM) somebody, somewhere, will tell you what to do.
If you really can't find work, let me know as 4 out of 7 of my family members have houses that are severely destroyed. I'll find something for you to do.
As an engineer for one of the largest regulated utility companies in the Southeast, I can shed a little light on the situation.
Under a REGULATED system, the designated utility for a geographic region owns and operates the generation, the transmission, and the distribution systems.
Under a DEREGULATED system, there is a designated Independent System Operator (ISO) that handles the transmission system. This ISO can buy and sell power from any generation company. Likewise, it can sell power to any distribution company (the people who you pay your monthly bill to). These ISO companies tend to handle the transmission system for large geographic areas, say the Northeast. The ISO is generally a 3rd party that has no stake in either generation or distribution. It is their job to buy enough electricity to ship through the transmission system to meet the demand of their distribution customers.
Based on the information that I've seen so far (and it's been very little) it looks as if the ISO was not operating the transmission system correctly and had the system overloaded. When one link of this overloaded system was broken, there was not enough capacity in the remaining links to support the load and the system began shutting itself down.
These scenarios have a higher probability of happening under a deregulated system.
I know it's not the popular viewpoint on/., but fundamentally file "sharing" is unethical, regardless of what the law has to say about it!
The music digitized (whether on a CD or in its raw form), stamped onto vinyl, or recorded on tape is the intellectual property of the artist. And that artist should be compensated.
The injustice here is that the artist is not being fully compensated for the work. Instead the recording industry is putting more and more money in the bank.
Find a way to hurt the industry, not the artists, and I'll be 100% for your cause - so will millions of others. But until then, I'll keep shelling out $15 a pop for CD's.
As a degreed Engineer, I say that Programmers are not engineers. So, what's the big deal? Why is this even a question? I don't see any business managers, accountants, doctors, or even lawyers arguing (and we all have some idea how much lawyers like to) that they're not engineers.
I work for an electric utility, and I've had many positions over the years. When I was a substation design engineer I didn't do any design. That was left for the designers. Likewise, the designers didn't to any drafting. That was for the drafters. But without all three positions, none of us would have had a job.
In my current job, it's a little bit different. As an electrical engineer I am responsible for an outage management system. The system runs on Unix and Oracle. So, I had to become versed enough in Unix and Oracle (and many, many other proprietary services that we have) to effectively communicate with our IT and Oracle gurus to do my job. This job role has forced me to learn to be a system administrator. I could never do my job w/o the IT guys. But, I'd never refer to them as engineers. Likewise, they'd NEVER refer to me as one of their own - I'm always referred to as an engineer.
The point of the matter being - everyone chooses their own role in life. Relish in that decision. But, don't try and be something that you're not.
c/o http://www.hpcalc.org for all of the details on the demise of the HP calculator program.
I've purchased several "used" HP48GXs from eBay to replace my beloved when it fails.
Another option that I've found really handy is to get an emulator (off hpcalc.org) and run my HP48GX on my Windows PC. There's also an emulator that runs under Windows CE so you can run it on a handheld PC.
I really feel for my fellow Electrical and Computer Engineers.
One of my professors in college advised me, some 5+ years ago, to go into power systems engineering. Although I was very reluctant to do something that was thought of as "low-tech" by fellow engineers, I took his advice. Since Graduation (almost 3 years ago) I am now one of the fortunate souls that is actually GOING somewhere.
Almost 60% of the engineers in the Power Industry (Utilities mainly) are going to retire in the next 5-7 years - maybe sooner if there are "early-out" packages given.
The good news is that the Power Utility Industry is not "low-tech." As a matter of fact our industry is going through a very "high-tech" growth period and my co-workers and myself are always having to attend seminars on new devices and systems.
I frequently email my professor a big "THANKS" because without his advice, I might be struggling too!
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As a utility engineer for the local Power Company in the Mississippi gulf coast area, I can say that all houses/businesses/etc... that CAN take power have power. So, electricity is somewhat available.
The areas that can not take power are so destroyed that all that really needs to be done is to have the debris cleaned up from the lot. you might even have to help tear the entire house down.
If you do come here to help, bring enough materials, raw goods, supplies to sustain YOURSELF, As if you don't then you'll be a strain on the little (if any) resources available locally.
Bring heavy steel-toed shoes, work gloves, latex/rubber gloves, dust masks (it is stinky and mold spores are abundant), basic first aid supplies, gel hand-sanitizer, baby wipes (few hotels are available, so bathing will have to be done with baby wipes - it's gross, but you get used to it), water for drinking (it is still very hot, in the 90's with high humidity), gatorade, soft drinks (our safety & health advisors recommend 1 soda, 1 gatorade/sports-drink, and 4 waters in the time between meals), non-perishable food items (canned cheese!!!, granola bars, protein drinks (that don't require refrigeration), crackers, cookies - remember, you're trying to keep enough calories in you to keep going - no "heavy" meals every day, whatever you can bring to eat that will not spoil, and enough gas to get you "out of the zone" and back on your way home.
You might also want to consider a tent, sleeping bag, etc... Whatever you'd normally take camping.
Don't forget sunblock & bugspray (with DEET). The gulf coast area is very sunny and hot during the day and very buggy at night.
Tools you'll need to bring - electric saws (circular and reciprocating), chain saws, shop vac's, TRASH BAGS, shovels, an axe, whatever else you want.
Trust me, if you come ready to work (which is what most people still need is just somebody to HELP THEM) somebody, somewhere, will tell you what to do.
If you really can't find work, let me know as 4 out of 7 of my family members have houses that are severely destroyed. I'll find something for you to do.
As an engineer for one of the largest regulated utility companies in the Southeast, I can shed a little light on the situation.
Under a REGULATED system, the designated utility for a geographic region owns and operates the generation, the transmission, and the distribution systems.
Under a DEREGULATED system, there is a designated Independent System Operator (ISO) that handles the transmission system. This ISO can buy and sell power from any generation company. Likewise, it can sell power to any distribution company (the people who you pay your monthly bill to). These ISO companies tend to handle the transmission system for large geographic areas, say the Northeast. The ISO is generally a 3rd party that has no stake in either generation or distribution. It is their job to buy enough electricity to ship through the transmission system to meet the demand of their distribution customers.
Based on the information that I've seen so far (and it's been very little) it looks as if the ISO was not operating the transmission system correctly and had the system overloaded. When one link of this overloaded system was broken, there was not enough capacity in the remaining links to support the load and the system began shutting itself down.
These scenarios have a higher probability of happening under a deregulated system.
I know it's not the popular viewpoint on /., but fundamentally file "sharing" is unethical, regardless of what the law has to say about it!
The music digitized (whether on a CD or in its raw form), stamped onto vinyl, or recorded on tape is the intellectual property of the artist. And that artist should be compensated.
The injustice here is that the artist is not being fully compensated for the work. Instead the recording industry is putting more and more money in the bank.
Find a way to hurt the industry, not the artists, and I'll be 100% for your cause - so will millions of others. But until then, I'll keep shelling out $15 a pop for CD's.
As a degreed Engineer, I say that Programmers are not engineers. So, what's the big deal? Why is this even a question? I don't see any business managers, accountants, doctors, or even lawyers arguing (and we all have some idea how much lawyers like to) that they're not engineers.
I work for an electric utility, and I've had many positions over the years. When I was a substation design engineer I didn't do any design. That was left for the designers. Likewise, the designers didn't to any drafting. That was for the drafters. But without all three positions, none of us would have had a job.
In my current job, it's a little bit different. As an electrical engineer I am responsible for an outage management system. The system runs on Unix and Oracle. So, I had to become versed enough in Unix and Oracle (and many, many other proprietary services that we have) to effectively communicate with our IT and Oracle gurus to do my job. This job role has forced me to learn to be a system administrator. I could never do my job w/o the IT guys. But, I'd never refer to them as engineers. Likewise, they'd NEVER refer to me as one of their own - I'm always referred to as an engineer.
The point of the matter being - everyone chooses their own role in life. Relish in that decision. But, don't try and be something that you're not.
c/o http://www.hpcalc.org for all of the details on the demise of the HP calculator program.
I've purchased several "used" HP48GXs from eBay to replace my beloved when it fails.
Another option that I've found really handy is to get an emulator (off hpcalc.org) and run my HP48GX on my Windows PC. There's also an emulator that runs under Windows CE so you can run it on a handheld PC.
I really feel for my fellow Electrical and Computer Engineers.
One of my professors in college advised me, some 5+ years ago, to go into power systems engineering. Although I was very reluctant to do something that was thought of as "low-tech" by fellow engineers, I took his advice. Since Graduation (almost 3 years ago) I am now one of the fortunate souls that is actually GOING somewhere.
Almost 60% of the engineers in the Power Industry (Utilities mainly) are going to retire in the next 5-7 years - maybe sooner if there are "early-out" packages given.
The good news is that the Power Utility Industry is not "low-tech." As a matter of fact our industry is going through a very "high-tech" growth period and my co-workers and myself are always having to attend seminars on new devices and systems.
I frequently email my professor a big "THANKS" because without his advice, I might be struggling too!