To view the full print/pdf version of Volume 2, Issue 3 of Currents, click here
For previous issues of Currents, visit our Currents Library
Rain, Rain, Go Away
By: Claudia Raffay, Director of Marketing & Member Services
Email: craffay@sussexrec.com
A popular nursery rhyme, “Rain, Rain, Go Away” can be found throughout the world. The modern English language version can be dated to the 17th century. An 1865 collection of nursery rhymes put the rhyme to music, creating the song you are most likely singing in your head at this very moment.
This past summer, we’ve seen storms rush into our area and then “go away” in the blink of an eye. One such storm in July lasted less than ten minutes and hit only select areas of our service territory. While some members dealt with large hail and uprooted trees, at the same time other members were calling wondering why the power was out when there was not even a whisper of wind by them. The 10-minute storm caused over $225,000.00 worth of damage.
Just a couple of weeks before, we dealt with thunderstorms that caused another quarter-million dollars’ worth of damage to our system. The winds were so powerful at points that they brought down many healthy, living trees, not just weakened or dead ones. With the extent of the damage dealt, we had to call on crews from Pennsylvania cooperatives to aid in the outage restorations for both storm events.
Even the shortest storms can be packed with strong winds which uprooted trees, knocked down utility poles, and toppled power lines. We’ve seen a concerning rise in extreme weather events over the last few years, with this summer’s storms being a good example. Even when a storm is a short one, it can be powerful enough to leave our service territory littered with down trees, poles, and wires. Situations like these can take a long time to fix, as the many fallen trees need to be removed before we can safely make repairs to our equipment.
We’re lucky that, as an electric cooperative, we can rely on mutual aid from co-op crews from Pennsylvania and other nearby areas when needed. Mutual aid comes with “Cooperation Among Cooperatives,” one of our guiding cooperative principles. Not only have we had to rely on Pennsylvania’s crews for these recent storms, but we’ve also had to send our own linemen to various co-ops in Pennsylvania multiple times this year to assist with large outages in their territories. These weather patterns are affecting co-ops and their members, as well as investor-owned utilities and their customers, throughout the region and beyond.
Just like the nursery rhyme, we’d all love these storms to go away. Unfortunately, they are a reality that we cannot control. What we can control, however, is how we prepare for them and how we respond to them.
We recommend that members stay ready in case of an outage by putting together storm preparedness kits to cover their basic needs during an outage. Installing a whole-house generator or transfer switch for a portable generator is also a great option to keep your family comfortable during an outage, especially for those who rely on medical equipment at home.
Even if we get a stretch of time with good weather and no outages, the storms will certainly come again another day. Though storms are a fact of life, trust that Sussex REC will be ready to respond to them.
