So the Obama administration wants to rebuild the US infrastructure which is badly in need of repair. Rebuilding and refurbishing bridges and highways is a worthy project, but here's something even more important that hasn't even been mentioned yet: undergrounding US utilities. Every time there is an ice storm or a hurricane or a tornado, it takes out thosands of utility poles leaving people without power for weeks. What sense is there to put back the utility and power poles to be knocked down again by the next big storm? Storms are only getting more violent as global warming proceeds apace. Last year's ice storms in New England and this year's ice storm in Kentucky prove my point.
This is from New Hampshire News January, 13, 2009:
PETERBOROUGH, N.H. -- Federal officials are assessing the damage caused to small businesses by the ice storm that struck New Hampshire last month.
Many businesses lost inventory and revenue at one of the most critical times of the year, state officials said. The Small Business Administration is now taking stock of the losses to see if the station sustained enough damage to qualify for recovery help.
Twelve Pine in Peterborough was one of the businesses hit hard by the ice storm, owner Sven Green said. The business, which specializes in prepared gourmet meals, lost power during the storm and lost all its fresh food, and it's still dealing with the effects.
"We had to adjust our hours," Green said. "I'd say, overall, we lost $50,000, if not more, in revenue and inventory."
The story is similar at other bus- inesses, said Roy Duddy of the state Division of Econ- omic Devel- opment.
"What we're seeing is a loss of inventory, a lot of loss of sales and revenue around Christmas time, which really could have turned around a lot of businesses, to enjoy additional revenue during the holiday season," he said.
If the state can show that 25 businesses or homes in any county suffered a 40 percent uninsured loss due to the ice storm, then that county and the adjoining counties become eligible for federal low-interest loans from the Small Business Administration.
"Once that declaration is made, that 40 percent goes out the window," said Terry Miller of the SBA. "Anybody with any kind of damage, whether it's a flat tire or a total loss of their house, is eligible to apply for recovery."
State officials said they believe 250 businesses from Cheshire to Strafford counties suffered storm-related losses.
In Kentucky this year more than 700,000 homes and businesses were without power for weeks. They had to call in the National Guard to help restore power.
This is from Huffington Post:
MAYFIELD, Ky. — Gov. Steve Beshear deployed every last one of his Army National Guardsmen on Saturday, with his state still reeling after a deadly ice storm encrusted it this week.
More than half a million homes and businesses, most of them in Kentucky, remained without electricity from the Ozarks through Appalachia, though temperatures creeping into the 40s helped a swarm of utility workers make headway. Finding fuel _ heating oil along with gas for cars and generators _ was another struggle for those trying to tough it out at home, with hospitals and other essential services getting priority over members of the public.
The addition of 3,000 soldiers and airmen makes 4,600 Guardsmen pressed into service. It's the largest call-up in Kentucky history, which Beshear called an appropriate response to a storm that cut power to more than 700,000 homes and businesses, the state's largest outage on record. Many people in rural areas cannot get out of their driveways due to debris and have no phone service, the governor said.
"With the length of this disaster and what we're expecting to be a multi-day process here, we're concerned about the lives and the safety of our people in their own homes," Beshear said, "and we need the manpower in some of the rural areas to go door-to-door and do a door-to-door canvass ... and make sure they're OK."
Staff Sgt. Erick Duncan of Murray said he and his colleagues have been putting in long shifts to open tree-littered roads. Duncan, who manned a chain saw, said he expects the assignment to last quite a while.
"It's a mess and we're just in the city limits," he said. "We're not even out in the county yet. And there's plenty of cities and counties to go to."
Thousands of people were staying in motels and shelters, asked to leave their homes by authorities who said emergency teams in some areas were too strapped to reach everyone in need of food, water and warmth. The outages disabled water systems, and authorities warned it could be days or weeks before power was restored in the most remote spots.
That uncertainty had many appealing for help and officials urging those in dark homes to leave, if they could. Many were stuck in place by blocked roads and other obstacles.
Rather than go through the process of rebuilding the power lines again and again, doesn't it make sense to spend the money to underground them once? Then, at least, the next time a storm blows in, whatever misery it might cause, it won't be because of power outages.
