Underground

I realize I haven't blogged for a while, but there's going to be a machine gun blogging style here for the next couple weeks....

I don't typically write about polotics or particularly topical news items. The hurricane, however, had a rather universal effect on the tri-state area and further. For one thing, it caused schools to be cancelled not only because of the storm itself, but the extended loss of power that followed.



It's easy to forget how reliant we are on power until we lose it for a while. It goes beyond simple creature comforts. It gets dangerous when you're sleeping in the cold night after night (I'm still sniffling). Many were and still are without power as well.

Cuomo has gone so far as to request 33 billion in damage relief aid. Now, in light of the power outage, one might wonder why we have these primitive poles dangling wires off them all over the place offering little to no resistance to heavy tree branches and 50 - 60 mph winds. Wouldn't it make a little more sense to put them underground? (I'm still wondering why that wasn't done in the first place). Anyway, Cuomo explicitly stated that that wouldn't be part of this 30 billion. Yet we've been talking about our crumbling infrastructure for years and how it needs improvement.

There's numbers being thrown around all over about how much damage was caused. It appears he plans on focusing on oil distribution (ironic considering the most likely cause of the unusually dramatic storm). But it seems to me, anyway, some of the dangerous effects of the storm could have been better mitigated if people had power throughout it.

NOTE: I intentionally made him look more ominous in the photo :D