|
|||||
Blackstone Valley
Tourism Council Northern Rhode Island Chamber of Commerce The Blackstone River Valley National Heritage Corridor
|
Should a strong hurricane knock out power in R.I., generators would provide only 3 days of electricity *BY TIMOTHY C. BARMANN and PETER B. LORD
Should a major hurricane strike Rhode Island, Robert Warren, head of the state's Emergency Management Agency, says he's most worried about a sustained loss of electric power to homes and businesses. Extra Your turn: Are you prepared to cope without electricity for longer than a few days? Graphic: See a graphic explaining how the Hurricane Barrier works More... Every utility, every hospital and nursing home, every police and fire station in Rhode Island has prepared emergency plans and backup power sources to keep operating if a hurricane knocks out electric lines. But Rhode Island's link to modern comforts is very tenuous.Warren fears the state's heavy coverage of trees in inland towns and its dense development, especially along the coast, will cause massive power line damage. "I really think we'll have areas of the state without power for a month," Warren says at nearly every meeting of emergency responders. Consequently, he says, Rhode Islanders must start thinking about how they'll cope without electricity for longer than just a few days. Generators and batteries are designed to keep sewer plants, hospitals, telephones and other essentials going for about 72 hours. After that, if electricity isn't restored or roads reopened to allow fuel deliveries, most will shut down. And if that happens, Rhode Island would become a very unpleasant place to be. Reports from Katrina show that following the initial devastation, it is very difficult to recover when credit cards and ATMs don't work, gas stations can't open and cell phones can't find signals or be recharged. By many accounts, Rhode Island is more prepared this year than last. At this time last year, the top post at the state's Emergency Management Agency had been vacant for a year and, for the first time in a long time, there was no statewide hurricane planning session. Governor Carcieri finally appointed Warren, the widely respected Cranston fire chief, to head the troubled agency. Now, one year later, many officials say much has been done. But when it comes to public education, shelters, backup power sources and training, Rhode Island still isn't fully prepared. It's tough enough for homeowners when the power goes out. What would happen at the state's big utilities? The Fields Point Sewage Treatment plant in Providence, which serves much of the metropolitan area, is expected to burn its 8,000 gallons of reserve diesel fuel in three days. When the fuel is gone, the emergency generator will stop and millions of gallons of raw sewage will pour into the capital region's major rivers and then Narragansett Bay. Failure will occur sooner at the Narragansett Bay Commission's other big plant at Bucklin Point, in East Providence. It is expected to use up its 8,000 gallons of generator fuel in just a day and a half. Then the raw sewage will flow. Should the state's grid of major transmission lines go down -- unlikely, but not impossible -- stormwater and sewage could back up behind the Fox Point Hurricane Barrier and flood downtown Providence. That happened during hurricanes in 1954 and 1938. Rhode Island Hospital has enough diesel fuel to keep its generators running for two or three days. Verizon, provider of more than half of the state's residential telephones, has batteries and generators designed to keep the phones going for the same period. The three-day goal appears to be a tradition of emergency planning. "We've always told utilities to plan to take care of themselves for 72 hours," says Warren. "That is how long it takes for FEMA (the Federal Emergency Management Agency) to get here." Anyone who observed FEMA's response to Hurricane Katrina last fall can ponder the chances that the agency would show up to rescue Rhode Island with fuel, food and ice in three days. Incredible challenges It's hard to imagine life without electricity. But that's exactly what Warren has been doing. "If we get hit with a severe storm, Category 3 hurricane [with wind speeds from 111 to 130 miles per hour], the winds in the northern and northwest part of the state can take down a lot of power lines. Think power outages." "We believe it will happen," Warren said -- "It's just a matter of when." The good news is key people have been planning for power failures and how to respond to them. Last month, the state's Public Utilities Commission hosted its first meeting to introduce RIEMA director Warren and municipal emergency management officials to emergency operations personnel at local electric, gas, telephone and water companies. More than 70 people took part. PUC spokesman Thomas Kogut said the agency has long required disaster planning, but this was the first time it brought key people together so they could get to know each other and discuss the various plans. Despite all the planning, Kogut said officials conceded that "A Category 3 storm would present incredible challenges to all the utilities. And while the utilities have incredibly complex restoration plans, people do need to take some personal responsibility and plan to be without power for an extensive period of time." Hurricanes Bob and Gloria kept power out for a week in some part of Rhode Island. Two weeks ago, Warren mailed letters to the state's 39 cities and towns, asking them to identify critical sites, such as police and fire stations, nursing homes and hospitals, that need backup generators. The Army Corps of Engineers can supply generators for key sites and routinely it is called in following a disaster. Warren is trying to jump-start the process by asking the Army to assess each site now so the equipment can be set up faster when needed. Emergency planners say that the devastation in New Orleans was unique because of that city's geography, with many neighborhoods below sea level. Fortunately, in Rhode Island most utilities are on higher ground. At Rhode Island Hospital, Thomas Magliocchetti, vice president of facilities services, says he is confident about the hospital's ability to remain open during a major hurricane. "We're in pretty good shape here," he said. Rhode Island Hospital, he said, is among the few medical centers in the United States that has an on-site power plant. That facility has two generators that can produce two-thirds of the electricity the hospital needs on a daily basis. Those generators can run on either diesel fuel or natural gas, which is piped in underground from New England Gas. The hospital buys the remainder of its electricity from National Grid; it arrives by underground power lines. In addition, the hospital has two backup diesel-fired generators. All four generators can produce as much electricity as the hospital needs for up to two or three days, and perhaps longer, depending on the number of patients at the hospital, he said. And the generators are located on the second floor, above sea level, Magliocchetti said. (Despite the redundancy, the hospital has had several power failures involving earlier versions of its emergency systems in recent years, including one in 1999 during which a 74-year-old patient died when his respirator shut down.) One critical facility without backup power is the Fox Point Hurricane Barrier. Inside the barrier, five massive pumps are designed to carry water over the barrier, preventing a backup that could flood downtown. Because the pumps draw such huge amounts of power, backup generators are simply not practical, said John Nickelson, director of public works for the City of Providence. "You just can't generate that kind of power on a standalone generator," he said. The pumps get their power from an underground connection to the power grid, he said, and city officials believe the power grid will stand up to storms. National Grid, which provides electricity to 477,000 customers in almost every Rhode Island community, said it is constantly revisiting and updating its disaster plans, said Edward Paluch, manager of operations planning for Rhode Island. The challenge is growing, he said, in part because the demand for electricity is constantly rising in Rhode Island. Between 2000 and 2005, demand for electricity here grew 15 percent per residential customer, National Grid said. That growth was fueled by the availability of cheap computers and other appliances, larger homes and more use of air conditioning. In the last six years, there has been a 21-percent increase in peak usage in South County. Peak usage -- which occurs on the hottest days of the year -- is usually associated with high use of air conditioning.In the event of a major storm, Paluch said the first order of business is to restore any downed transmission lines -- the major grid connections that bring electricity to the state from Massachusetts and Connecticut. Simultaneously, crews will also work to repair downed power lines and utility poles in neighborhoods and re-string distribution lines to customers. All of that work may be hindered by downed trees, especially in the western and northwestern part of the state, Paluch said. State planners say Rhode Island is more heavily forested than it has been in generations. There is a priority list of critical customers, he said."We try and get hospitals back on first, along with police, fire and municipal pumping stations," Paluch said. The company can also count on help from other regions. National Grid has informal "mutual aid" agreements with several other power companies in the East and South.National Grid has sent trucks and crews to Florida several times to help Florida Power and Light recover from various hurricanes, Paluch said. Verizon Communication's phone network, dominant in Rhode Island, is designed to continue operating in the event of a power failure, said Mark Marchand, director of media relations for network and technology. The network is powered from the neighborhood central offices around the state. There are 30 in Rhode Island. Each central office has backup batteries and a diesel generator, Marchand said. Those can keep the network running for two to three days before more fuel is needed. Verizon's facilities are above sea level, Marchand said, which means it probably won't face the same issues that phone companies in New Orleans did. "We don't have any of our switches below sea level," he said. "Bell South -- no matter what they did, they got flooded." Drinking water for homes that rely on private wells would also be imperiled in a long power failure because the wells operate on electricity. There are about 60,000 private drinking wells in the state serving about 127,000 people, according to the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management. Most of them are in Burrillville, North Smithfield, Glocester, Scituate, Charlestown, northern Jamestown, Richmond, South Kingstown, Coventry and Tiverton. The bottom line, say emergency management officials across the state, is for individuals to study what can happen during a bad hurricane, set aside some critical supplies and decide what to do when storm warnings are raised. With reports from Amanda Milkovits tbarmann@projo.com (401) 277-7369 plord@projo.com (401) 277-8036 amilkovi@projo.com (401) 277-7213 EXTRA Gallery: Page through photos from the Providence Journal archives of the construction of the Fox Point Hurricane Barrier. Your turn: Are you prepared to cope without electricity for longer than a few days? Do you have confidence that the Fox Point Hurricane Barrier, completed in 1966, will hold during a major hurricane? *Series at a glance* Sunday/ POWER If the power fails, emergency plans and backup sources would last only three days. Monday/ COMMUNICATIONS Emergency personnel have improved communication systems but only in some areas. Tuesday/ EVACUATION Most evacuation routes are well marked, but evacuees know where they want to go. Wednesday/ SHELTERS The state has a list of approved shelters, but there is still no official plan for pets. Thursday/ DAMS There are more than 600 dams in the state. Failures could cause widespread destruction. Friday / RESPONSE Local emergency management directors have a big job but often no training and small budgets. *Editor's note* Scientists say hurricanes are becoming more frequent -- and more intense. Rhode Island has been hit hard in the past. This six-part series examines the strengths and weaknesses of the state's hurricane plan and offers advice on how to prepare. Jennifer McCann
| ||||
|
|
|||||
