K
Kaverin
Hello,
I live in Saipan, of the Northern Mariana islands in the west Pacific. Usually it's a happy little tropical island, but last month, August 2nd, our island was hit directly by Typhoon Soudelor, the strongest typhoon of 2015. It's the worst typhoon we've had here in three decades (and we get many per year), and about 800 power poles and 500 transformers went down -- our island is only 12 miles long and 5 miles wide with a population of about 50,000, so you can imagine what it was like. The entire island lost power, and power is being slowly restored throughout the island.
My family owns a little 6-unit apartment in a village called Chalan Kanoa. About ten days ago, most of our village had its power restored when a particular feeder was activated, but we and our neighbors did not get our power back. At the time we were told we might be connected to a different feeder, but I've realized that this is not true, because the activated feeder's lines run directly adjacent to our apartment, and our power pole/transformer.
A lot of trees fell in our yard, but fortunately our power pole, transformer, wires, weatherhead, meter, etc. were all undamaged. Our neighbor across the street, however, lost his tin roof again, and there was enough damage there that the utility company removed their electrical meter. I noticed yesterday that one of the three wires dropping from the power pole to his house, appeared to be cut and just slung over his repaired roof.
This neighbor is connected to the same transformer as we are, and I'm wondering whether the utility company is able to safely deactivate their service drop wire and leaving ours active, before turning on the transformer. Or would the utility company need to cut the neighbor's service drop wire at the transformer to accomplish that?
Like most people on Saipan, we haven't had power at our apartment for about a month and a half now, so we are very anxious to get power restored if it is available. Wondering whether the neighbor's wiring issues will cause additional weeks of delay.
I have been calling and visiting the power division of the local utility company, but as you can imagine they are very overloaded and slow to respond at this time.
I would greatly appreciate any advice. Thanks!
I live in Saipan, of the Northern Mariana islands in the west Pacific. Usually it's a happy little tropical island, but last month, August 2nd, our island was hit directly by Typhoon Soudelor, the strongest typhoon of 2015. It's the worst typhoon we've had here in three decades (and we get many per year), and about 800 power poles and 500 transformers went down -- our island is only 12 miles long and 5 miles wide with a population of about 50,000, so you can imagine what it was like. The entire island lost power, and power is being slowly restored throughout the island.
My family owns a little 6-unit apartment in a village called Chalan Kanoa. About ten days ago, most of our village had its power restored when a particular feeder was activated, but we and our neighbors did not get our power back. At the time we were told we might be connected to a different feeder, but I've realized that this is not true, because the activated feeder's lines run directly adjacent to our apartment, and our power pole/transformer.
A lot of trees fell in our yard, but fortunately our power pole, transformer, wires, weatherhead, meter, etc. were all undamaged. Our neighbor across the street, however, lost his tin roof again, and there was enough damage there that the utility company removed their electrical meter. I noticed yesterday that one of the three wires dropping from the power pole to his house, appeared to be cut and just slung over his repaired roof.
This neighbor is connected to the same transformer as we are, and I'm wondering whether the utility company is able to safely deactivate their service drop wire and leaving ours active, before turning on the transformer. Or would the utility company need to cut the neighbor's service drop wire at the transformer to accomplish that?
Like most people on Saipan, we haven't had power at our apartment for about a month and a half now, so we are very anxious to get power restored if it is available. Wondering whether the neighbor's wiring issues will cause additional weeks of delay.
I have been calling and visiting the power division of the local utility company, but as you can imagine they are very overloaded and slow to respond at this time.
I would greatly appreciate any advice. Thanks!
