BrianW

My friend owns a pool company and has been working 7 days a week all summer. He has deposits down through next summer. Said there aren't enough pool companies for the demand.

Maximum derecho wind estimate now at 140 mph, Atkins measures 126 mph CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (KCRG) - New data collected by the National Weather Service shows even stronger winds than initially surveyed, according to meteorologists. The Quad Cities office of the agency released new storm reports on Wednesday morning, following further storm surveys and new information relayed by emergency managers. Based on the damage to the Westdale Court apartments on the southwest side of Cedar Rapids, which removed the roof, outside walls, and some inside walls from the top floor, National Weather Service damage surveyors estimate that 140 mph winds took place in that location. https://www.kcrg.com/2020/08/19/maximum-derecho-wind-estimate-now-at-140-mph-atkins-measures-126-mph/

Some good news on antibodies. Research on a coronavirus outbreak that occurred on a Seattle-based fishing vessel earlier this year may be the first direct evidence that antibodies to the coronavirus could prevent people from reinfection. The findings were shared in a report Tuesday by the University of Washington’s School of Medicine and Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. The report looks at an outbreak on a fishing vessel that sailed from Seattle in May. It found that three crew members who had neutralizing coronavirus antibodies prior to departure were spared from an outbreak that infected more than 85 percent of the boat’s crew members. Before departing, the ship’s 122 crew members were all tested for coronavirus. This included having their blood drawn to see if they had coronavirus antibodies from a previous infection. None of the crew members tested positive for coronavirus, however three had antibodies for coronavirus, indicating they had previously been infected. https://komonews.com/news/coronaviru...n-fishing-crew

Go buy tempo dust if your dealing with wasp, bees, yellow jackets, etc. You can get it on Amazon. Its what the pros use. You dust the nest entrance and they bring it into the nest and it's done in a day or two. Those sprays only kill on contact and don't penetrate into the nest.

Looks like fall around here. This is on 95 in East Haven.

You can see it really good on wunderground just north of San Fran.

Some big heat there through the entire state.

My company has had to actually increase pay, retirement benefits, more vacation time etc to match up with what other companies are offering. Workers will leave in a flash if another company has better benefits and are paying more. There are huge sign on bonuses out there as well.

Skilled trades are booming here in CT. I can work pretty much endless overtime if I wanted. Huge shortage of state licensed hvac, electrical, plumbing, etc workers. There are huge sign on bonuses. All those jobs are mostly apprentice based jobs with zero college debt. Lineman made an absolute killing the last week. My neighbor who is one said he made over $10k working 16 hour days. Said he will make close to 200k this year . Its funny how back in the late 90s my High School gutted the entire tech ed department and converted it to classrooms...

“As a storm approaches, we engage a variety of different resources – including UConn’s predictive model and experts from outside weather services – to track the storm and forecast its severity and path. Based on the tools and guidance we received from our external experts, we followed our plan and filed for the appropriate level of classification. From the time we declared our initial level based on our best available tracking models at the end of last week, the storm’s path deviated from those models and we’ve reclassified the storm accordingly as our models dictated, which is a typical utility practice once a storm hits.” https://ctmirror.org/2020/08/05/lamont-says-it-will-take-days-to-recover-power/

Salt damage. It's really bad along the shoreline. My house and windows are covered in white salt residue.

That's impressive it went that far inland. Its really bad along the shoreline in Branford. All the oaks are like completely brown.

Special one even on the shoreline

I used this $500 Harbor Freight inverter generator for 3 days straight and then gave it to my mom. Its supposedly an exact clone of a Honda unit. It has a 1 gallon tank and sips fuel. Was getting 8-10 hours off a tank. Ran my fridge, lights, tv, window ac, etc. Get one if you don't own one. Worth every penny.

What a summer.

I'm wide open and get full sun. The last few months I had record production. I am looking into a battery/power wall as during power outages the panels shutdown to prevent backfeeding to the grid. I have a generator for when that happens though. Winter can be rough but I produce enough in the summer and get credited to carry me through the winter. CT and Mass have some of the best solar incentives in the nation. With such high electricity prices the payback period is 5-6 years. Both states will literally give you a check for thousands of dollars for installing them.

If you own a home in CT you should have a generator. It's astounding that people will spend 100's of thousands of dollars on a house but not a few hundred on a generator. How many times has this happened in CT? Eversource doesn't give a **** about you not having power. They own the entire electrical grid and are guaranteed a nice profit by PURA (Public Utility Regulatory Authority). All the cleanup cost is going to be passed on to rate payers and approved by PURA. This was announced the other day.

A crew from Hydro Quebec restored my power last night around 9. They were on a 4 pm to 8 am shift. Hooked them up with a ton of good New England beers and thanked them.

Tons more studies coming out about T-cell immunity. Its looking like a good majority of people are completely immune to covid. The blue links below are to to multiple studies supporting it. From a NY times article yesterday. Eight months ago, the new coronavirus was unknown. But to some of our immune cells, the virus was already something of a familiar foe. A flurry of recent studies has revealed that a large proportion of the population — 20 to 50 percent of people in some places — might harbor immunity assassins called T cells that recognize the new coronavirus despite having never encountered it before. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/06/health/coronavirus-immune-cells.html

Just get a cheap harbor freight 4500 watt portable for like $350. Mine is 10 years old and I have let so many people borrow it and it still runs great. You can run a few cords inside and power your fridge, lights, TV, window ac etc. They don't really use much fuel. I haven't even used 5 gallons since Tuesday afternoon. I just add gas every morning and night. For around $600 you can get a bigger portable one to feed your whole house with a transfer switch.

Almost all the big damage I have been seeing is from large trees well away from powerlines that came down across them. Trimming does nothing to prevent that.

Wesport definitely has the most damage I have seen so far in my travels. Its a disaster there. Eversource is reporting 97% of the town has no power with 12,257 outages. It looks like weeks worth of work to cleanup all the trees and down wires. Does anyone know who is responsible when huge tree on a homeowners property falls across the road? Seems they are everywhere and nothing is being done.

They basically took a gamble and lost big. Lineman make $50-75 an hour. When they bring crews in from out of state it cost a fortune. The lineman are on the clock 24/7 as soon as they leave. They are even paid when they are sleeping in hotel rooms overnight. They then get storm duty pay for actual work at 2 sometimes 3 times their regular pay. Lineman jump on out of state storm work as they make a fortune. Its a matter of the utilities bringing them in and paying for it.

I drive all over Fairfield County for work. Trees and wires are still down on roads all over the place. Its not just Eversources fault. Towns and the state haven't cleared roads. Also just heard on the radio that Frontier owns most of the poles not Eversource and they are a big part of the issue as well. I would expect you probably won't have power until late next week. Tons of commercial areas on Post Rd are still out. They focus on those spots first. If your on some rural residential road you are last on the list.