Is anyone else following the heat wave that has hit the east coast? My old friends and neighbors back in Northern Virginia have been hammered and quite a few have been out of electricity/AC for several days with highs in the triple digits. With their humidity, it is all the more dangerous and they aren't used to the heat the way we are. Not that anyone wants to be in a high humid area with triple degree temps and no AC. They also lost their cell phones in many areas. Straight winds of over 80 MPH leveled trees and powerlines and in some areas it is very difficult to get around.

I read that they have suffered catastrophic damage to some of the power grids.

I have quite a few friends in the Chicago area and points a bit south that are also struggling but not like near DC. Amazingly, Oklahoma actually managed to not be the bullseye, this time.

http://news.yahoo.com/eastern-u-battles-heat-wave-amid-power-outages-065033909.html

Gotta be tough on folks not used to our lovely triple digit heat...Can't imagine what some are going through

I imagine if we'd had widespread power outages last summer, we would be having as many problems. Pretty ****ty hand to be dealt to the mid-Atlantic. Some other forums I'm on have mentioned that the DC power utility is awful and takes forever to get anything restored.

Maybe it'll spur them to put more of their electric lines underground. I sure wish we would. I do feel bad for them, though; many of the people in that part of the country don't have a/c and usually don't need it except for maybe a couple of days out of the year.

WaPo article about how this weather will be the norm in a couple decades.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/eugene-robinson-feeling-the-heat/2012/07/02/gJQANNZGJW_print.html

Maybe it'll spur them to put more of their electric lines underground. I sure wish we would. I do feel bad for them, though; many of the people in that part of the country don't have a/c and usually don't need it except for maybe a couple of days out of the year.

Unlikely, even with all the repairs they need to do after storms running them above ground, it is still significantly cheaper over the lifetime of the system verses running underground. Also being underground does not guarantee it being entirely storm proof, my office has been down a couple times due to the transformer spaces flooding after some of our worse flash floods.