We had a big storm here three days ago with winds topping out at over about 65 miles per hour in the Portland area. Just after the storm 484,000 homes in Maine were without electricity and it will be Saturday before the remaining 250,000 get their power turned back on. (Maine has a population of only 1.3 million.)
We were lucky at our house here in Bath - we never lost power while most homes in the city did. Over the years we rarely lose power and we've heard folks say that our house is on the same electrical grid as Bath Iron Works because we live so close to the shipyard. Sounds like a plausible theory.
One might wonder why our state doesn't move power lines under ground as global warming is causing more severe storms more frequently. Some would say that the state can't afford to take on the expensive effort to bury power lines - but watching this current recovery effort I can't imagine how we can afford to repeatedly repair this aging electrical system after the next big storm - and we know that there will surely be more to come.
October was the warmest month in Maine's recorded history. Portland made it through the entire month of October without a frost.
Bruce
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Another major advance in technology is something called "trenchless drilling" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trenchless_technology
New natural gas mains were installed under the sidewalks of the street I live on and no trenches were ever dug. Would take some time particularly to cover rural areas, but it seems like it is long past time to begin.
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