8 hours ago
While I know "if they'd cover it on TV news, it's probably off-topic", I feel this is especially unusual due to the gap between the level of coverage (mostly regional at this point, like WGN) and the impact. Currently, poweroutage.us is showing 234459 customers out in Indiana, with elevated outages in Illinois and Ohio as well.
8 hours ago
I wonder how doge cuts have impacted this response.
8 hours ago
Less about doge cuts in this context and more that this part of Indiana's power distribution network is above ground (versus underground) and climate change is causing more severe weather events in this latitude corridor. The cost to bury electrical distribution infra to improve reliability where these weather events are increasing in quantity and severity is another climate cost that will need to be paid for (or it isn't paid for, response time increases from historical time, and those who can afford it use batteries and solar to avoid it).
https://capitolnewsillinois.com/news/illinois-is-experiencin...
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/watch-out-tornado...
6 hours ago
There was a severe storm warning at least 48 hours in advance, and as the storm moved eastward the warnings got more specific. Essentially, everything worked as designed. The TV stations in Chicago went to live coverage more than an hour before it hit Indiana.
There were small, weakish tornados west and south of Chicago, but by the time the storm got to Indiana it had morphed into a 20-mile wide derecho with 100mph wind. Since there has been a TON of rain recently, it was easy to knock trees down, and as you said that area has a lot of power lines above ground.
There really isn’t a lot of damage to houses and buildings, it’s just that there are downed trees and power lines everywhere, all at once.
6 hours ago
https://www.fema.gov/case-study/overhead-underground-it-pays...
https://www.instituteforenergyresearch.org/the-grid/pge-to-b...
https://corporate.my.xcelenergy.com/s/transmission/about/ove...
6 hours ago
The electric utility in Northern Indiana is spending essentially all of its money on modernizing, but state regulators are forcing it to refund “excess” money back to ratepayers. So it literally can’t go any faster.