At 02:46 PM 8/5/02 +1200, Morgan Owens wrote:
That's something I've never understood - if that's a power line you're referring to then in this country such an insult to the supply would cause a circuit breaker to jump out and the whole line would've gone dead (and the line company would be alerted). You just don't see live wires sparking and sputtering on the ground - after all, that represents lost revenue to the line company.
It was a live 4,500 volt power line sparking and smoking, not actually on the ground, but tangled in the tree which had pulled it down. I suppose the downed line was not grounded solidly enough to trip the breaker. But it was a curious sight as different parts of the fallen tree smoked and burst into flame as the current arced across the breaks in the wood. We first called the fire department, but when the company arrived they said they could do nothing about live wires. They notified the power company, which already had been notified six times. But since over 100,000 lost power in the storm, the power company was overwhelmed. It was 16 hours before the crew finally reached the scene, cut up the tree, restrung the wire and moved on to the next job. Just to keep this on topic, the lightning during the storm traced lovely fractal patterns in the sky. Jim (the enlightened) Muth