Update from PSE&G >95% of Power Restored. Restoration Challenges:
This storm caused more individual incidents of damage to PSE&G’s electric infrastructure than Hurricane Irene.
This storm was particularly damaging because, with leaves still on the
trees, the heavy snow created considerable weight on tree limbs, bringing down
numerous trees and power lines.
In addition to major circuits, there were a larger number of individual
service lines from our poles to customers’ homes and business that were
damaged.
Other than a few power dips (brown outs), the power remained on for the last day. My APC UPS units continue to protect the computers and servers. The following is an update from PSE&G.
88% of the more than 570,000 PSE&G customers impacted by power outages from
Saturday’s wet, heavy snow that brought down numerous trees and power lines.
Crews will continue to work around the clock until all customers have power.
PSE&G expects to meet the state’s goal of having at least 95 percent
of customers restored by Thursday. At this time, about 67,000 customers are
without power with the majority of these in Bergen, Essex and Passaic
counties
This storm caused more individual incidents of damage to
PSE&G’s electric infrastructure than did Hurricane Irene. There is a larger
number of service lines that are damaged as a result of falling tree limbs.
Repairing the significant number of single lines from the poles to customers’
homes and businesses presents the greatest challenge with this
storm.
PSE&G is using every available resource to make repairs and
restore electricity as quickly and safely as possible. Resources include 262
crews and troubleshooters, 116 line contractor crews and 240 tree crews working
to restore power. In addition to its own crews, PSE&G is receiving
assistance from mutual aid crews from Alabama, Florida, Georgia and
Mississippi.
Electric crews work to restore power to the largest numbers
of customers first, taking into account “priority” customers, such as hospitals,
police stations, fire stations, water and sewer facilities, schools, and
communications facilities (TV, radio, and telephone). At the same time, the
utility restores power to homes and businesses, starting with the circuits
serving the largest number of customers.
Lots of construction going on around the UCSF South Bay Campus. What recession?
Construction Site UCSF South Bay Campus. Image taken with a Leica X1 camera (ISO 100, 24 mm, f/5.6, 1/800 sec). (David J Mathre)UCSF Medical Center Construction Site. Image taken with a Leica X1 camera (ISO 100, 24 mm, f/2.8, 1/2000 sec). (David J Mathre)
I was in California to visit my team one final time before the South San Francisco SIRNA site shut down. We went out to lunch at Ambers, an Indian Restaurant. I took a picture of my team in front of the Contemporary Jewish Museum, just outside of the restaurant. I wished everyone luck in their future endeavors.
Summertime Nature in New Jersey. Sourland Mountain Preserve.
The Sourland Mountain Preserve/Reserve is a local park in Somerset New Jersey. It is near where I live, so I often get to take photowalks to capture what is in season. I haven’t visited recently due to work and all of the rain we have been getting. Based on previous years, this should be a good time for butterflies and dragonflies. I had a chance to to a quick visit on the way home. I took the Nikon D700 camera and 28-300 mm VR that I often have with me in the car. In a little over 1 hour I was able to get images of Yellow and Black Swallowtail Butterflies, Hummingbird Clearwing Moths, a Praying Mantis eating a Hummingbird Clearwing Moth, A carnivorous insect (later identified as a Robber-Fly) that looks like a Dragonfly, but only has one pair of wings, and an orange Caterpillar. This is definitely a good time to visit, and I plan to return tomorrow with a macro lens and bigger telephoto lens.
I need to thank Hans for fixing the photoblog/website after the problems encountered after the security update. There are still some minor issues, but for the most part it appear that everything is working other than thumbnail images for new posts. If you notice any additional problems, let me know.
The other good thing today is that the Drobo Disk array that I ordered last Sunday arrived. I do wish that the Drobo folks had giving me a heads up on the shipping and expected delivery time (standard practice for Amazon, B&H, and most other online retailers). I was lucky to be home to sign for the delivery. The FedEx guy must have wondered why I was sweating so much, since I just got back from the Sourland Mountain Preserve. The delivery was JIT since I am running out of hard disk storage space. I have been using a combination of Western Digital 1 and 2 TB MyBook storage devices, but have run out of USB and FireWire connections to my computer. The Drobo 800i was easy to set up (with eight 2 TB Western Digital drives) format, and connect to my computer. I am now in the process of transferring the images from my previous storage drives to the Drobo disk array. This will probably take a few days. Once done, I’ll use the previous storage devices as additional off-site backup storage. Until this is complete and I have a chance to update my LightRoom database to the new image locations, I may be a bit slow with new posts.
Black Swallowtail Butterfly on Thistle Bloom. Image taken with a Nikon D700 and 28-300 mm VR lens (ISO 200, 300 mm, f/5.6, 1/500 sec). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro 6, Nik Define, and Photoshop CS5. (David J Mathre)Yellow Swallowtail Butterfly on Thistle Bloom. Image taken with a Nikon D700 and 28-300 mm VR lens (ISO 200, 300 mm, f/5.6, 1/2000 sec). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro 6, Nik Define, and Photoshop CS5. (David J Mathre)Butterfly on Thistle Bloom. Image taken with a Nikon D700 and 28-300 mm VR lens (ISO 200, 300 mm, f/5.6, 1/640 sec). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro 6, Nik Define, and Photoshop CS5. (David J Mathre)Black Swallowtail Butterfly on Thistle Bloom. Image taken with a Nikon D700 and 28-300 mm VR lens (ISO 200, 300 mm, f/5.6, 1/400 sec). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro 6, Nik Define, and Photoshop CS5. (David J Mathre)Hummingbird Clearwing Moth on Thistle Bloom. Image taken with a Nikon D700 and 28-300 mm VR lens (ISO 200, 300 mm, f/5.6, 1/1000 sec). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro 6, Nik Define, and Photoshop CS5. (David J Mathre)Hummingbird Clearwing Moth on Thistle Bloom. Image taken with a Nikon D700 and 28-300 mm VR lens (ISO 200, 300 mm, f/5.6, 1/800 sec). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro 6, Nik Define, and Photoshop CS5. (David J Mathre)Hummingbird Clearwing Moth on Thistle Bloom. Image taken with a Nikon D700 and 28-300 mm VR lens (ISO 200, 300 mm, f/5.6, 1/2000 sec). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro 6, Nik Define, and Photoshop CS5. (David J Mathre)Praying Mantis Eating Hummingbird Clearwing Moth. Image taken with a Nikon D700 and 28-300 mm VR lens (ISO 200, 300 mm, f/5.6, 1/800 sec). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro 6, Nik Define, and Photoshop CS5. (David J Mathre)Robber-Fly This insect only has one pair of wings. Image taken with a Nikon D700 and 28-300 mm VR lens (ISO 200, 300 mm, f/5.6, 1/640 sec). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro 6, Nik Define, and Photoshop CS5. (David J Mathre)Robber-Fly Eating Black Wasp. Image taken with a Nikon D700 and 28-300 mm VR lens (ISO 200, 300 mm, f/5.6, 1/640 sec). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro 6, Nik Define, and Photoshop CS5. (David J Mathre)Insect in a Queen Anne’s Lace Flower Image taken with a Nikon D700 + 28-300 mm VR lens (ISO 200, 300 mm, f/5.6, 1/2500 sec). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro, Nik Define 2, and Photoshop CS5. (David J Mathre)
