Underground Construction - October 2017 - 2

UCF

EDITOR'S LOG Bridge Over Troubled Water

By Robert Carpenter, Editor-in-Chief

ucononline.com

Friday, Aug. 25, 2017, is a day not
many in Southeast Texas will soon
forget. By midday, light to moderate rain began to fall, the precursor
to landfall of the infamous Hurricane Harvey. The 1,000-year storm
did not want to leave the state,
hanging around for several days
before moving off to plague Louisiana and parts north.
It fact, later August to late September will be remembered as
a month-long war with Mother
Nature, as waves of hurricanes and
two major earthquakes created
havoc. First, Hurricane Harvey
dumped seemingly endless buckets
of rain on the greater Houston
area (up to 55 inches was recorded
in parts of the city). While Hurricane Irma didn't pound Florida
with quite as much rain, it did rake
almost the entire state from the
Florida Keyes to the Georgia border with massive gale winds. Next,
Mexico was dealt a gut punch with
back-to-back earthquakes (7.1 and
8.1 magnitude). Without pause,
Hurricane Maria brutally smashed
into Puerto Rico and brushed the
east coast before moving towards
the North Atlantic Ocean. We
finally caught a break when yet
another hurricane was turning
north at press time into the central
Atlantic and was not expected to
impact North America. And hurricane season still isn't over.
I've lived in hurricane country
for more than 30 years. This is
my fourth hurricane, and I don't
remember how many tropical
storms and depressions. But as
most will recall, Hurricane Harvey
was unique in that overall weather
conditions held the storm in the
entire Houston area for several
days, literally pouring rain before
conditions allowed the storm
to slowly drift north. While the
massive Category 4 winds did tremendous structural damage when
Harvey came ashore, landfall was
in a lightly populated area. Densely
populated Houston was on the
"dirty" side of the storm where
the winds were much less but the

was a prime example that the investment was paid back in full. The
costs to restore and rebuild the
Undergrounding of
infrastructure in parts of Southeast Texas and much of Florida will
utilities, especially
cost many billions, not to mention
ancillary costs from people unable
in this area prone to
to stay in their homes due to a lack
of power and communication serhurricanes or tropical
vices. For most of us who weren't
storms, paid major
forced to abandon our homes, we
were able to ride out the storm redividends during this
plete with our creature comforts.
As flood reservoirs filled to renatural disaster. While
cord levels, a wall of water started
backing up to areas previously not
the "too-expensive" or
considered to be in a flood plan -
"too-invasive" arguments
such as my neighborhood. After
surviving all the rain and staying
against undergrounding
dry, now I had to be concerned
with a new threat. The flood conpersists, Harvey was a
trol district had no choice but to
release water from the reservoirs.
prime example that the
Flood waters stopped about half a
investment was paid
mile from my house. Of course, as
water was released, homes downback in full.
stream that had not previously
flooded now found themselves
stranded so fast that boats had to
evacuate them.
heavy rain, severe thunderstorms
One of the memories that will
and scores of tropical cyclones/small stand out in my mind is the untornados were much greater.
ending sound of multiple helicopAmazingly, the vast majority
ters flying overhead around the
of power and telecom lines, along
clock. Many were rescuing strandwith water plants, remained active ed residents from rooftops. Others
throughout the storm. In this area, were bringing victims to hospitals.
more and more of the utilities are
A very positive memory is the
located underground which facilitat- multitude of industry friends who
ed minimal disruption. Even when followed our plight with concern
and never ceased to offer aid or
water was standing in homes, you
refuge as needed.
could still wash your hands, cook
As the rain and flooding peaked,
dinner, use the restroom or watch
the pictures and video of undercable television. For most of the
areas that did lose power, it was in- water Houston were disturbing. At
tentional. Utilities had to cut power one point, I muted the television,
turned to our latest electronic gadas water levels rose so high that
electrocution and exploding trans- get, Amazon Echo, and said "Alexa,
formers became serious and deadly play 'Bridge Over Troubled Water'
by Simon and Garfunkel." It's a
threats.
beautiful song; the "troubled waUndergrounding of utilities,
ter" part of the lyrics just seemed
especially in this area prone to
hurricanes or tropical storms, paid fitting.
major dividends during this natural
disaster. While the "too-expensive"
or "too-invasive" arguments against
undergrounding persists, Harvey
Underground Construction October 2017

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Underground Construction - October 2017

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