Road Blockages a Barrier to Effective Emergency Restoration
Road blockages caused by evacuation traffic and debris can be a major hindrance to effective utility restoration efforts. This is certainly not Earth-shattering news to those in the know, but more and more utilities are starting to educate regulators and customers regarding how much this can hinder restoration efficiency.
Florida Regulators Aim to Reduce Post-Storm Road Blockages
Evacuations are a necessary evil, but there must be a balance between fleeing residents and disaster-response crew mobility, and this is what the Florida Public Service Commission is advocating in response to the devastation from Hurricane Irma.
(Note, the Florida PSC is calling for other actions as well – like undergrounding wires, hardening poles, allowing non-easement utility tree trimming, and enhancing customer communications – but for the purposes of this post I’ll be focusing only on road blockages.)
The problem with traffic congestion is not only the difficulty moving crews around, but also related problems such as shortages or delays with regard to fuel and lodging. It’s obvious that these factors reduce restoration efficiency, but what’s not clear is how much, as no effort has been made to quantify the impact.
At this point, the Florida PSC is working with the state’s largest utilities (FP&L, Duke, Tampa Electric, Gulf Power, etc.) to understand current processes and improvement opportunities regarding how the utilities respond to road blockages as well as fuel and lodging shortages. From there, I assume recommendations will be put forth.
Overall, it’s a good start if we put it into the ‘better late than never’ bucket, but I would like to see progress being made a little faster. With the threat of increasing weather severity on the horizon, there is little time to waste, and determining how to mitigate the negative impact of road blockages is only part of the puzzle – the other 50% relates to actually implementing the recommendations.
