Do homes on busy streets get power back sooner?

[Anonymous]

We talk about buying homes on busy streets a lot. Wondered now whether they get their power back in situations like this sooner than people who are deep into the hoods? I assume they may be on the same grid as street and traffic lights?

[Anonymous]

There are a bunch of factors that go into prioritization of power. Generally power companies prioritize fixes that will get the most people back and operational...but even within that they prioritize public safety places like hospitals and nursing homes.

As a super generalization, the power lines follow roads and busy roads tend to have power connections that when down will impact more people, so are likely to get fixed faster.

A power line down on a main street when that power line feeds several smaller power lines that go down multiple streets will get fixed well before the power line that is down at the end of a dead end street and only impacting three houses.

[Anonymous]

No, a friend in MD lives on a busy street and still has no power.

[Anonymous]

We live on a busy street and have no power.

[Anonymous]

I live next to Connecticut Ave, and we got power back within 24hrs.

Obviously PP's friend had different experience, so take it as you will.

[Anonymous]

We lived on a busy street and only lost power for two days during Isabel back in 2003. The rest of our neighborhood was out for a week.

The same held true for plowing -- our road was a snow emergency route and some of our neighborhood never saw a plow.

Those were the only upsides to having a house on a main road (two lanes, double yellow lines)

[Anonymous]

I live next to Connecticut Ave, and we got power back within 24hrs.

Obviously PP's friend had different experience, so take it as you will.

We have lived on a semi-busy street very near Connecticut for nine years. We are still without power but this is the first time we've ever not had it for more than two days.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There are a bunch of factors that go into prioritization of power. Generally power companies prioritize fixes that will get the most people back and operational...but even within that they prioritize public safety places like hospitals and nursing homes.

As a super generalization, the power lines follow roads and busy roads tend to have power connections that when down will impact more people, so are likely to get fixed faster.

A power line down on a main street when that power line feeds several smaller power lines that go down multiple streets will get fixed well before the power line that is down at the end of a dead end street and only impacting three houses.

This is pretty accurate. If you can, find out how many people are serviced on your feeder and that will give you a gage of how much priority your house will have. There are 2 homes in my neighborhood who are on a different feeder from the rest of us and those poor people are always the last to be restored.

[Anonymous]

We live on a busy street next to the National Guard and Foreign Service Training Centers and a mile from Virginia Hospital Center. We didn't get power until yesterday.

[Anonymous]

We live on a busy street in MoCo and were out till yesterday am. otoh apparently many people who live nearby on side streets who are still out. So maybe that peeves the theory, maybe not.

[Anonymous]

We live 1 block off of Wisconsin and rarely have power issues -- when we do, it's restored quickly. Homes just 1 block further into our 'hood (away from Wisc.) were without power for days.

[Anonymous]

My friend lives on River Road in Bethesda. Pepco came with a portable generator the first morning to power the lights, but the homes are still without power. She has a generator, so is getting by just fine.

[Anonymous]

We live on a fairly busy street in CCDC and never lost it.

[Anonymous]

We live on Brookville in CC, MD and never lost it and we never do. I love my busy street.

[Anonymous]

We live right off of a fairly busy street in Kensington and just got it back at 8pm last night. I don't think it matters at all.