Is it time to move power lines underground?

One last story from this week's Riverdale Review.

Power lines are the only thing holding up this fallen tree.
Residents, however, were left without power because of it.

By Brendan McHugh 

Storm after storm has ravaged Riverdale residents, killing tree after tree, which inevitably land on a power line or two. Or more. 

Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz is fed up with the situation. 

“This problem has continued for far too long and must be fixed,” he wrote in a letter to Consolidated Edison. “I strongly urge you to move the electrical wires in these areas underground, thereby eliminating the risk of interference by felled trees.” 

As of Monday, over 1,000 Bronxites were still without power, and Con Edison said they hoped to have solved the rest of the outages by Wednesday evening. Dinowitz says that if the electric and gas company would start putting wires in the ground, they could avoid the problem completely. 

“I surmise these power outages are related to the abundance of trees in these areas, and hence the increased likelihood of trees falling down and knocking down electrical wires,” he wrote. “We are in the 21st century, and there is no reason we should continue to rely on an unreliable and antiquated system of delivering power to the affected areas.”

Jump below for the full story.

Cuomo declares state of emergency in preparation for Irene

This is the fifth hurricane named Irene since 1971, and only 1999's Irene caused considerable damage to the US ($800 million to Florida, so...yeah).

Gov. Cuomo has declared a state of emergency to prepare for the potential storm (But like I said in an earlier post: Just head to Riverdale, where Mother Nature probably has a house in Fieldston, to find shelter).

Meanwhile, the MTA--always looking to save money--released a statement relating to their service and maintenance plan for the weekend:

The MTA is actively preparing for the impact of Hurricane Irene, coordinating with the Governor's Office, Mayor's Office and regional OEMs consistent with our Hurricane Plan. We are making arrangements to bring in extra personnel over the weekend, preparing our facilities and infrastructure by clearing drains, securing work sites against possible high winds, checking and fueling equipment, stocking supplies, and establishing plans to move equipment and supplies away from low-lying areas as needed. Because of the severity of the wind and rain associated with a hurricane, there may be partial or full shut down of our services to ensure the safety of our customers and employees. The good news, however, is the above ground train stations will finally be cleaned. We haven't cleaned some of the No. 1 train stations all summer, so this is a welcome relief for us. We are also prepared to implement evacuation plans if the Mayor and Governor decide that is necessary. We urge our customers to check mta.info frequently and to consider the impacts of this storm when making travel plans through the weekend.

OK, so two of those sentences I made up. But is it that far fetched to believe?