Do you think the power outages are going to encourage the power companies and government to upgrade the existing infrastructure? I don't know much about electric, but I know the infrastructure for water distribution/treatment and wastewater collection/treatment is seeing the end of its design life.

It's scary to think about it, but Our generation is replacing the pipe, electrical lines, roadway, and other infrastructure our parents put in and are way overdue for replacement. Most of the record drawings I see in my job are from late sixties to late seventies. We have sewers still constructed of clay in the ground (and in some of the big cities, wood); and asbestos cement pipe water and sewer force mains in most communities. Their just doesn't seem to be enough money and public interest in fixing that problem. Perhaps the power outages will alert people of the problem, but despite the expressed concerns from engineers it will ultimately result in people pointing fingers at each other, asking, "Why did YOU let this happen; I'm a lawyer and it's not my job to look out for these things. I'm suing you for your negligence."

In the meantime, I applaud everyone at UMR and other engineering schools for going through the difficulty of engineering (and other technical) school. And although we probably don't get paid as much as some of the other professions with equal difficulty in schooling, at least we get the reward of improving the quality of life for all people in our community.
/me steps off his soap box.

The main problem is lack of redundency and load shifting capabilities. Its not that these things can't be done, they're just not being done. I know that the load shifting algorithms are not perfect yet, it becomes traveling salesman on large grids, I remember hearing about that when I was still a CS major. It was hoped that the blackout of 2003 in the northeast would spur investment, and IEEE reported on this, but I think it quickly lost steam and for the most part we're back where we were in 2003, the recent blackouts in St. Louis should prove that point.

Load shifting is the problem that is causing the outages in NY, but it is not the main problem. The main problem is that the power lines just cannot handle any more power. It is estimated that within 5-10 yrs. the total power capacity in the US network will equal total power consumed. That means if one more light bulb is turned on, nationwide rolling blackouts start to occur.

The nation only managed to last this long because when most of the nations lines were being run in the '40s-'60s, they ran three lines when only 1 was needed. So, we are kinda lucky they spent a little extra then and built a large capacity into the system.

But the power grid is just one of the main infrastructure problems this nation has. The year bush was elected to his first term and he had a budget surplus, ASCE released a report of the nation's civil structures and found that well over half of them were in disrepair and should be condemned.

I agree with you guys, I think that all these problems with infrastructure should wake some people up to the fact that these infrastructure need to be replaced and updated.

But I hope that it also wakes people up to another reality. It doesn't take much (one freak storm with less than 24 hours warning, maybe) to stop services for several days. There have already been riots in downtown and East St. Louis. Hell, New York City has had blackouts with no apparent reason and they've got riots. Yes, these riots are fairly minor. But what about an earthquake? St. Louis is overdue for an earthquake. Not only would that disrupt power, but also water and transportation, as well as natural gas. If a thunderstorm (albeit a strong one) causes a power loss for 5 or more days, and that causes small riots, imagine an earthquake that shuts down power, water, gas, and highways.

Even without riots, you will need a way to get water and food if you decide to stay. How many of you have more than five days worth of food and water in your house? I understand that living in the dorms sort of precludes you from having a store of food, but you can have a week's worth of granola bars, MREs, and bottled water in the trunk of your car or even your closet.

And if you do have food, water, hygeine items, etc... what about people who didn't bother stocking up and have no problem taking what you have? There are plenty of people who are willing to steal your stuff when they've got a comfortable house with power, water, food, 700 cable channels and an x-box. Imagine what they would do when they are hungry, thirsty, and bored. Even my anti-gun mother in law is buying one and learning how to use it.

St. Louis wasn't that bad. Most people were able to leave. My mother-in-law decided to stay, but within 24 hours she was out of food, running low on water, ran out of batteries, was almost out of gasoline (no gas pumps running without electricity) and was scared because everyone else in her neighborhood had cleared out - except for the people in the drug house across the street. She spent the weekend with us, and now she's stocking up a little bit on food, water, batteries, and toilet paper.

My point is that yes, we need to collectively prepare and work on the infrastructure. But we need to individually prepare so when the old infrastructure fails we can sustain ourselves and protect ourselves from those who are willing to kill to get what we have, when the police are out of gas and have no electricity to run their radios, or are too busy to keep everybody safe.

I think our infrastructure is pretty fucking terrible if 80 mph winds can cause week-long blackouts. Pathetic. Why are we worried about terrorists again?

The winds were bad, yes, but I believe it was the freakish lightning that took out a bunch of substations and transformers.

And we're worried about terrorists because big storms don't let the government gain more power to monitor, spy on, imprison, and restrict the freedom of its citizens.

Oh yeah, thanks.