13,000 utility workers try to restore Port Arthur area
Rita caused more damage to the company's transmission grid than any other storm, said Don Pumphrey, customer service manager for Entergy Texas Inc., which serves most of Southeast Texas. Of Entergy's 270 transmission structures in the region, 57 were knocked out in southern Jefferson County alone.
"We are doing many surgeries to create bypasses in those breaks," he said. "Right now we have a vein to replace an artery. This is a stopgap measure."
Pumphrey said residents should stay away until power is fully restored. He stressed that generators must not be hooked up to home circuit boxes, because a current may be sent up the line. Workers at the other end think they are working with a dead line, when in fact it could be live, he said.
The water and sewer systems in mid- and south Jefferson County continue to operate on emergency generator power and are subject to failure. The generator powering the Groves city water and sewer facilities failed and is not operating using two smaller generators.
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SEOUL - Engineers from South Korea have invented a cement-based composite that can be used in concrete to make structures that generate and store electricity through exposure to external mechanical energy sources like footsteps, wind, rain and waves.
By turning structures into power sources, the cement will crack the problem of the built environment consuming 40% of the world’s energy, they believe.
Building users need not worry about getting electrocuted. Tests showed that a 1% volume of conductive carbon fibres in a cement mixture was enough to give the cement the desired electrical properties without compromising structural performance, and the current generated…
