#lots of little one house dots reporting outage around us

[nerdierholler]

Soooo, super enjoying the recent power outages that have fried one (inexpensive) surge strip and one (not so inexpensive) battery back up. They did their job though and no computers have been fried but still. Usually the power is extremely reliable and I like our power company (I know, who says stuff like that) but our corner of the grid has been kinda wonky lately.

[neptunecreek]

Frontier’s Bankruptcy Reveals Why Big ISPs Choose to Deny Fiber to So Much of America

Even before it announced that it would seek Chapter 11 bankruptcy, Frontier had a well-deserved reputation for mismanagement and abusive conduct. In an industry that routinely enrages its customers, Frontier was the literal poster-child for underinvestment and neglect, an industry leader in outages and poor quality of service, and the inventor of the industry's most outrageous and absurd billing practices. As Frontier’s bankruptcy has shown, there was no good reason they—and all old big Internet service providers—couldn’t provide blazing-fast fiber on par with services in South Korea and Japan.

Frontier's bankruptcy announcement forced the company to explain in great detail its finances, past investment decisions, and ultimately why it has refused to upgrade so many of its DSL connections to fiber to the home. This gives us a window into why ISPs like Frontier—large, dominant, with little-to-no competition—are choosing not to invest in better, faster, and more accessible Internet infrastructure. The reason American Internet lags so far behind South Korea, Japan, and Norway isn’t because fiber isn’t profitable. It just falls under the old adage “you have to spend money to make money,” an anathema to American ISPs’ entrenched position of prioritizing short-term profit over making lasting investments.

So long as major national ISPs continue to operate with that same short-term mindset, they will never deliver high-speed fiber to the home broadband of their own accord. If they will not do it, then policymakers need to be thinking about incentivizing others to do it.

Why Spend Money Now to Make Money Later When You’re Making Money Now?

Instead of being incentivized to grow a satisfied consumer base by investing in better service and expanding to underserved customers, publicly traded companies' incentives are dominated by quarterly reporting. They are driven to show larger profits every three months, and that short-term profitability woos big-dollar sources of investment and pleases the analysts whose judgments move the financial markets. This short-termism precludes investments that bear fruit in the future. That is why for years, the telecom sector has invested almost exclusively in programs that pay out in three to five years and neglected anything that pays out over 10 years or more.

This was why Verizon terminated its FiOS efforts more than a decade ago. When Verizon first started to deploy FiOS, and competing with cable companies such as Comcast and Charter, investment analysts criticized the company. They denounced the effort by a phone company to upgrade its old copper network to fiber as a waste of billions of dollars that would be countered by cable companies that could keep pace with early fiber speeds through a series of cheap, incremental upgrades to their coaxial lines. Verizon would have to invest $18 billion to cover just 14 percent of the country with fiber optic while cable companies across the entire country would match the early offerings of FiOS for less than $10 billion.

Investors denounced fiber investment as a waste because Verizon would have to spend many billions more on fiber to get the same results as the cable giants would get with cable lines.  Of course, these dollars-to-dollars estimates missed the real point: fiber has the vastly superior maximum speeds, while cable tops out at a tiny fraction of fiber's possible speed. Even though the superiority of fiber is obvious today, the thinking of big ISPs has not changed.

That blinkered, short-term mindset doesn't just explain America's anemic fiber rollout, it also explains so much about Frontier's bankruptcy.  Frontier has filed papers explaining how it intends to escape bankruptcy, and these conclusively show that millions of Americans currently stuck in the DSL Internet slow-lanes could be upgraded to blazing-fast fiber without a dime in government subsidies.

Frontier's own chart, below, shows the company's estimate of the profitability of its current fiber assets. Note that the company itself estimates that by 2031 the revenues from fiber would exceed costs and thus deliver increases in profit. Note also that for the first five years, the company would lose money on fiber. Fiber has high upfront costs (like a house), but it pays off handsomely over time. The inability to capitalize on superior investment opportunities because they take too long to mature is the very definition of dysfunctional short-termism.

Bankruptcy has forced Frontier to entertain these previously ignored long-term opportunities in its effort to restructure itself and return to business. In Frontier’s chart below, “CAGR Reinvestment” represents projections of increasing their spending into deploying fiber in 2021 with the pay-off coming in 2031. Untethered from the public market’s emphasis on constant profit, Frontier has concluded that investing more in more fiber for more people would generate more profits in 2031 and beyond.

How many fiber connections does Frontier now plan to upgrade in order to capture those long-neglected, long-term profits?  Around 3,000,000 households dependent on legacy DSL could be upgraded to fiber to the home and deliver a 20 percent return on that investment by 2031. Frontier estimates that its IRR—aka its return on investment—would come in at around one billion dollars. Earning that cool billion in profit requires the company to invest about $1.9 billion in the communities it serves.

Frontier's historical calculus for deciding when, where, and how to invest excluded anything with less than a 20% return on investment. That's the kind of cherry-picking that bankrupt companies can't afford to engage in, and so now Frontier is eager to earn a 20% return on its infrastructure. 

The fact that nearly three million homes could have been profitably served with fiber without government subsidy, yet were not been given fiber is a wake-up call. The only reason we are learning about this now is because Frontier is forced to tell us under bankruptcy law. Bankruptcy is also the only reason Frontier is considering doing it.

When You Have a Monopoly, Why Bother Improving?

The revelations from Frontier's bankruptcy filings don't end there. Equally important is how Frontier cultivated, maintained, and abused its monopolies. ISPs like Frontier know exactly where they have monopolies, and therefore know exactly who has no choice and therefore is not worth spending money on.

Frontier's documents reveal that the company treats its status as the monopoly provider of high-speed Internet access for 1.6 million households as a uniquely identifiable asset. Frontier wants investors to know that it can precisely demarcate its monopoly territories because it wants to show investors where it can get money (to repay its debt and get out of bankruptcy) by charging a captive audience more and delivering less.

The fact that Frontier—and its competitors—treat monopolies as a bankable asset would seem a sign that there should be some oversight. Since the FCC has removed its ability to oversee this industry since 2017 under the so-called Restoring Internet Freedom Order, that oversight will have to be from the states.

Internet access is an essential service that American households cannot reasonably forgo without inflicting real social and economic harms on themselves, even when the pandemic isn't raging outside their doors.

Clearly, ISPs know they can extract excessive profits from those households until an alternative arrives, which undoubtedly plays a role in Frontier’s and other big ISPs’ opposition to local governments building broadband alternatives for their community. Major ISPs are fond of touting America's supposed “competitive landscape” as a reason to dismantle net neutrality and ban community broadband, but the truth is they are dependent on unfettered monopolies in order to realize the rate of profit their short-term investors demand. 

None of that is a secret, but the dots were never connected quite so explicitly as when Frontier just assured investors, in writing, that it was making a lot of money from more than one million people who have no feasible alternatives, and that this justified "investing" political dollars to block cities from building networks, even where there is no cable internet deployment.  Frontier's bankruptcy documents reveal that these political investments were always viewed as cheaper than the network investments they would otherwise have to make to keep its customers once they were no longer held hostage to its ailing, crumbling, overpriced network.

This Is Standard Industry Practice, Frontier Is Not an Outlier

Giant monopoly ISPs have had decades to bring America's Internet into the 21st century. They have been singularly terrible at delivering decent speed, reliable service, reasonable customer support, or competitive prices. The only thing these companies have demonstrated competence in is making money for their investors. And Frontier's bankruptcy reveals that even that core competence is vastly overrate). 

It's long past time we gave up on waiting for Big Telco to do its job. Instead, America should look to the entities with proven track-records for getting fiber to our curbs:  small, private, competitive ISPs and local governments. These are the home of the "patient money" that doesn't mind ten-year payoffs for investments in fiber.

Fiber is vastly superior to every other means of delivering high-speed Internet to our homes, schools, institutions, and businesses. Nothing else even comes close (not 5G, either). For more, check out EFF’s own technical report on the relative speeds of different broadband technologies,  and learn why we want state governments to guarantee universal, affordable, competitive fiber to the home networks. That's why we actively support legislation in California to have the state finance a universal open-access fiber infrastructure built by smaller entities. 

Policymakers shouldn't assume that the dirty laundry Frontier just aired in its bankruptcy is unique to that one company. Frontier's problem wasn't that it couldn't run a broadband service – it was it couldn't sustain the short-termism that Verizon adopted when it ditched FiOS and that AT&T adopted when it killed its own fiber buildout the second its legal obligations to deliver fiber expired. Frontier's biggest mistake was buying rural legacy networks from AT&T and Verizon, which allowed those companies to offload their neglected networks onto Frontier’s lap.

Frontier's bankruptcy is the inevitable consequence of long-term network neglect caused by an emphasis on short term profits.

AT&T and Verizon should be deploying fiber everywhere to compete with cable everywhere. They're not, and they're still profitable on paper, but only because they can paper over their steadily eroded customer numbers because they are making profits through their wireless divisions and their content subsidiaries 

But when tiny 6,000 person rural cooperatives are deploying fiber to the home but your local town is still stuck with slow DSL from a big telephone company, it is not because the company can’t make money investing in your community, it is because they have chosen not to, and then lobbied to make it illegal for anyone else to do it.

from Deeplinks https://ift.tt/35mbFkc

[newestbalance]

Texas

ROCKPORT, Texas (Reuters) – Destroyed houses still dot Zachary Dearing’s neighborhood in the Texas coastal city of Rockport, a reminder of last year’s devastation from Hurricane Harvey and a warning about what could lie ahead for such communities in the new hurricane season.

Zachary Dearing, who became a local hero for being an impromptu leader of an evacuation center during Hurricane Harvey last year, speaks during an interview in Rockport, Texas, May 29, 2018. Photo taken May 29, 2018. REUTERS/Jon Herskovitz

Dearing, a 30-year-old harbor worker and aspiring screenwriter, was trapped in a local storm shelter during Harvey last August and was later hailed as a hero for leading care for about 120 people.

Dearing still has the Texas state flag that flew at the Capitol given to him by lawmakers in appreciation. He and his neighbors also still bear the psychological scars from the Category 4 storm that leveled the city of about 10,000 people and killed two residents during what ultimately became the most destructive U.S. hurricane season on record.

“You look around Rockport, obviously we are still in recovery, we are still rebuilding. But emotionally, the storm is not over for a lot of us,” he said.

With this year’s hurricane season beginning on Friday, people like Dearing are bracing for another round.

During Harvey, Dearing evacuated to a shelter at local elementary school, where he found vulnerable citizens unwilling or unable to leave the area and no supplies or management to help them.

Dearing responded by building a team of younger volunteers who cared for the evacuees, including six people on oxygen and about 20 elderly in wheelchairs. They collected leaking water in containers they found and used them to refill the few operational toilets, pooled food and even braved the high winds to find a car they could use to recharge a portable oxygen machine.

Rockport’s pain last year was just the start, however. In addition to Texas, hurricanes walloped such places as Florida and Puerto Rico, causing scores of deaths, hundreds of billions of dollars in damage, massive power outages and devastation to hundreds of thousands of structures.

Brock Long, an administrator for the Federal Emergency Management Agency, said on Wednesday at the National Hurricane Center in Miami that the fallout from last year is still being felt.

“We’ve helped more people in the past six months than the agency has dealt with over the last decade,” he told reporters of the about five million people who registered for FEMA benefits.

U.S. forecasters expect the 2018 Atlantic hurricane season will be near- to above-normal in number and intensity of storms, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Climate Prediction Center said in May.

The forecasters estimate between one and four major hurricanes, packing winds of 111 miles per hour (178.6 kph), could develop this season. About half of the 10 to 16 named storms will be hurricane strength with winds of at least 74 mph (119 kph).

Rockport City Hall, which was closed last year after it suffered damage from Hurricane Harvey, is seen in Rockport, Texas, May 29, 2018. Photo taken May 29, 2018. REUTERS/Jon Herskovitz

It has been almost nine months since Harvey dumped nearly a trillion gallons (3.8 trillion liters) of water on the U.S. Gulf Coast, killing 68 people and causing an estimated $125 billion in property damage.

About 18,000 people in Texas remain in temporary housing a year after the storm, down from some 61,000, John Sharp, the head of the commission to rebuild Texas told state lawmakers this month.

After Harvey, Houston passed an ordinance requiring certain dwellings to be raised to the floodplain for the highest flood levels in 500 years to plus two feet (61 cm) as Harvey was the city’s fifth 500-year flood since 2010. Previously, the rule was new homes only had to start one foot (30 cm) above the 100-year level.

While most of Harvey’s damage in Texas in dollar terms was in the Houston area, the impact of the devastation was far more concentrated in Rockport, about 180 miles (290 km) to the southwest.

Hundreds of Rockport buildings are still in disrepair, including City Hall, which is boarded up from the damage, with city officials now working out of a separate municipal structure that survived.

Rockport Mayor Patrick Rios said the top priority now is bringing back affordable housing for residents, many of whom lost their homes after the hurricane pounded the city with winds of about 130 miles per hour (210 kph) and storm surges of up to 13 feet (4 meters).

For Dearing, the flag and a plaque were given in recognition for his heroism, and he met all five living former U.S. presidents at a subsequent hurricane relief concert. He also learned about himself during Harvey.

“I learned I can carry a lot of weight, a lot more weight than I thought. If you have to find it, you always have a little bit more in you than you think you do,” he said, from Rockport where he remains in the Aransas County Navigation District job he had before the hurricane.

Crystal Whitehead, one of the people who survived in the shelter, praised Dearing’s efforts after she lost her house and suffered broken ribs in the storm.

“I am thankful for what Zach did for Rockport. He was there for all of us,” she said.

As for lessons Dearing can apply in this year’s hurricane season, he said he will encourage people to get out of town “fast and far” when they hear a storm is coming.

“You need to get to know your neighbors. In a time of crisis, you’re going to come to rely on one another,” he said. “Everyone has a role to play.”

Reporting by Jon Herskovitz; Additional reporting by Liz Hampton in Houston and Zachary Fagenson in Miami, Editing by Ben Klayman and Sandra Maler

The post Texas appeared first on World The News.

from World The News https://ift.tt/2H4NoB7 via Everyday News

[dani-qrt]

Texas

ROCKPORT, Texas (Reuters) – Destroyed houses still dot Zachary Dearing’s neighborhood in the Texas coastal city of Rockport, a reminder of last year’s devastation from Hurricane Harvey and a warning about what could lie ahead for such communities in the new hurricane season.

Zachary Dearing, who became a local hero for being an impromptu leader of an evacuation center during Hurricane Harvey last year, speaks during an interview in Rockport, Texas, May 29, 2018. Photo taken May 29, 2018. REUTERS/Jon Herskovitz

Dearing, a 30-year-old harbor worker and aspiring screenwriter, was trapped in a local storm shelter during Harvey last August and was later hailed as a hero for leading care for about 120 people.

Dearing still has the Texas state flag that flew at the Capitol given to him by lawmakers in appreciation. He and his neighbors also still bear the psychological scars from the Category 4 storm that leveled the city of about 10,000 people and killed two residents during what ultimately became the most destructive U.S. hurricane season on record.

“You look around Rockport, obviously we are still in recovery, we are still rebuilding. But emotionally, the storm is not over for a lot of us,” he said.

With this year’s hurricane season beginning on Friday, people like Dearing are bracing for another round.

During Harvey, Dearing evacuated to a shelter at local elementary school, where he found vulnerable citizens unwilling or unable to leave the area and no supplies or management to help them.

Dearing responded by building a team of younger volunteers who cared for the evacuees, including six people on oxygen and about 20 elderly in wheelchairs. They collected leaking water in containers they found and used them to refill the few operational toilets, pooled food and even braved the high winds to find a car they could use to recharge a portable oxygen machine.

Rockport’s pain last year was just the start, however. In addition to Texas, hurricanes walloped such places as Florida and Puerto Rico, causing scores of deaths, hundreds of billions of dollars in damage, massive power outages and devastation to hundreds of thousands of structures.

Brock Long, an administrator for the Federal Emergency Management Agency, said on Wednesday at the National Hurricane Center in Miami that the fallout from last year is still being felt.

“We’ve helped more people in the past six months than the agency has dealt with over the last decade,” he told reporters of the about five million people who registered for FEMA benefits.

U.S. forecasters expect the 2018 Atlantic hurricane season will be near- to above-normal in number and intensity of storms, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Climate Prediction Center said in May.

The forecasters estimate between one and four major hurricanes, packing winds of 111 miles per hour (178.6 kph), could develop this season. About half of the 10 to 16 named storms will be hurricane strength with winds of at least 74 mph (119 kph).

Rockport City Hall, which was closed last year after it suffered damage from Hurricane Harvey, is seen in Rockport, Texas, May 29, 2018. Photo taken May 29, 2018. REUTERS/Jon Herskovitz

It has been almost nine months since Harvey dumped nearly a trillion gallons (3.8 trillion liters) of water on the U.S. Gulf Coast, killing 68 people and causing an estimated $125 billion in property damage.

About 18,000 people in Texas remain in temporary housing a year after the storm, down from some 61,000, John Sharp, the head of the commission to rebuild Texas told state lawmakers this month.

After Harvey, Houston passed an ordinance requiring certain dwellings to be raised to the floodplain for the highest flood levels in 500 years to plus two feet (61 cm) as Harvey was the city’s fifth 500-year flood since 2010. Previously, the rule was new homes only had to start one foot (30 cm) above the 100-year level.

While most of Harvey’s damage in Texas in dollar terms was in the Houston area, the impact of the devastation was far more concentrated in Rockport, about 180 miles (290 km) to the southwest.

Hundreds of Rockport buildings are still in disrepair, including City Hall, which is boarded up from the damage, with city officials now working out of a separate municipal structure that survived.

Rockport Mayor Patrick Rios said the top priority now is bringing back affordable housing for residents, many of whom lost their homes after the hurricane pounded the city with winds of about 130 miles per hour (210 kph) and storm surges of up to 13 feet (4 meters).

For Dearing, the flag and a plaque were given in recognition for his heroism, and he met all five living former U.S. presidents at a subsequent hurricane relief concert. He also learned about himself during Harvey.

“I learned I can carry a lot of weight, a lot more weight than I thought. If you have to find it, you always have a little bit more in you than you think you do,” he said, from Rockport where he remains in the Aransas County Navigation District job he had before the hurricane.

Crystal Whitehead, one of the people who survived in the shelter, praised Dearing’s efforts after she lost her house and suffered broken ribs in the storm.

“I am thankful for what Zach did for Rockport. He was there for all of us,” she said.

As for lessons Dearing can apply in this year’s hurricane season, he said he will encourage people to get out of town “fast and far” when they hear a storm is coming.

“You need to get to know your neighbors. In a time of crisis, you’re going to come to rely on one another,” he said. “Everyone has a role to play.”

Reporting by Jon Herskovitz; Additional reporting by Liz Hampton in Houston and Zachary Fagenson in Miami, Editing by Ben Klayman and Sandra Maler

The post Texas appeared first on World The News.

from World The News https://ift.tt/2H4NoB7 via Online News

[cleopatrarps]

Texas

ROCKPORT, Texas (Reuters) – Destroyed houses still dot Zachary Dearing’s neighborhood in the Texas coastal city of Rockport, a reminder of last year’s devastation from Hurricane Harvey and a warning about what could lie ahead for such communities in the new hurricane season.

Zachary Dearing, who became a local hero for being an impromptu leader of an evacuation center during Hurricane Harvey last year, speaks during an interview in Rockport, Texas, May 29, 2018. Photo taken May 29, 2018. REUTERS/Jon Herskovitz

Dearing, a 30-year-old harbor worker and aspiring screenwriter, was trapped in a local storm shelter during Harvey last August and was later hailed as a hero for leading care for about 120 people.

Dearing still has the Texas state flag that flew at the Capitol given to him by lawmakers in appreciation. He and his neighbors also still bear the psychological scars from the Category 4 storm that leveled the city of about 10,000 people and killed two residents during what ultimately became the most destructive U.S. hurricane season on record.

“You look around Rockport, obviously we are still in recovery, we are still rebuilding. But emotionally, the storm is not over for a lot of us,” he said.

With this year’s hurricane season beginning on Friday, people like Dearing are bracing for another round.

During Harvey, Dearing evacuated to a shelter at local elementary school, where he found vulnerable citizens unwilling or unable to leave the area and no supplies or management to help them.

Dearing responded by building a team of younger volunteers who cared for the evacuees, including six people on oxygen and about 20 elderly in wheelchairs. They collected leaking water in containers they found and used them to refill the few operational toilets, pooled food and even braved the high winds to find a car they could use to recharge a portable oxygen machine.

Rockport’s pain last year was just the start, however. In addition to Texas, hurricanes walloped such places as Florida and Puerto Rico, causing scores of deaths, hundreds of billions of dollars in damage, massive power outages and devastation to hundreds of thousands of structures.

Brock Long, an administrator for the Federal Emergency Management Agency, said on Wednesday at the National Hurricane Center in Miami that the fallout from last year is still being felt.

“We’ve helped more people in the past six months than the agency has dealt with over the last decade,” he told reporters of the about five million people who registered for FEMA benefits.

U.S. forecasters expect the 2018 Atlantic hurricane season will be near- to above-normal in number and intensity of storms, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Climate Prediction Center said in May.

The forecasters estimate between one and four major hurricanes, packing winds of 111 miles per hour (178.6 kph), could develop this season. About half of the 10 to 16 named storms will be hurricane strength with winds of at least 74 mph (119 kph).

Rockport City Hall, which was closed last year after it suffered damage from Hurricane Harvey, is seen in Rockport, Texas, May 29, 2018. Photo taken May 29, 2018. REUTERS/Jon Herskovitz

It has been almost nine months since Harvey dumped nearly a trillion gallons (3.8 trillion liters) of water on the U.S. Gulf Coast, killing 68 people and causing an estimated $125 billion in property damage.

About 18,000 people in Texas remain in temporary housing a year after the storm, down from some 61,000, John Sharp, the head of the commission to rebuild Texas told state lawmakers this month.

After Harvey, Houston passed an ordinance requiring certain dwellings to be raised to the floodplain for the highest flood levels in 500 years to plus two feet (61 cm) as Harvey was the city’s fifth 500-year flood since 2010. Previously, the rule was new homes only had to start one foot (30 cm) above the 100-year level.

While most of Harvey’s damage in Texas in dollar terms was in the Houston area, the impact of the devastation was far more concentrated in Rockport, about 180 miles (290 km) to the southwest.

Hundreds of Rockport buildings are still in disrepair, including City Hall, which is boarded up from the damage, with city officials now working out of a separate municipal structure that survived.

Rockport Mayor Patrick Rios said the top priority now is bringing back affordable housing for residents, many of whom lost their homes after the hurricane pounded the city with winds of about 130 miles per hour (210 kph) and storm surges of up to 13 feet (4 meters).

For Dearing, the flag and a plaque were given in recognition for his heroism, and he met all five living former U.S. presidents at a subsequent hurricane relief concert. He also learned about himself during Harvey.

“I learned I can carry a lot of weight, a lot more weight than I thought. If you have to find it, you always have a little bit more in you than you think you do,” he said, from Rockport where he remains in the Aransas County Navigation District job he had before the hurricane.

Crystal Whitehead, one of the people who survived in the shelter, praised Dearing’s efforts after she lost her house and suffered broken ribs in the storm.

“I am thankful for what Zach did for Rockport. He was there for all of us,” she said.

As for lessons Dearing can apply in this year’s hurricane season, he said he will encourage people to get out of town “fast and far” when they hear a storm is coming.

“You need to get to know your neighbors. In a time of crisis, you’re going to come to rely on one another,” he said. “Everyone has a role to play.”

Reporting by Jon Herskovitz; Additional reporting by Liz Hampton in Houston and Zachary Fagenson in Miami, Editing by Ben Klayman and Sandra Maler

The post Texas appeared first on World The News.

from World The News https://ift.tt/2H4NoB7 via News of World

[party-hard-or-die]

Texas

ROCKPORT, Texas (Reuters) – Destroyed houses still dot Zachary Dearing’s neighborhood in the Texas coastal city of Rockport, a reminder of last year’s devastation from Hurricane Harvey and a warning about what could lie ahead for such communities in the new hurricane season.

Zachary Dearing, who became a local hero for being an impromptu leader of an evacuation center during Hurricane Harvey last year, speaks during an interview in Rockport, Texas, May 29, 2018. Photo taken May 29, 2018. REUTERS/Jon Herskovitz

Dearing, a 30-year-old harbor worker and aspiring screenwriter, was trapped in a local storm shelter during Harvey last August and was later hailed as a hero for leading care for about 120 people.

Dearing still has the Texas state flag that flew at the Capitol given to him by lawmakers in appreciation. He and his neighbors also still bear the psychological scars from the Category 4 storm that leveled the city of about 10,000 people and killed two residents during what ultimately became the most destructive U.S. hurricane season on record.

“You look around Rockport, obviously we are still in recovery, we are still rebuilding. But emotionally, the storm is not over for a lot of us,” he said.

With this year’s hurricane season beginning on Friday, people like Dearing are bracing for another round.

During Harvey, Dearing evacuated to a shelter at local elementary school, where he found vulnerable citizens unwilling or unable to leave the area and no supplies or management to help them.

Dearing responded by building a team of younger volunteers who cared for the evacuees, including six people on oxygen and about 20 elderly in wheelchairs. They collected leaking water in containers they found and used them to refill the few operational toilets, pooled food and even braved the high winds to find a car they could use to recharge a portable oxygen machine.

Rockport’s pain last year was just the start, however. In addition to Texas, hurricanes walloped such places as Florida and Puerto Rico, causing scores of deaths, hundreds of billions of dollars in damage, massive power outages and devastation to hundreds of thousands of structures.

Brock Long, an administrator for the Federal Emergency Management Agency, said on Wednesday at the National Hurricane Center in Miami that the fallout from last year is still being felt.

“We’ve helped more people in the past six months than the agency has dealt with over the last decade,” he told reporters of the about five million people who registered for FEMA benefits.

U.S. forecasters expect the 2018 Atlantic hurricane season will be near- to above-normal in number and intensity of storms, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Climate Prediction Center said in May.

The forecasters estimate between one and four major hurricanes, packing winds of 111 miles per hour (178.6 kph), could develop this season. About half of the 10 to 16 named storms will be hurricane strength with winds of at least 74 mph (119 kph).

Rockport City Hall, which was closed last year after it suffered damage from Hurricane Harvey, is seen in Rockport, Texas, May 29, 2018. Photo taken May 29, 2018. REUTERS/Jon Herskovitz

It has been almost nine months since Harvey dumped nearly a trillion gallons (3.8 trillion liters) of water on the U.S. Gulf Coast, killing 68 people and causing an estimated $125 billion in property damage.

About 18,000 people in Texas remain in temporary housing a year after the storm, down from some 61,000, John Sharp, the head of the commission to rebuild Texas told state lawmakers this month.

After Harvey, Houston passed an ordinance requiring certain dwellings to be raised to the floodplain for the highest flood levels in 500 years to plus two feet (61 cm) as Harvey was the city’s fifth 500-year flood since 2010. Previously, the rule was new homes only had to start one foot (30 cm) above the 100-year level.

While most of Harvey’s damage in Texas in dollar terms was in the Houston area, the impact of the devastation was far more concentrated in Rockport, about 180 miles (290 km) to the southwest.

Hundreds of Rockport buildings are still in disrepair, including City Hall, which is boarded up from the damage, with city officials now working out of a separate municipal structure that survived.

Rockport Mayor Patrick Rios said the top priority now is bringing back affordable housing for residents, many of whom lost their homes after the hurricane pounded the city with winds of about 130 miles per hour (210 kph) and storm surges of up to 13 feet (4 meters).

For Dearing, the flag and a plaque were given in recognition for his heroism, and he met all five living former U.S. presidents at a subsequent hurricane relief concert. He also learned about himself during Harvey.

“I learned I can carry a lot of weight, a lot more weight than I thought. If you have to find it, you always have a little bit more in you than you think you do,” he said, from Rockport where he remains in the Aransas County Navigation District job he had before the hurricane.

Crystal Whitehead, one of the people who survived in the shelter, praised Dearing’s efforts after she lost her house and suffered broken ribs in the storm.

“I am thankful for what Zach did for Rockport. He was there for all of us,” she said.

As for lessons Dearing can apply in this year’s hurricane season, he said he will encourage people to get out of town “fast and far” when they hear a storm is coming.

“You need to get to know your neighbors. In a time of crisis, you’re going to come to rely on one another,” he said. “Everyone has a role to play.”

Reporting by Jon Herskovitz; Additional reporting by Liz Hampton in Houston and Zachary Fagenson in Miami, Editing by Ben Klayman and Sandra Maler

The post Texas appeared first on World The News.

from World The News https://ift.tt/2H4NoB7 via Breaking News

[dragnews]

Texas

ROCKPORT, Texas (Reuters) – Destroyed houses still dot Zachary Dearing’s neighborhood in the Texas coastal city of Rockport, a reminder of last year’s devastation from Hurricane Harvey and a warning about what could lie ahead for such communities in the new hurricane season.

Zachary Dearing, who became a local hero for being an impromptu leader of an evacuation center during Hurricane Harvey last year, speaks during an interview in Rockport, Texas, May 29, 2018. Photo taken May 29, 2018. REUTERS/Jon Herskovitz

Dearing, a 30-year-old harbor worker and aspiring screenwriter, was trapped in a local storm shelter during Harvey last August and was later hailed as a hero for leading care for about 120 people.

Dearing still has the Texas state flag that flew at the Capitol given to him by lawmakers in appreciation. He and his neighbors also still bear the psychological scars from the Category 4 storm that leveled the city of about 10,000 people and killed two residents during what ultimately became the most destructive U.S. hurricane season on record.

“You look around Rockport, obviously we are still in recovery, we are still rebuilding. But emotionally, the storm is not over for a lot of us,” he said.

With this year’s hurricane season beginning on Friday, people like Dearing are bracing for another round.

During Harvey, Dearing evacuated to a shelter at local elementary school, where he found vulnerable citizens unwilling or unable to leave the area and no supplies or management to help them.

Dearing responded by building a team of younger volunteers who cared for the evacuees, including six people on oxygen and about 20 elderly in wheelchairs. They collected leaking water in containers they found and used them to refill the few operational toilets, pooled food and even braved the high winds to find a car they could use to recharge a portable oxygen machine.

Rockport’s pain last year was just the start, however. In addition to Texas, hurricanes walloped such places as Florida and Puerto Rico, causing scores of deaths, hundreds of billions of dollars in damage, massive power outages and devastation to hundreds of thousands of structures.

Brock Long, an administrator for the Federal Emergency Management Agency, said on Wednesday at the National Hurricane Center in Miami that the fallout from last year is still being felt.

“We’ve helped more people in the past six months than the agency has dealt with over the last decade,” he told reporters of the about five million people who registered for FEMA benefits.

U.S. forecasters expect the 2018 Atlantic hurricane season will be near- to above-normal in number and intensity of storms, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Climate Prediction Center said in May.

The forecasters estimate between one and four major hurricanes, packing winds of 111 miles per hour (178.6 kph), could develop this season. About half of the 10 to 16 named storms will be hurricane strength with winds of at least 74 mph (119 kph).

Rockport City Hall, which was closed last year after it suffered damage from Hurricane Harvey, is seen in Rockport, Texas, May 29, 2018. Photo taken May 29, 2018. REUTERS/Jon Herskovitz

It has been almost nine months since Harvey dumped nearly a trillion gallons (3.8 trillion liters) of water on the U.S. Gulf Coast, killing 68 people and causing an estimated $125 billion in property damage.

About 18,000 people in Texas remain in temporary housing a year after the storm, down from some 61,000, John Sharp, the head of the commission to rebuild Texas told state lawmakers this month.

After Harvey, Houston passed an ordinance requiring certain dwellings to be raised to the floodplain for the highest flood levels in 500 years to plus two feet (61 cm) as Harvey was the city’s fifth 500-year flood since 2010. Previously, the rule was new homes only had to start one foot (30 cm) above the 100-year level.

While most of Harvey’s damage in Texas in dollar terms was in the Houston area, the impact of the devastation was far more concentrated in Rockport, about 180 miles (290 km) to the southwest.

Hundreds of Rockport buildings are still in disrepair, including City Hall, which is boarded up from the damage, with city officials now working out of a separate municipal structure that survived.

Rockport Mayor Patrick Rios said the top priority now is bringing back affordable housing for residents, many of whom lost their homes after the hurricane pounded the city with winds of about 130 miles per hour (210 kph) and storm surges of up to 13 feet (4 meters).

For Dearing, the flag and a plaque were given in recognition for his heroism, and he met all five living former U.S. presidents at a subsequent hurricane relief concert. He also learned about himself during Harvey.

“I learned I can carry a lot of weight, a lot more weight than I thought. If you have to find it, you always have a little bit more in you than you think you do,” he said, from Rockport where he remains in the Aransas County Navigation District job he had before the hurricane.

Crystal Whitehead, one of the people who survived in the shelter, praised Dearing’s efforts after she lost her house and suffered broken ribs in the storm.

“I am thankful for what Zach did for Rockport. He was there for all of us,” she said.

As for lessons Dearing can apply in this year’s hurricane season, he said he will encourage people to get out of town “fast and far” when they hear a storm is coming.

“You need to get to know your neighbors. In a time of crisis, you’re going to come to rely on one another,” he said. “Everyone has a role to play.”

Reporting by Jon Herskovitz; Additional reporting by Liz Hampton in Houston and Zachary Fagenson in Miami, Editing by Ben Klayman and Sandra Maler

The post Texas appeared first on World The News.

from World The News https://ift.tt/2H4NoB7 via Today News

[damonbation]

My DIY Solar Power Setup – Free Energy for Life

It is pretty well known at this point that Mr. Money Mustache is enamored with solar power. Besides the obvious Sci-Fi coolness of it (Electricity, Satellites, Futuristic Robots!) and the eco-friendliness of it (energy with zero noise or pollution), in the last five years the money side of things has finally matured, so that solar power is now the cheapest way to make electricity – even before you account for the added bonus of any available subsidies and the benefits of pollution-free living.

A Watt of Solar Panels: From $100+ to under fifty cents (2017) in less than my lifetime (image source cleantechnica). And the 2017 number for the blue side of the graph hit over 95,000 MW.

It works for individuals: In many cases, if you can get a good rack of solar panels on your roof, your monthly savings will be equivalent to making an investment that performs better than the stock market. But the numbers look even better as your solar setup becomes larger, like if you’re running a solar energy utility or a community solar farm.

Related: In recent Colorado Energy Bids, Solar energy is the cheapest option, even when backed by battery storage (Vox).

The fun part of this for me has always been the physics. Ever since I learned how much energy the Sun shines onto our planet’s surface (about 16,000 times more energy than all of humanity consumes, even with our current bloated habits), I have been certain that a mostly-solar-electric world was inevitable. The only obstructions were human inertia and politics, which are temporary. Physics is forever.

For example, consider the following map showing the tiny amount of our deserts we would need to cover with solar panels to replace all energy consumption (electricity, oil, gas, nuclear, hydro, wind, etc)

Fig. 1: Tiny land area required to power all of humanity. (image source)

And it’s actually even better than that: the image above assumes an old-school solar panel efficiency of 8%, whereas 18% is now a standard rate. So you can cut the black dots in half again, and then chop a few more times to account for the other existing clean energy sources.

And of course, you don’t have to concentrate the panels and run giant power lines everywhere as implied by the map. You can stick solar panels virtually anywhere and they will start working like little employees for you, tirelessly cranking out energy (which is equivalent to money) and automatically.

Which is of course the real subject of this article.

My DIY Solar Project

The new solar array at the MMM HQ workshop generates more than enough power to run the whole property year-round, plus charge the electric cars of the various members.

So naturally, I have always wanted to have my own solar power farm. Until now, various excuses kept me from getting it done: no great places to put panels on the roof of my main house, slightly unfavorable local regulations, but mainly a lack of knowledge of exactly what to buy and how to install it.

I vowed that whenever I finally got this project done, I’d write up a report to you, to spare you some of the research and time consumption that I had to go through.

So let’s get into it!

Part One: Show me the Money

As you can see from the picture above, I’ve started by building a relatively small solar array. There are twelve panels, each about 40 x 60 inches. Each one generates 300 watts of electricity when the sun shines, and when you run the numbers for my climate, the whole setup will crank out about 6100 kWh/year of electricity, a chunk which is worth about $732 per year at average US power prices.

Pretty amazing – enough energy to run my coworking space and Mrs. MM’s adjacent retail store… from a chunk of pretty black glass that is about the same size as a single car parking space!

Meanwhile, the wholesale cost of this equipment broke down roughly like this:

12 solar panels at $130 each: $1656 (a total of 3600 watts at 46 cents per watt)

12 Optimizer modules (which increase power output during partial shade): $650

One SolarEdge 6 kW Inverter (converts the DC current from the panels to AC for the grid): $1102

Various brackets, mounting racks, bolts, and wiring stuff: $460

So my total cost, due to the very good luck of having a friend who is both a dedicated Mustachian and the owner of a booming solar company, was $3900.

That’s the best case, but even after you add normal profit margins plus a 30% tariff that The Donald recently levied on solar panels (and remember the panels are thankfully only half the cost of the system), you can still buy a similar Complete kit for $6000 including shipping.

When you’re measuring the annual return on your investment (or “payback period”), there’s only one thing that matters on the cost side: price per watt. I ended up building this system at about $1.08 per watt, which is low by today’s standards but will soon sound high.

And remember, there are usually tax incentives to cut this cost further  – you can take 30% off the top of this cost due to the US Federal “Investment Tax Credit (ITC)“, and possibly more from your state and local government or utility.

The Great Solar Journey to Durango

Last year, I met a badass Mustachian entrepreneur named John. He was in Longmont to visit some family here, but his real home base is in Durango, Colorado where he runs a successful solar installation company called Shaw Solar. There are a million stories that need to be told about this man, but for now we’ll start with this one.

Knowing how long I had been interested in a do-it-yourself solar project, John decided to step up and help me get it done at last. We went over technical details, calculations, strategies, and costs. All of this culminated in me taking a spectacular roadtrip to Durango along with another local friend, in May of 2017.

It was quite a trip, for much more than the acquisition of solar panels and advice. Durango is a stunning little town, and it turned out that John lives in a community of equally impressive siblings and friends – for example his brother Charles who DIY-renovated a 50,000 square foot school over a 20-year period, which has now become the jewel of Durango’s downtown.

Time For the Build

I drove back from this trip full of confidence and energy… only to end up storing the solar panels for months in my studio building as I worked to finish higher-priority parts of the Headquarters building, then waited for the time and motivation to plow through the building permit application.

It took another visit from John to really kickstart the project, and once we worked through it I realized my worry was completely unfounded – if you know what you’re doing, a simple solar array can be completely installed by two people in a less than a day’s work. Here’s what we ended up doing.

Step Zero: Research and Permit

Begin with the end in mind. The amazing Kari Spotts (LPC’s lead of renewable power metering) helps me swap in a new dual-flow electric meter at the successful completion of this project.

This is the part that stops most people before they even begin. The quickest shortcut is that if you’re not interested in these details, find someone who is, to catapult you through it. But if you have enough curiosity to learn the details, here they are:

How big a system should I build? In general, the bigger, the better. The cost per watt goes down as your system grows, making it a higher annual yield on the investment.

“I don’t live in Colorado. How much juice will I get out of it where I live?” This part is fun: The National Renewable Energy Lab runs a great, free calculator called PVWatts that does it all for you: factoring in average weather and solar angles in your area, even allowing you to specify solar panels placed at any crazy angle you like. (In other words, your house doesn’t have to have a perfect South-facing roof).

“Do I need some of those Tesla Powerwall Batteries too?” No. Unless you’re building an off-the-grid cabin, in almost all cases you will want to “grid-tie” your solar array, so you can effectively sell your surplus electricity back to the power company (and thus, other nearby customers), cleaning up your whole town and saving the huge cost of batteries. The Powerwall works great if you want protection from power outages, however, and can even pay for itself if you live somewhere with a smart grid that allows day/night price arbitrage.

“How do I get a permit to build this thing?” Your city’s building department probably has a page describing how to apply. For example, here’s the one for Longmont. The trickiest part is generating a “one-line diagram”, but I cheated by just photoshopping my own details into the example provided with my city, leading to this result, which they approved without question.

Step One: Layout

I had a nice, simple roof that was already facing South, tilted up at a 30 degree angle, which is just about perfect for solar panels. But you can also put them on other slopes or flat roofs, and they still work surprisingly well.

I needed two rails for each row of panels, and the rails get supported by “L”-shaped brackets bolted into the roof. So I ended up with this configuration:

Laying out support brackets, rails, panels, and power inverter.

Important consideration: Because I was putting this on a garage roof (technically “unoccupied space”), I was able to squeeze them all the way to the roof edge. If you are installing on a house, your city’s fire code may require that you leave a 3 foot walking access around the edges. Sometimes it’s wise to think outside the box: a garage roof, a standalone ground-mounted rack if you have lots of unused land, or creating the new workshop/carport/garden shed you’ve always wanted in the sunniest part of your yard.

2: Install your Brackets and Rails

Once you figure out where to put the long “lines” shown above, you measure them out and snap chalk lines right over top of your existing roof material. Then, use some sturdy 2.5″ lag bolts and washers to hold down the L-shaped brackets that come with the solar racking kit. Pre-drill each hole, and inject in some “Through the Roof” sealant with a normal caulk gun before driving in those bolts – this creates a permanent watertight seal. (There are also special brackets to accommodate different roof styles like tile and metal).

Once the brackets are in, you simply use the supplied slide-in bolts and nuts to attach the long rails, straighten them up nicely, and lock it down. Doing all of this with a cordless impact driver makes it quick and clean.

3: Bolt down and connect the Optimizers if you’ve Got ‘Em

These are just little flat boxes that you connect to the top of each pair of rails, about 6″ from the eventual right edge of each solar panel. There’s one optimizer for each panel, and it acts like a babysitter – monitoring output from the panel, compensating for voltage changes when necessary (such as when shade hits that panel). You’ll notice that each optimizer has four wires protruding from it, and there’s one optimizer for each panel. This will make sense in the next step.

Optimizer mounting (face down), plus a good shot of the connections between roof, brackets, and rails.

  Once all the optimizers are in place, you connect each pair of longer wires together with the incredibly convenient fast-click connectors. The positive and negative wires have differently shaped connectors so you can’t accidentally reverse them.

You end up connecting inverters to each other, and each panel only to its host inverter, like this:

Inverter to panel connections

If you have two lines of panels as I do, connect the far end of one line to the far end of the next line, so you end up with a long series of optimizers where both ends terminate with a loose wire on the end closest to your inverter.

Grounding is Important: Using the supplied grounding screw terminals, connect all the rails together with bare 10AWG copper wire. From that last terminal, you’ll be running a length of the same size wire down to the inverter.

4: Install the Solar Panels!

The bottom of each panel has two long output wires. Use clips and/or zip ties to keep the cables tidy so they don’t dangle onto the roof too much.

This step is better with two people, especially on a steep roof. Starting at the furthest corner from the location of your inverter, connect each the panel’s wires to the matching ones on its host inverter. Set the panels down straight, and use the click-in clamps that come with the racking system to clamp down the panel using your cordless drill/driver.

By the end of this step, you’ll have one or more tidy lines of panels with just two powerful-looking DC wires poking out the end, with connectors to go.

You’re now ready to build the final run of wire, which will enter a metal conduit and travel through your roof, down the side of your house, and into the inverter.

5: The Home Run:

Drill a 1″ hole in your roof and put a roof boot over top of it, tucked under the upper course of shingles. From there, your goal is to provide a protected path to get the high voltage DC wires to from the panels, down to the inverter.

My city required 3/4″ metal rigid conduit, which gave me the opportunity to learn about the various fittings and connectors that are part of working with conduit. I also bought a conduit bending tool, since there are many more outdoor electrical projects still on the docket for the MMM HQ building.

I ran a length of metal conduit up from the inverter and just beyond the roof boot, then transitioned to a downward-facing connector to some flexible conduit, just to keep the wires covered until they get under the panels. All three conductors including the ground are running through this tube. If doing it again, I’d suggest using a different conduit box for that transition. Also, you can switch from a bare ground wire to a stranded, insulated ground at that point – much easier to pull through!

6: Mounting The Inverter and Connecting it all to the Grid:

The part that sounds the most mysterious is actually one of the most simple:

Hang the inverter on the wall using the supplied bracket and a few screws

Connect the conduit and pull in the DC wires from the solar panels into the inverter’s connection box. On this Solaredge unit, there are nice spring clip terminals.

Do the same on the other side of the connection box, running a length of 10/3 household wiring (for outputs up to 40 amps) right into the breaker box, as if you were hooking up any other 240 volt circuit.

Inverter mounting, including the conduit going up through the roof (left), out to the main breaker box (right), required warning stickers (red), and how it’s hooked up inside (bottom)

7: Get it all Inspected and Power it Up!

The inspector will probably have a nitpick or two with your work. Stay strong and make any required corrections, and pass that inspection. Then you flip on the AC breaker, the DC power switch, the inverter’s main power switch, and poke through the menu systems to make sure everything is set to run the way you like it.

For this Solaredge system, I had to run a “Pairing” step with the power optimizers (see manual), and add a TP-Link Wireless Repeater/Bridge to allow the inverter’s wired Ethernet connection to join my existing property-wide Wi-Fi network. Which happens to be the the spectacularly good Google Mesh Wi-fi system.

So What’s Next?

From this point on, it’s all on automatic pilot. The system generates electricity every day, which reduces the Headquarters power bill down to zero. In winter, the days are shorter so we might consume more than we produce. But in summer, a large surplus will more than make up for it.

My inverter from Solaredge comes with a really nice monitoring features, available from both a phone app and any browser. Plus, you can share a public version of your page with anyone. Here’s one I made for the MMM-HQ array.

At the time of writing, I’ve had the system online for 27 mostly-January days, including a couple of writeoffs where the panels were covered in snow. It has still averaged about 10 kWh of electricity production per day, which is more than the average consumption of the whole facility. Put another way, the 265 kWh of electricity is enough to power an electric car for roughly 1000 miles of driving.

The monitoring tool also estimates about 410 lbs of CO2 emissions prevented, which is 0.2 tons or about $4.00 worth at current carbon cleanup rates. If you happen to care about running a carbon-neutral life (or business) as I do, this means the carbon offset makes your solar electricity about 15% more valuable in your mental accounting.

I can also double or triple the number of panels on this particular system (once I decide on a good place to put them) without changing the inverter or any of the grid-tie connections, which will greatly improve my annual return on investment. It’s just a LEGO-like plug and play to connect more panels to an existing rack of them, plus the inverter has a second set of inputs if you are running in some wires from a string of panels you have placed somewhere else.

My power company pays out a check for any overall surplus at the end of each year, purchasing the power at a wholesale rate. But many regions are more solar-friendly than this, giving you a full retail or even higher rate for solar-generated electricity as an incentive to go green.

The Final Word:

Solar energy is strangely fun to produce – most people report satisfaction far beyond just the monetary benefits. It gets you out there rooting for the Sun, and for your fellow humankind to follow suit and start harvesting it alongside you. So if you’ve been considering getting it done, the time is good.

Thanks again to John Shaw (shawsolar.com) for all the help with this project. If you have questions about the details or the industry in general, please put them in the comments and both John and I should be able to weigh in.

And if you happen to own a home or business around Durango, CO, contact Shaw Solar directly and tell ’em who sent you!

  Rough Edges Alert: I’ve started by publishing this article in an unpolished form, so If you see incorrect details, please let me know and I’ll clean it up over time after publication.

from Money 101 http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2018/02/07/diy-solar-power/ via http://www.rssmix.com/

[frontstreet1]

A Weakened Nate Brings Flooding, Power Outages To Gulf Coast

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BILOXI, Miss. — Hurricane Nate brought a burst of flooding and power outages to the U.S. Gulf Coast before weakening rapidly Sunday, sparing the region the kind of catastrophic damage left by a series of hurricanes that hit the southern U.S. and Caribbean in recent weeks.

Nate — the first hurricane to make landfall in Mississippi since Katrina in 2005 — quickly lost strength, with its winds diminishing to a tropical depression as it pushed northward into Alabama and toward Georgia with heavy rain. It was a Category 1 hurricane when it came ashore outside Biloxi early Sunday, its second landfall after initially hitting southeastern Louisiana on Saturday evening.

The storm surge from the Mississippi Sound littered Biloxi’s main beachfront highway with debris and flooded a casino’s lobby and parking structure overnight.

By dawn, however, Nate’s receding floodwaters didn’t reveal any obvious signs of widespread damage in the city where Hurricane Katrina had leveled thousands of beachfront homes and businesses.

No storm-related deaths or injuries were immediately reported.

Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant praised state and local officials and coastal residents for working together to avoid loss of life.

Lee Smithson, director of the state emergency management agency, said damage from Nate was held down in part because of work done and lessons learned from Katrina.

“If that same storm would have hit us 15 years ago, the damage would have been extensive and we would have had loss of life.” Smithson said of Nate. “But we have rebuilt the coast in the aftermath of Katrina higher and stronger.”

Nate knocked out power to more than 100,000 residents in Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana and Florida, but crews were working on repairs.

As of Sunday afternoon, Alabama Power said more than 62,000 customers remained without power, while utilities and cooperatives in Mississippi said more than 21,000 were without electricity. In Louisiana, there were scattered outages during the storm, while Florida Gov. Rick Scott said 6,800 customers had lost power in his state.

Mississippi’s Gulf Coast casinos got approval to reopen in midmorning after closing Saturday as the storm approached.

Sean Stewart, checking on his father’s sailboat at a Biloxi marina after daybreak, found another boat had sunk, its sail still fluttering in Nate’s diminishing winds. Stewart was relieved to find his father’s craft intact.

“I got lucky on this one,” he said.

Before Nate sped past Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula late Friday and entered the Gulf of Mexico, it drenched Central America with rains that left at least 22 people dead. But Nate didn’t approach the intensity of Harvey, Irma and Maria — powerful storms that left behind massive destruction during 2017′s exceptionally busy hurricane season.

“We are thankful because this looked like it was going to be a freight train barreling through the city,” said Vincent Creel, a spokesman for the city of Biloxi.

The head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency said the four hurricanes that have struck the U.S. and its territories this year have “strained” resources, with roughly 85 percent of the agency’s forces deployed.

“We’re still working massive issues in Harvey, Irma, as well as the issues in Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, and now this one,” FEMA Administrator Brock Long told ABC’s “This Week.”

The federal government declared emergencies in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida.

Nate initially made landfall Saturday evening in Louisiana, but fears that it would overwhelm the fragile pumping system in New Orleans proved to be unfounded. The storm passed to the east of New Orleans, and Mayor Mitch Landrieu lifted a curfew on the city known for its all-night partying.

“Hurricane Nate had the potential to wreak havoc on Louisiana, but thankfully, we were largely spared major damage,” Gov. John Bel Edwards said in a statement.

In Alabama, Dauphin Island Mayor Jeff Collier said he woke up around 3 a.m. Sunday to discover knee-deep water in his yard. Although some homes and cars on the island had flooded, Collier said he hadn’t heard of anyone needing rescue.

“We didn’t think it would be quite that bad,” he said. “It kind of snuck up on us in the wee hours of the morning.”

At landfall in Mississippi, the fast-moving storm had maximum sustained winds near 85 mph (140 kph), the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami said. Nate steadily weakened after its first landfall in a sparsely populated area of Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana.

At 5 p.m. EDT, the center of Nate was about 75 miles (120 kilometers) south of Nashville, Tennessee. Nate was expected to bring 3 to 6 inches of rain to the Deep South, eastern Tennessee Valley and southern Appalachians through Monday. The Ohio Valley, central Appalachians and Northeast could also get heavy rain before the storm exits Maine on Tuesday.

Biloxi city employees worked before dawn to clear Highway 90, where sand, logs and even a large trash bin had been washed onto the four-lane, beachfront road. Despite the debris, there was little to no visible damage to structures. A handful of businesses had reopened before dawn, and the storm surge that washed across the highway had receded by 6 a.m.

“We are thankful because this looked like it was going to be a freight train barreling through the city.” - Biloxi city spokesman Vincent Creel. Mississippi DOT crews had to remove over 1,000 pumpkins blown onto Highway 90 in Pass Christian, west of Gulfport.

Willie Cook, 75, spent his morning chopping down a pecan tree that fell in his backyard. He said Nate was nothing like Katrina, which pushed 8 feet (2.4 meters) of water into his east Biloxi house.

“The wind was blowing, but it wasn’t too rough,” Cook said of Nate.

Storm surge flooded the parking structure of the Golden Nugget casino and several others in Biloxi.

Mississippi Emergency Management Agency spokesman Greg Flynn said about 1,100 people spent the night in shelters.

“Thankfully, right now we have no major damage reports,” he said.

Hancock County Emergency Management Agency Director Brian Adam said Nate’s storm surge flooded low-lying roads, but he hadn’t heard any reports of flooded homes.

“We turned out fairly good,” he said as he prepared to survey neighborhoods.

In Alabama, the storm flooded homes and cars on the coast and inundated at least one major road in downtown Mobile.

At sunrise in Pensacola Beach, Florida, a small front-end loader scraped sand off a parking lot and returned it to the nearby beach.

On Saturday night, about 6 inches of salt water began flowing through Anthony Perez’s garage and a ground-level room of his Pensacola Beach condo along Santa Rosa Sound. The entire building was still surrounded by water on Sunday morning.

“I went downstairs and said, ‘Uh! There it is! It’s already flowing through,’” Perez said.

Officials rescued five people from two sailboats in choppy waters before the storm — two people from a sailboat in Lake Pontchartrain and three who were in the water after a boat hit rocks in the Mississippi Sound.

By JEFF AMY - Oct 8 5:55 PM EDT

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Associated Press writers Kim Chandler in Alabama, Michael Kunzelman in Baton Rouge, La., Brendan Farrington in Pensacola Beach, Fla., Kevin McGill in New Orleans, and AP photographer Gerald Herbert in Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana, contributed.