Extreme Weather is the New Normal

The extreme weather we’ve been experiencing over the past half-decade seems to becoming the new normal.  Now without arguing about global warming and who is to blame, the fact of the matter is that most scientists and meteorologist agree that our environment has changed.

Storms are larger, stronger and more frequent than previous decades. Superstorm Sandy and more recently storms and flooding in Calgary, Toronto and the entire Midwestern US have wreaked unprecedented havoc to our homes, businesses and infrastructure.

I was in the Toronto area on July 8, 2013 when more rain fell in a 3 hour span than it did when Hurricane Hazel struck in 1954.  The storm left over 400,000 customers without power, washed out roads and flooded the subway and commuter rail lines costing hundreds of millions of dollars in damage and untold losses in productivity.  It’s alarming to see storms generated in the Midwest are packing hurricane levels of destruction.

Now is the time for cities, institutions and utilities to take action to prevent catastrophic damage to our already fragile electrical grid.  Storm hardened padmounted and submersible switchgear can protect our electrical infrastructure from catastrophic loss and allow us to restore power more quickly. Investment in long lasting, maintenance free and storm hardened switchgear is critical in order to meet the demands of the future.