Mohan proposes electrical lines be relocated underground

In order to prevent large portions of Amherst from being crippled by power outages in the future, Town Supervisor Satish Mohan proposes relocating electrical lines from overhead poles to underground trenches.

"Power outages for up to 10 days in most neighborhoods in the town caused the greatest suffering and damage to the homes such as flooded basements, sewer backups and power failure of the traffic signals," Mohan said in a prepared statement released Tuesday.

The surprise October snowstorm resulted in a loss of electrical service to widespread areas of Amherst.

"The avoidance of such power outages in the future will be my first priority," Mohan said. "I'll soon get together with the Town Board, power companies and electrical contractors to plan a cost estimate of laying the electric cables underground so that such a mishap does not occur in the future."

He said the town will also study the economics of providing gasoline generators at each major intersection so that traffic signals could stay powered in the event of a general power outage.

The town will also study the economics of providing gas generators at major sanitary sewage lift stations so that sanitary sewer backups will not happen, Mohan added.

"We have learned several lessons from this disaster. One of them is the simple knowledge that our town north of Sheridan drive is very flat, and with a little precipitation the flooding occurs, damaging homes and basements, etc. So the drainage planning will be our high priority," he said.

"Due to the power failure and also telephone failure, communications between the town and the residents became a problem. In the future we will design some system to communicate with each and every resident."