Hurricane Irene and Tropical Storm Lee: Impetus for the Development of Flood Engineering and Operating Best Practices

Allen Peterson Manager, Gas Technical Service NYSEG/EGE Agenda

• Overview of Hurricane Irene and our response • Overview of Tropical Storm Lee and our response • Northeast Gas Association Fall workshop to develop a flood engineering and operating best practices manual • Join us in this effort! • The Southern Gas Association will be joining us in this effort. Situation: Hurricane Irene

• On Sunday, August 28, Hurricane Irene tracked up New York State’s eastern border; changing to a tropical storm Issues: Hurricane Irene

• Many of NYSEG’s Brewster, Oneonta, Mechanicville and Plattsburgh Division customers lost power • There was significant flash flood damage in the Oneonta Division including Prattsville, Windham, Walton and Margaretville • Numerous internal crew movements were made across the state • Movement between Divisions was constrained the next day due to road closures (flooding, washouts) southwest of Albany Flash Floods followed State Highways Flash Floods moved large volumes of rubble Flash Floods crossed highways. At least our tracer wire survived! Washouts happened in minutes due to rapid “waterfall” erosion of road beds. Buildings moved off of foundations

Situation: Tropical Storm Lee

• On Wednesday, Sept. 7th, 72 hours after crews demobilized from Irene, the remnants of this slow- moving tropical storm dumped over 10” of rain on the Southern Tier, causing the Susquehanna River to exceed it’s 2006 record crests in several locations. If 2005 was the 100-year flood and 2006 was the 500-year flood, 2011 was… Tropical Storm Lee Result - Broome and Tioga County, New York

Scope and Scale Issues: • The Susquehanna River crested about four feet higher than the record crest of 2006 in Owego, and about 2.5 feet higher in Vestal • Severe flooding occurred in Nichols, Owego, Vestal, Endicott, Johnson City, Binghamton and Conklin • Two of NYSEG’s smaller Operations Centers, and four substations, were flooded; NYSEG’s Binghamton Service Center was partially flooded and had to be evacuated • Thousands of electric meters or panel boxes were submerged and power had to be shut off; some at the pole • Thousands more gas meters also were submerged and had to be shut off; the low pressure gas main in Owego had to be shut down and filled with water Tropical Storm Lee Result - Broome and Tioga County, New York

Scope and Scale Issues: • 11,000 of 67,000 total Gas Customers turned off in Binghamton and Owego • 80% of Village of Owego under water • 6” steel gas main washed out causing a 1,300 customer outage • 5 major feed gas mains exposed and in danger of failing • 7 regulator stations shut down – for safety precautions • Over 3,000 people in shelters • Remaining roads clogged with local refugees and through-traffic forced off of the interstates. First came the flash flooding and then it got bad.

Scope and Scale Issues: • Impacts to the electric grid were also substantial and affected all phases of recovery. • Effects to generation, substation, transmission and distribution facilities from both flash flooding and basin flooding. • Incident command was unified and many re-entry/recovery efforts were combined. • Cell phones didn’t work so great either due to system overload and mail-box overload.

Dewatering of mains and services impacted by household debris piled over the mains and services. 5 Action Steps to Consider for Flood Response

1. Turn off customers before flood waters prevent action • Work in cooperation with emergency services (mandatory evacuations) 2. Respond to leaks and monitor system for public safety • Low pressure systems • Broken services in homes • Foundation cave-ins from hydraulic pressure • Explosions • Respond to Leak calls

3. Leak survey system after flood waters reside

4. Fix all critical leaks

5. Turn customers back on 4 Phases of Flood Restoration

1. Pre-emptive Turn-offs • Worked closely with emergency management • Staffing to County EOC’s • Staffing to Fire Department Command posts • Staffing levels of 90 employees internal for initial response • Total of 2,000 customers turned off 2. Re-entry Teams – After Flood Waters Receded • Re-entry based on CEDAR (code enforcement disaster assistance response) • 12 teams of 17 employees – total of 204 internal and mutual aid • Turn off electric and gas • Leak survey • Re-energize electric circuits 4 Phases of Flood Restoration - Continued

3. Reconnect Teams – After Re-entry teams finished • Based on Cedar maps and previous experience • 12 teams of 10 employees – Comprised of Gas Fitters skill set • Internal employees as well mutual aid – total of 120 • Canvassed neighborhoods door-to-door • Responded to re-connect notices • Responded to municipality and public official requests

4. What Happens when all mutual aid leaves? • There were still 2,700 gas customers that had not been reconnected • Open leaks in Binghamton increased significantly. • Mandated Capital and O&M programs were well behind schedule • Employee burn-out – Employees worked 17 / 7 shifts for 17 days straight If this is the new normal….. Then we’d better start writing this down!

• NGA is planning a Flood Engineering and Operating Best Practices workshop for its Fall Conference in Saratoga NY on Oct. 13/14. • SGA wants to help and participate • We will present a series of talks on flood engineering and operating best practices. • We all already have generic procedures for dealing with floods and washouts and water in mains in this location or that... • But now we are starting to deal with water on a scale and frequency that is unprecedented. • And we are gaining a lot of street knowledge that needs to be written down and shared. • Please join us in this effort! NGA Flood Engineering and Operating Best Practices: The Plan

• The NGA Emergency Management Committee will work with NGA staff to organize the workshop and the manual. • We are developing a list of topics for flood E/O best practices • We’d like to collect (in advance) any flood best practices that any of your companies have already written down. • We’d like to find people to present on each topic at the Fall workshop by early summer. • We’d like to find volunteer SME’s to assist the presenters by mid-summer. • Then, after the workshop, we will have a technical writer work with the presenters and volunteer SME’s to convert each presentation into a best practice document. • These will be compiled into a reference manual Topics List (draft)

Pre-flood Planning • Identifying flood-prone areas, flash flood hazard areas and system low spots within flood-prone areas • Identifying key above-ground facilities at risk (ours and customers) • Flood sectionalizing planning • Regulator station protection planning • ICS training Flood Waters Rising and Cresting • Meter turn-offs • Valving and sectionalizing • Regulator station protection • Driving access and hazards • Emergency make-safe operations (washouts, tear-offs, releases, explosions) Flood Waters Receding and Recovery • Re-entry and damage assessment • Pump-outs • Turn-ons • Urgent reconstructions Throughout • ICS, and communication issues (flood-specific) • Mutual aid issues • Human factors (employees and customers) • Status determinations and updates (what’s wet/dry, on/off) Summary and Discussion

• Questions? • Review Topics List – are we leaving anything out? • Any volunteers to either present or serve as SME’s? • Dan Dessanti will collect names of presenters and volunteer SME’s • Thank you very much!