From: Carey Gregory 
Newsgroups: misc.consumers.house alt.talk.weather alt.home.repair misc.consumers misc.emerg-services
Subject: Re: Hurricane (FLA) Housing Codes?
Date: Mon, 27 Sep 2004 15:59:40 -0400

vze8f3tq@verizon.net (v) wrote:

>When the government "makes" the local utility spend more to bury the
>lines, then they are also making the electric rates higher.  Even if
>it was the same total $ in the end, well it can be easier on the
>budget to spend $100/month for 10 months than to cough up $1,000 up
>front; add zeroes and that's the concept.

All true, but extended outages impose huge costs on the entire economy that
easily wipe out the short-term savings of above-ground lines.  Looking at
*all* the costs - including the cost of outages - buried power lines are
much cheaper to society as a whole over the long run.