{"id":34262,"date":"2024-02-26T01:12:13","date_gmt":"2024-02-26T09:12:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.elmhurstmutual.org\/?p=34262"},"modified":"2024-02-26T01:12:13","modified_gmt":"2024-02-26T09:12:13","slug":"beware-of-downed-power-lines","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.elmhurstmutual.org\/beware-of-downed-power-lines\/","title":{"rendered":"Beware of Downed Power Lines"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignright size-thumbnail wp-image-34264\" src=\"http:\/\/www.elmhurstmutual.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/image-506-340x240.png\" alt=\"Downed power lines\" width=\"340\" height=\"240\" \/>A tragic story out of Portland this month reminded us how dangerous downed power lines can be. A family was in a weather-related accident, and a power line fell onto their car. They got out of the car and were all killed, except for an infant still safe in its father\u2019s arms and rescued by a brave passerby.<\/p>\n<p>From Safe Electricity, here is what can occur when utility equipment is damaged:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Step potential happens when a person walks from 1 voltage \u201cripple\u201d to another, and their feet experience a difference in voltage.<\/li>\n<li>Touch potential happens when someone touches something at 1 voltage and steps on or contacts something else at a different voltage.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Both types of potential can cause serious internal and external injuries and death since electric current enters the body at 1 point and exits at another.<\/p>\n<p>To stay safe around damaged utility equipment:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Stay inside your vehicle or cab.<\/li>\n<li>Call 9-1-1.<\/li>\n<li>Report damaged power equipment to a dispatcher.<\/li>\n<li>Only exit if you see smoke or there is a fire.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>If you must exit due to a fire, carefully do the following:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Cross your arms and make a clean jump out.<\/li>\n<li>Do not touch the vehicle and the ground at the same time.<\/li>\n<li>Make solid hops with your feet together as far away as you can.<\/li>\n<li>If you are unable to hop, shuffle away without lifting your feet.<\/li>\n<li>Do not return to the vehicle.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>If you are near the scene:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Do not approach the scene to help.<\/li>\n<li>Stay at least 50 feet away.<\/li>\n<li>Do not lean on or touch anything.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Never approach a downed power line or pole or a damaged pad mount transformer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A tragic story out of Portland this month reminded us how dangerous downed power lines can be. A family was in a weather-related accident, and a power line fell onto their car. They got out of the car and were all killed, except for an infant still safe in its father\u2019s arms and rescued by [&#8230;]\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":34264,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[218,4],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.elmhurstmutual.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34262"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.elmhurstmutual.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.elmhurstmutual.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.elmhurstmutual.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.elmhurstmutual.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34262"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.elmhurstmutual.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34262\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34265,"href":"https:\/\/www.elmhurstmutual.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34262\/revisions\/34265"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.elmhurstmutual.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34264"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.elmhurstmutual.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34262"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.elmhurstmutual.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34262"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.elmhurstmutual.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34262"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}