City of Mobile issued the following announcement on Oct. 30.
There will be no curfew in the City of Mobile Friday night despite lingering power outages in some areas. The City of Mobile will be using generators to power traffic lights in major intersections that are still without power after sunset and dispatching officers to direct traffic as well.
On Thursday, Oct. 29, a citywide curfew was implemented after it became apparent that dozens of intersections — including some in major thoroughfares — would not have power restored by nightfall. It was implemented for the safety of residents, first responders and workers cleaning up after the storm.
Today, some intersections have had power restored but others have not. To avoid the need for another evening curfew, the City of Mobile has been installing generators at remaining major intersections without power. We have not used this approach before during power outages after major storms, and it took some experimentation by our traffic and engineering department to make it work.
We’re hopeful that by retrofitting the signals at some of our highly trafficked intersections, we can use generators to cut down the manpower needed to control traffic and avoid curfews after future storms.
“I’d like to thank Mobilians for their patience as we continue to recover from Hurricane Zeta. While we weren’t as impacted as some of our neighbors, the storm brought high winds that knocked down trees and power lines across the city — leaving thousands without power and more than 106 traffic signals without power,” Mayor Sandy Stimpson said. “Power restoration efforts are ongoing around the city, but this plan will help keep motorists safe and eliminate the need for a curfew in the meantime.”
Original source can be found here.
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