data from NOAA/NWS
About infraShock
infraShock is an enterprise that evolved from a simple grassroots advocacy whose primary mission was to to shield the public from the pervasive year-round risk of voltage leakage (commonly referred to as stray voltage). In addition to offering protective guidelines, this responsible venture provides an interactive website which maps hotspots and facilitates their direct reportage to the utilities so that pedestrians may be apprised firsthand of any potential dangers en route. In implementing this timely and useful tool, it is the goal of infraShock to reduce the chance of injury and fatality and in so doing, create effective transparency that would remediate infrastructure maintenance and repair on a federal level.
Blair Sorrel
"For Blair Sorrel, a community safety advocate who lives on the Upper West Side, stopping this form of piracy has been a personal calling for several years. She spends weekends posting fliers around Manhattan warning against the hazards of tampering with city wires. An avid pet lover, Ms. Sorrel said she grew concerned about how many dogs in her neighborhood were sticking their noses among the live wires at the open bases of city lamp poles." Ian Urbina, New York Times
"Blair Sorrel first sounded the alert on electrical shock... " Diane West, Publisher and Editor, New York Tails
"The quality of life is significantly improved when people like you take the initiative." Gifford Miller, Former Speaker of the New York City Council
"Contrary to public perception, yelling and shaking carcasses to intimidate fur-clad socialites in not a prerequisite. A successful activist is one who embraces a causes and acts on it, calmly and politely..." - Julia Szabo, New York Post
"...There are high-profile activists with bold-faced names. But New York is also the home to many unsung heros. Blair Sorrel is one of them. A year ago, the West Sider noticed that some street and traffic lights were wide open at the base, uninsulated wires exposed, creating a risk of electrocution to pedestrians, especially those low on the ground such as children and pets.
'It's a minefield out there,' Sorrel explains. 'The blind have no protection, because they walk with a metal cane or a guide dog wearing a metal harness.'
Sorrel doesn't even have a dog; she has cats. But the thought of pets and people at risk made her get involved. 'I feel super-driven,' she says. The concerned citizen called... to report open-at-the-base lights to the Department of Transportation, wrote to state legislators, and contacted TV and radio stations, newspapers and magazines. She got a graphic designer to create an eye-catching informational flyer, which she personally circulated all over town. 'I met Robert De Niro,' Sorrel recalls, 'and he stopped to listen to the whole rap.' In September, she received an encouraging letter from City Council Speaker Gifford Miller, and her flyer was on view at the New York Historical Society's 'Petropolis' exhibition" - Julia Szabo, New York Post, Oct 26, 2003