Wednesday, November 07, 2012

Power!

Amazingly, my power just returned during a nor'eastern storm, it's snowing. I'm hoping it stays on.

Sometime early last Saturday morning I lost electric power again after it had been on for two days following the hurricane, which had knocked it off for two days.  Apparently - never confirmed this - a tree had toppled a block west.  I was in a black hole. Yet,  power, thankfully, remained on up the block, at my friend Gina's house. I continued to sleep here but spent a few evenings there,  including last night, until we clicked glasses when President Obama gave his acceptance speech.

I know people in Rahway, six miles away,  who are still without power & do not know when it will return.

I threw out   $75 - $100 of groceries, since I keep a well-stocked fridge. I cook electric, so that became a big problem. Hot water was on, heat was off, & temps dropped. It got pretty miserable. PSE&G was uninformative. The Mayor  practically admitted he didn't have the juice to make PSE&G prioritize this city.  PSE&G & other power companies have been awful at managing their manpower & resources. Something is wrong when they have 10,000  repair personnel out, the number of problem locations falls, but the pace of power restoration doesn't pick up. That's happening all over, & there will be hearings, I'm certain,   Even the unprecedented magnitude of  the storm & damage cannot disguise that  that power companies did not heed the warnings  & learn the lessons of serious previous storms over the past few years, have workable contingency plans, or identify & upgrade known weaknesses in their systems.




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