Anyone still not have power?

[2knees]

The lesson I learned was the only person you can rely on during a situation like this is yourself and to be proactive about things. Sitting around waiting to be "rescued", and then complaining about it when it takes too long is foolish. There's often a lot of comments about media hype when storms like this are coming. This time it came to pass, so you just never know. I know personally, I was much more prepared for Irene, which was nothing, than this storm. When I woke up to 19" of heavy snow on Sunday, I knew it was time to act quickly.

I hope your not directing that at me. I havent complained at all. I disagree with the sentiment that CL and P shouldnt be held 100% accountable. Big ass difference there chief.

btw, you and i can afford generators and take out and such. What about the scores of people who cant yet still pay the same outrageous rates? Seems to me we should be getting exceptional service and restoration, not 3rd rate.

 

[Greg]

I hope your not directing that at me. I havent complained at all. I disagree with the sentiment that CL and P shouldnt be held 100% accountable. Big ass difference there chief.

btw, you and i can afford generators and take out and such. What about the scores of people who cant yet still pay the same outrageous rates? Seems to me we should be getting exceptional service and restoration, not 3rd rate.

Not directed at you. I've just seen so much whining about CL&P, mostly on Facebook. Take a look at CL&P's FB page. Listen, I'm sure they could manage this disaster better, but the reality is none of us exactly know what their disaster recovery plan is, and whether or not they are executing it as best they could.

And yeah, I'm sure there are many people out there that can't afford a generator. I would be shocked if any of them are posting about how bad CL&P sucks on the Internet from their iPhones...

This really is an unprecedented event. And I'm sure 20" of snow made recovery a lot more challenging at least early in the week.

 

[drjeff]

On a town message board I did ask about power status for my street...but I hated doing it because I didn't want it to sound like all I cared about was my situation.

I don't know about the specifics of how the crews have worked, but from what I have seen the damage in the Lowell area was extensive, and I do believe that the crews worked as quickly as they could to get our power back on.

When the snow settles and the tree debris is cleared, however, I do think that there are questions that need to be answered/addressed regarding the fragile state of our power distribution system. We need to have towns seriously look into burying lines and trees near lines need to be trimmed on a more frequent basis...regardless of whether the property owners want it done or not...

The burrying lines issue. Matt Noyes, yup that well respected around here meterologist from NECN, put up a tweet early this week pertaining to Massachusetts and what it would cost and how long it would take to bury the rest of the lines around the state - remember that much of the urban areas already have underground utilities.

To bury the lines for the rest of Massachusetts, it would cost and estimated 1 BILLION dollars and take about 40 years. And BTW, the estimated lifespan of those burried cables is 50 years. It was a very eye opening, thought provoking tweet that Matt put up! That begs the follow up question of just how much of an increase in utility rates is one willing to pay for something that is overkill 99%+ of the time??

 

[bigbog]

Just a quick $.01, I think lots of homeowners...along the line route...have had their hands tied by local regulations limiting just what levels of responsibiliity homeowners can use..... In some instances people haven't been allowed to take necessary precautions = branch clearing.... via local governmental regs for years.....because those trees/branches weren't on/over homeowner's property...etc..

 

[2knees]

Not directed at you. I've just seen so much whining about CL&P, mostly on Facebook. Take a look at CL&P's FB page. Listen, I'm sure they could manage this disaster better, but the reality is none of us exactly know what their disaster recovery plan is, and whether or not they are executing it as best they could.

And yeah, I'm sure there are many people out there that can't afford a generator. I would be shocked if any of them are posting about how bad CL&P sucks on the Internet from their iPhones...

This really is an unprecedented event. And I'm sure 20" of snow made recovery a lot more challenging at least early in the week.

I probably should've worded my first sentence better. Having no power doesnt bother me that much. I kinda like the unplugged life at times. What bothers me is the backlash some people have to others who question CL & P's readiness, execution, planning etc. I think we should be upset. Where the hell is all our money going? Oh, I know. Straight to the shareholders. Not to preventative maintenance, disaster preparedness, outside contractors.....you know, providing a quality service.

I have power, have had it since wednesday. I guess I could just take the stance that it aint my problem anymore but to see the utter lack of response in vernon, farmington, avon, simsbury etc is just ridiculous, in my opinion.

 

[drjeff]

Not directed at you. I've just seen so much whining about CL&P, mostly on Facebook. Take a look at CL&P's FB page. Listen, I'm sure they could manage this disaster better, but the reality is none of us exactly know what their disaster recovery plan is, and whether or not they are executing it as best they could.

And yeah, I'm sure there are many people out there that can't afford a generator. I would be shocked if any of them are posting about how bad CL&P sucks on the Internet from their iPhones...

This really is an unprecedented event. And I'm sure 20" of snow made recovery a lot more challenging at least early in the week.

Well put Greg!

I think the key word there is DISASTER. Not a planned disaster, but a disaster. And as much as one likes to think that they are prepared for a disaster, very often there tends to be a few variables added into the disaster equation that even the best of planners didn't consider.

Heck, in one sense, I think that if you told people that on 2 seperate, completely unrelated weather events of a completely different nature that happend roughly 2 months apart that CL&P were able to restore 700K+ customers one time and almost 850K customers the 2nd time both within about a week, especially considering that they never had outtages of that size EVER before, and hadn't had an outtage much over 100k customers in DECADES, that's pretty impressive. But if you're that last customer to get restored, it sucks!

 

[Greg]

I probably should've worded my first sentence better. Having no power doesnt bother me that much. I kinda like the unplugged life at times. What bothers me is the backlash some people have to others who question CL & P's readiness, execution, planning etc. I think we should be upset. Where the hell is all our money going? Oh, I know. Straight to the shareholders. Not to preventative maintenance, disaster preparedness, outside contractors.....you know, providing a quality service.

I have power, have had it since wednesday. I guess I could just take the stance that it aint my problem anymore but to see the utter lack of response in vernon, farmington, avon, simsbury etc is just ridiculous, in my opinion.

Damn 1%-ers. :smash: Sorry. Not going there... :lol:

I guess the question is do people think CL&P is intentionally neglecting the Farmington Valley? I don't think any of us have any business questioning the execution of their recovery plan without even having any knowledge of their recovery plan. DrJeff said it well: there's always going to be someone to get restored last. All in all, this is a monumental recovery. Not sure where they are in the process, but we're still within a week. If they can get close to 100% by midnight Monday as they project, I would say they did pretty well.

 

[2knees]

Damn 1%-ers. :smash: Sorry. Not going there... :lol:

I walked into that one....:dunce:

I guess the question is do people think CL&P is intentionally neglecting the Farmington Valley? I don't think any of us have any business questioning the execution of their recovery plan without even having any knowledge of their recovery plan. DrJeff said it well: there's always going to be someone to get restored last. All in all, this is a monumental recovery. Not sure where they are in the process, but we're still within a week. If they can get close to 100% by midnight Monday as they project, I would say they did pretty well.

I'm sure they aren't intentionally neglecting anyone and yes, someone will always be last. I'm not going to repeat what i've already stated but I dont think we are looking at this from the same perspective. Which is fine. I have my opinion on it and you and Jeff have another.

 

[hammer]

The burrying lines issue. Matt Noyes, yup that well respected around here meterologist from NECN, put up a tweet early this week pertaining to Massachusetts and what it would cost and how long it would take to bury the rest of the lines around the state - remember that much of the urban areas already have underground utilities.

To bury the lines for the rest of Massachusetts, it would cost and estimated 1 BILLION dollars and take about 40 years. And BTW, the estimated lifespan of those burried cables is 50 years. It was a very eye opening, thought provoking tweet that Matt put up! That begs the follow up question of just how much of an increase in utility rates is one willing to pay for something that is overkill 99%+ of the time??

Like any project, I'm sure that there is a partial solution that will still be expensive but will be of significant benefit. We may not have to bury all power and utility lines, just those in the most vulnerable areas.

My 16-18 YO neighborhood (like several others in my town) has all underground utilities, but we are at the mercy of the overhead lines nearby which are very vulnerable to storms like the one last weekend.

 

[wa-loaf]

Except for a few outlying folks in MA I think power is on in most places and they're already talking about investigations here. It seems if whole towns in CT are still without power something is really wrong with CLP

Things can change pretty quickly with a utility. In the ice storm 2 years ago a smallish utility that serves Fitchburg and surrounding areas, Unitel, really dropped the ball. Towns were without power for weeks. They rightfully got reamed over it. This time around they were the first to have all their customers hooked back up, despite being in an area that got hit pretty hard.

 

[hammer]

Except for a few outlying folks in MA I think power is on in most places and they're already talking about investigations here. It seems if whole towns in CT are still without power something is really wrong with CLP

Things can change pretty quickly with a utility. In the ice storm 2 years ago a smallish utility that serves Fitchburg and surrounding areas, Unitel, really dropped the ball. Towns were without power for weeks. They rightfully got reamed over it. This time around they were the first to have all their customers hooked back up, despite being in an area that got hit pretty hard.

The only thing that bothers me about the "investigations" is that they will likely result in a lot of political "finger-pointing" at how the repairs were done and in the end nothing will happen to mitigate the problems when another storm like this happens again.

It has been interesting to hear very little about Unitil after this storm...maybe there's something to be learned there.

 

[2knees]

Except for a few outlying folks in MA I think power is on in most places and they're already talking about investigations here. It seems if whole towns in CT are still without power something is really wrong with CLP

Bloomfield, 82% out right now.
Avon, 73% out
East Windsor, 62% out
Ellington 76% out.
Farmington 89% out
New Fairfield 68% out
Simsbury 83% out
South Windsor 65% out
Stafford 97% out
Tolland 63% out
West Hartford 75% out
Windsor Locks 63% out.

I'm not talking about tiny little hill towns here. And there are plenty of those to list also. Except for possibly Stafford, all of these are reasonably to heavily populated areas.

 

[wa-loaf]

The only thing that bothers me about the "investigations" is that they will likely result in a lot of political "finger-pointing" at how the repairs were done and in the end nothing will happen to mitigate the problems when another storm like this happens again.

It has been interesting to hear very little about Unitil after this storm...maybe there's something to be learned there.

I think a good post mortem investigation is a good thing. Hopefully politics will stay out of it. In the case of Unitel it definitely worked. They overhauled their disaster plans and were really prepared this time.

 

[gmcunni]

http://www.hasclpfixedmyfuckingpower.com/

 

[o3jeff]

http://www.hasclpfixedmyfuckingpower.com/

Lol

 

[Black Phantom]

Bloomfield, 82% out right now.
Avon, 73% out
East Windsor, 62% out
Ellington 76% out.
Farmington 89% out
New Fairfield 68% out
Simsbury 83% out
South Windsor 65% out
Stafford 97% out
Tolland 63% out
West Hartford 75% out
Windsor Locks 63% out.

I'm not talking about tiny little hill towns here. And there are plenty of those to list also. Except for possibly Stafford, all of these are reasonably to heavily populated areas.

Wow. That is unreal. Sorry to hear this.

 

[bvibert]

Bloomfield, 82% out right now.
Avon, 73% out
East Windsor, 62% out
Ellington 76% out.
Farmington 89% out
New Fairfield 68% out
Simsbury 83% out
South Windsor 65% out
Stafford 97% out
Tolland 63% out
West Hartford 75% out
Windsor Locks 63% out.

I'm not talking about tiny little hill towns here. And there are plenty of those to list also. Except for possibly Stafford, all of these are reasonably to heavily populated areas.

Do you realize just how many people were without power? We're down to below 300,000, which sure is a lot, but it's one hell of a lot better than, what, 850,000 6 days ago?

Looking down through the list I'm seeing a lot less 97-100% out than I was a few days ago. You're making it sound like they're sitting around drinking tea or something. They're working, they just can't be everywhere at once.

Believe me, I'm with you corporate greed and all that, and I believe that there should have been more preventative trimming and other maintenance, but the scope of this disaster is huge and unprecedented. Do they deserve some blame? Yes, absolutely. I don't believe the amount of bashing they're getting is warranted though.

 

[2knees]

Do you realize just how many people were without power? We're down to below 300,000, which sure is a lot, but it's one hell of a lot better than, what, 850,000 6 days ago?

Looking down through the list I'm seeing a lot less 97-100% out than I was a few days ago. You're making it sound like they're sitting around drinking tea or something. They're working, they just can't be everywhere at once.

Believe me, I'm with you corporate greed and all that, and I believe that there should have been more preventative trimming and other maintenance, but the scope of this disaster is huge and unprecedented. Do they deserve some blame? Yes, absolutely. I don't believe the amount of bashing they're getting is warranted though.

You're making my point for me. It's been a week. I sure as hell would hope they could make progress in a week with no wind or rain.

And why cant they be everywhere at once? Because in times like this, any power company relies on outside contractors and other state's utilities to help. Why did mass and nh get 4x the crews while we had 3x the outages? Cause they paid them for Irene work and in large part, CL and P has not. Would you go do a job if somebody still hadnt paid you for one you did a month ago? I wouldnt. And why did they lobby to get their staffing levels cut in 2008? to save money. did our rates go down? mine sure didnt. I'm not blaming the lineworkers, I'm squarely placing the blame on the corporation. And did you know that NU, the holder of CL and P, has already made it known that they fully intend to pass on the cost of both of these events to the consumer and not the company.

 

[2knees]

why am i so fired up? I just read this whole thread again.

time for funday friday......

 

[billski]

Congrats to all who have their power back. For those that do not, I'd go shopping for lodging vouchers. Serious.