Opinion: Get Used To Power Outages
Poking fun at our powerless situation.
Photos
Not again, please. A little thunder storm rolled through last night and the news reported 10,000 people in the area were without power. The night before, there were 3,000 homes in the dark.
It has been less than three weeks since the derecho storm hit the mid-Atlantic.On June 29, more than half of Pepco’s Maryland and DC customers lost power for up to seven days. How long will it be out this time?
Will it be out long enough for the house to heat up into the 90’s again? Will it be out long enough for hotels to once more charge $500 a night?
In a recent TV commercial, Pepco's Regional President Tom Graham assured viewers that Pepco has been hard at work replacing lines and trimming trees. Sadly, Pepco tree trimmers exhibit the same care and horticultural know-how as giant kindergartners wielding enormous scissors. Combine that with years of neglect, and even little storms can cause problems.
Lately, I suspect that Pepco’s plan is to let the trees trim themselves. It is genius. Mother Nature works for free and doesn’t demand health care.
At a debriefing Thursday on Pepco’s response the derecho storm, Montgomery County Council President Roger Berliner (D-Dist. 1) reiterated his stand that Pepco is totally lame. Well, not really.
Berliner has stated that “It is clear that as a result of years of neglect, Pepco's system has deteriorated…No one debates that a strong storm will cause outages. However, the extent of the outages and the duration of the outages are a result of the weakness of Pepco's system.”
For me, a “weak system” fails the tests of serious storms like the derecho or the big snows of 2010. A broken system leaves thousands in the dark after a little summer thunderstorm.
There isn’t much we residents can do beyond gripe and moan.
We can write our congressman. We can keep the car full of gas, stock up on flashlight batteries and pack the pantry with emergency rations. Mostly, we’re going to have to get used to frequent, multiple day blackouts.
macadoodle
6:11 pm on Saturday, July 21, 2012
When and if I sell my condo, I will leave my trusty flashlights and power lanterns and stock of wooden matches and supply of candles to the buyer as a parting gift. Plus a few blankets to protect against the wintry winds when power goes out as it often does when it snows. That's the least I can do. Do not expect to have the same problems in VA where things, including electricity, seem to work much better plus they have a budget surplus and the roads are better and PROGs are not constantly charging you for the "right" to live in the County with sin taxes on plastic bags, cigarettes, alcohol, telephones, gasoline ....you name it, they tax it. While constantly cajoling us to ride bicycles or take buses that never show or try to walk on rutted sidewalks. It's just so darn mah-velous, isn't it?
Arlene K. Polangin
12:03 pm on Sunday, July 22, 2012
Pepco's response won't get better as long as the PSC stays the same and they get their "small" raises to "maintain the system." What maintenance is that, I ask? My system wasn't maintained for 6 nights and 6 days. After living in our home for 41 years, we've never experienced an outage of this length; neighbors having to push aside county tree branches which covered the streets, loss of food, indoor temperatures of 92+ even at night and lack of response. We were never called when the power finally came on, even though we requested a call. And, for this, we get a $2 a month raise....