Still half a million people without power in New England.

[Mass]

400000 + in CY
100000 + in MA
and still others in NH.

Thanks to corporate greed that cut efforts to trim trees last year and are still missing people to make repairs.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/04/business/the-troubling-connecticut-power-failure.html

Yet according to regulatory filings, Connecticut Light and Power cut its maintenance spending by 26 percent, from $130 million in 2008 to $96.5 million last year. Put simply, that seems to suggest that one in every four trees that could have been trimmed was left untouched, though the company says the maintenance line was depressed by a deferral of expenses for accounting purposes.

The utility showed the same kind of tin ear as some banks, too. Even as customers still faced a week without electricity after Irene struck, the Connecticut Light and Power boss, Jeff Butler, suggested any restoration costs should be covered by increasing electricity rates — when Connecticut’s power is already the most expensive in the continental United States. Mr. Butler later backtracked. But this week he suggested the weekend snowstorm came without warning — words he was again forced to eat.

Public utilities companies do a much better job

There’s even a near-perfect model of how Connecticut Light and Power could have done the job better. Norwich, Conn., a city of 40,000, has owned its own electric utility, as well as those for sewage, gas and water, for 107 years. Norwich Public Utilities’ customers pay, on average, a bit less than Connecticut Light and Power’s. Yet after this past weekend’s snow dump, power was out for only about 450 of its 22,000 customers — and for no more than an hour. As of Thursday morning, nearly half a million Connecticut Light and Power customers were still waiting for the lights to go on.

We are in the same case. We live in a little town near Boston who still has its own electric company. We were out of power for about one day. The neighboring towns had power out for three or four days.

And this has already had tragic results, with several cases of carbon monoxide poisoning and this morning, a woman in MA dying from hypothermia in her own home.

http://www.telegram.com/article/20111104/NEWS/111049816/0/NEWS03
An 86-year-old woman died yesterday in her unheated home, according to Worcester District Attorney Joseph D. Early Jr.

Dorothy M. Hall, of 70 Old East Brookfield Road, was found unresponsive by her son, Willis W. Hall, 59, who had shared the home with his mother.
...
Mr. Hall was taken to Harrington Hospital for a medical condition and possible hypothermia. Mr. Hall had told police that the Halls’ house had lost power about 5:30 on Saturday and it was still out. Mr. Hall reported that his mother had complained that she was cold on Wednesday night.

[FSogol]

1. Of course early snowstorms that arrive while leaves are on the trees cause a lot more

damage than regular winter storms. Extra tree trimming might not have made much difference.

[Mass]

2. That and maintening enough man power would have made some difference,

It is absolutely scandalous that that many people are still without power at this point.

[FSogol]

3. Does the power company in question have a history of poor maintenance?

Here in Northern VA we have Dominion Power. They have a lot of underground lines and do an above average job on maintaining their equipment. On the other side of DC is PEPCO. They have raised rates for years and spend little on upgrading or maintaining equipment. Power outages are so common that some school systems there issue flashlights to all teachers. While I wouldn't call Dominion Power a good or great corporation, they do respond and recover quicker than PEPCO. There will always be storms that are more different to recover from than others and corporate greed isn't always the reason.

[Owlet]

7. C.L.&P. has a very poor track record

1. It has failed to maintain staffing levels sufficient to deal with emergencies
2. While dependent upon private contractors or crews from utilities in other states, C.L.&P. has failed to pay some of these folks for work done here following Hurricane Irene in August.
3. They were completely unprepared for this event, even though weathercasters were forecasting power loss three days before the storm hit.
4. They appear disorganized and defensive, in particular their COO Jeffrey Butler. Governor Malloy has gotten so fed up he has called out the National Guard to clear roads.
4. The State regulatory agency, the DPUC, seems to have been totally co-opted by the utility.
5. Most of the damage caused to power lines was caused by falling trees. I live in a more or less rural area, with tree lined roads that have not been trimmed for at least 8 years.


We lost power for a week with Irene: five days with this storm (there was basically no damage here - just no line crews assigned to the town). I fully expect this sorry scenario to be repeated again and am shopping for a propane-fueled generator.

[karynnj]

4. That seems to be the case in Morris County NJ

Here, the trees seemed like they were cut as they are every year to the utilities. In addition, people were cutting down trees that they found were endangering their houses. However, there were HUGE trees that looked great a week ago, that were literally pulled out of the ground - pulling up huge root balls.

I have lived here 39 years and this is an order of magnitude worse than anything I have seen.

[MannyGoldstein]

5. We need to be fair and balanced about this, consider all angles

The head of the local MA utility (NStar/National Grid) makes millions, but they're in the middle of an announced layoff of 1200 workers.

The well-off communities had all of their power back in hours, if they lost it at all. My neighborhood in Newton, which includes billionaire CEOs a few blocks in one direction and subsidized housing a few blocks the other way, never lost power.

In all, another win for the 1% and a "@#$% you" to the 99%.

[winstars]

6. But, But Joey Scar Claimed That it is THE UNIONS FAULT!!!!

Joe (he's a real killer with ladies) said this AM that he understands (the old, "people are saying") its because the utilities workforce is unionized that people don't have their power back on yet. And that back in 'ole Miss, always got power back the next day with non-union labor. 'Ole Miss would still not even have fucking electricity if not for FDR asshole!!! What a fucking asshole, even more so (is that even possible???) with the info contained above about MANAGEMENT CUTTING MAINTENANCE BUDGETS!!!!

[Jennicut]

8. My husband works for Yankee Gas, under the same company as CL &P.

They are both under Northeast Utilities. He has been working to 10 or midnight every night this week on storm duty. The workers are expected to do more with less manpower. I would say that it would be great for CL&P to have more workers but at the same time my husband earns very good wages and is in a union. CL&P and Yankee Gas are heavily unionized. This is not an anti union company by any means. They are also now getting some help now from other companies out of state. There was a crew in the other day from Alabama. The smaller companies in CT service one or only a few towns. It is not on the same level as what CL&P deals with.

Gov. Malloy does think its time to look into burying the power lines in certain areas and I think that is a good idea. Connecticut is, believe it or not, one of the most heavily forested states in the United States. And is the 4th most densely populated state on top of it.

We had a freak hurricane (Irene) and a freak snow storm near Halloween. Have not had a hurricane like that since I was 10 and the snow storm at Halloween? Never in my lifetime. It was unusual circumstances to say the least. My kids missed Halloween and a week of school. I stayed at my Mom's since she had a generator. Got my power back Tuesday morning. It has not been fun. My sister in law came over the other day since East Windsor was still out and my 1 year old nephew got a bath. We all banded together to help each other out. Also, please, if you use a generator, never ever close your garage door using it or bring in in the house. So many people got poisoned this way.

[Mass]

9. I feel sorry for the employees of the electric companies given the humiongous work that this is

and they clearly lack the workforce to do this.

My MIL is in the Springfield area. At this point, there is still 40% of people without power (she is in Boston with us because she has no heat, power, or telephone). It seems power comes even more slowly than during the tornadoes this summer, probably because the entire state is concerned, this time, and not only the Springfield area. We got news that the shelters were closing tomorrow, so I imagine they hope to have most houses reconnected tomorrow, but who knows what will happen when they reconnect the lines. How many houses will have had their connection to the line destroyed (we had that a couple years ago and it took three days to get power back - find an electrician to do the work, ...)