Posted on 07/03/2012 7:20:35 PM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
D.C. Council members planned to meet face-to-face with officials from Pepco as soon as Tuesday to address the “unacceptable” pace of the utility’s recovery efforts after Friday night’s fierce storm swept through the region and left hundreds of thousands without power in stifling heat.
Their stern response to a third day of widespread outages builds on years of skepticism aimed at the utility that serves nearly 800,000 customers in the District and Maryland.
Several city lawmakers could empathize with their constituents’ plight, because they, too, lacked power in their homes. They wondered aloud whether Pepco gave “short shrift” to the District; if its crews followed the prescribed priority list of downed wires, intersections and nursing homes; and if anyone had seen crews out and about in the immediate aftermath of the knockout punch.
“This was not an admirable approach on their part,” council member Mary M. Cheh, Ward 3 Democrat, said during an afternoon briefing at the John A. Wilson Building. “And I’m furious about it, actually.”
Such complaints are not new, nor are they limited to the District. A July 2011 report found Pepco ranked dead-last in customer satisfaction among U.S. companies.
The findings by the American Customer Satisfaction Index group echoed a refrain among lawmakers in Maryland and the District. Last year, both jurisdictions revisited reliability standards at the utility and potential fines for unreasonable outages.
The fallout from Friday’s sudden storm is doing little to quell their concerns.
Joining the chorus was Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell, who described the storm’s aftermath as “the largest nonhurricane-related power outage in Virginia history.”
Yet it was Pepco that has been dogged by vitriol from government leaders and irate residents.
Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley told reporters this weekend that “nobody will have their boot further up Pepco’s backside than I will.”
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
Maryland “Freak State” PING!
Atlas is shrugging - and the liberal trash who bought on this sorry state of affairs will double down on class warfare while pursuing more regulations & strangulations...
So, not a peep about Obama and the EPA shutting down all those coal plants that generate electricity, eh? We have the most anti-energy, anti-progress government in history, and still people don’t get it. Heaven help us!
Welcome to 0bama's future of bankrupt coal fired power plants.
You asked for it, it's sustainable and green. What's not to like?
Yeah because its totally in the interest of the utility to drag its feet in repairing and providing service.
Was thinking the same thing. Now they have to explain to the Central Committee for State Productivity why their output of Rearden metal is down.
Yeah, that will work, huh? I know when my boss is standing over me I feel sooo much more motivated (not). Like they are not trying their best. What an insult.
Get used to it.
0bama wants all of us to live without electricity.
Two power outages here last week and we haven’t had any storms. One they blamed on “excessive load” and the second on “unspecified technical failure”
Racist electricity: always trying to get away from the black wires and to the white wires...
Boo hoo.
(Almost killed me)
Ridiculous
The grid is old, the work is spread out, these people are acting like lunatics
On this one I think the grumblers (me firsters)need to cut the power companies a break. Imagine the staggering number of people affected by this storm. In little WV alone there were over 700,000 people without power. The state only has about one and a half million people. Ohio was hit hard with millions in the dark, KY, VA, IND, part of IL, N.C. S.C. MD, N.J. and the D.C. area, all the same. That was a massive land hurricane. The wind just took out rows of trees. At one of my churches, it lifted a row of pines and the whole bank on which they grew to leave a gaping trench. It took roofs off and a lot of small buildings. We were without power for almost five days, with no phone service and threats of water being turned off.
You couldn’t go out and eat because all the restaurants were without power too. Same with gas stations. If a station had power, they had lines of cars for hours; people trying to get gas for generators. New generators not to be found for any price.
The whole experience was educational. We learned that we were not as prepared as we thought we were, and what we need to do for the next disaster. With communications down and people with no TV or computer, they came out and formed a neighborhood. We actually talked with one another. In the lines waiting for a seat in any restaurant who happened to have power, people were laughing and having a great time with each other. Perfect strangers exchanging pleasantries. Communitos. My efforts to get hubby to purchase a Generator will now come to fruition. Sleeping with the doors open was not so bad. In all, it has been something that may alert people to what can happen if the SHTF. That’s a good thing. I sure did miss FR though.
Good UNION WORKERS WILL TAKE THEIR SWEET TIME ON OVERTIME to get the power back on. Perhaps the Mayor will call BHO to make it a National disaster and proclaim a week off with pay for all DC Gov employees.
“We learned we were not prepared as we thought we were...”
Yes, you are exactly right. Our generator worked fine but I did find that most of the grocery stores did not have generators. You should smell the stink from the rotting produce/meat/etc... behind the shopping centers. I did learn a few things: our generator works approximately 12 hours per tank, you can make do with a window unit provided the doorways are blocked off with thick plastic and small/light meals did fine. I will say this though... I did become concerned for many folks without a generator. One afternoon, the ambulance took residents from neighborhood houses at least four times (that was just on our street). Not for infants or the sick/elderly... but for middle age people. Power outages, IMHO, are a bit easier during the Winter.
Must be time for the fed to take over PEPCO!
Wait for it...
Thank you for that!! Tough times actually CAN bring out the best in people.
(And I just put “generator” at the top of my priority purchases.)
Anyone recommend a particular model?
Honda!
Efficient, quiet, last forever.
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