Friday, September 19, 2008

Power being restored- just not to us

No power yet. Our neighborhood has some power, but a large block of houses, including ours and a local middle and elementary school are still dark. Our neighbor told us about a huge silver maple limb that fell and brought the power lines down. Megan and I walked last evening to look at the culprit of our local neighborhood power outage.

There is one stoplight still out on my way to work, which is amazing to me. The light is out on Morse Road, one of the busiest streets in Columbus. Watching three lanes of traffic each way navigating the dark intersection like a four way stop is crazy. When I get up to the front, I hold my breath, watch the other cars, and take my turn.

I'm now seeing more and more power crews around the city. Last evening I visited Kenney Park, my old stomping grounds, and there were no less than seven bucket trucks and several pickups parked behind the old Kroger. They were from a company called "midwest electric", which I had never heard of. The shopping center was mostly without power, and while Kroger and Target were open, most stores were dark and had their security grates dropped over the doors.

I've been hearing rumors that some people are spitting on AEP lineman, employees from our local power company. Give them a break, I say, they were out of the state helping people in Texas when our winds hit, and they have been working 16 hours on, 8 hours off now for over a week most likely. The city is slowly getting the lights back on, thank goodness. Megan and I might just have to wait a wee bit longer, but we're patient.

Tom

4 comments:

  1. Tom: Hang in there, so many people didn't know the problems Ike did to Ohio and PA. Our plant in PA is still has a loss of power and the people can't work.

    ReplyDelete
  2. How miserable for you! I would hate to work for a power company as a lineman....such horrible hours in all weather and their job is always "hurry, hurry, hurry"...but dangerous! And they know winter is looming in the near future! I hope they get paid well!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Kudos to y'all for your patience & understanding. When we were finally able to get out of our driveway after Gustav & I saw the power company employees had arrived to restore our neighborhood, I actually stopped, rolled down my window & told them that I loved them. At the time I certainly wasn't lying!

    ReplyDelete