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I'm in Stamford and still in the dark. I expect to be connected by tomorrow, since through the trees that border my property, I can see some neighbors are connected again. Finger crossed... Thank God for cell phones and car chargers!!
I have been out since Sunday morning. Even when it was still windy and raining on Sun., UI trucks were around, now 2 days later, trees still blocking the streets and no power all the way to the Branford town line - Branford is out, too. Did not see a UI truck yesterday and today woke up to all kinds of noise. It was landscapers cutting lawns! Sort of like rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. Strangely, one side of my street has power for a couple of blocks and the main street that we branch off of has power. The beach area is a mess. I walked down on Sun. and the Mayor was there as well as our "wonderful" governor - but still no progress. The National Guard was down at the beach though and they were helping the people who lost their houses down there.
Yeah, people are acting So strangely. They are ALL about keeping their lawns perfectly and golf course like.. however, there's numerous big trees, one which fell over another houses's roof, didn't seem to damage it, but still... wow..
I just saw a newspaper about some houses being devastted down in East Haven! I feel so bad for the ppl down there who lost their homes..
But been thru THIS before. We've lived in areas that had frequent hurricanes..
Anyone remember Bertha or Fran? Those were BAD hurricanes.. we had several trees fall on top of our house! One big tree, a pine, fell right OVEr our front porch. Had we stayed there during the storm and stepped outside when that tree fell over we'd have been KILLED!
That's why I do NOT get why ppl would want to even TRY to go out during or right after the storm.. even when the winds were so HIGH, to go pick up stuff off their lawns..
It's a life threatening situation, a Hurricane, Do you folks in CT not get that?? OMG, i'm just shaking my head here... they're all acting like it's NO BIG DEAL, but it certainly was...
Yeah, lots of popular towns are out of power still... In Glastonbury, many many businesses, stores, library, you name it, don't have power.. How is Portland doing btw?
I know they got that river, CT, isn't it, running by their town.. There's STILL floods about to happen due to all the heavy rains.
I wonder if E. Hartford will start flooding soon too? Someone told me that up near the Wickham Park they're all out of power.. but on the other side of town they do have power! Strange storm.. very strange..
Some parts of the state don't even look like they had a hurricance hit at all, while others, even in the same town, are torn apart!
I wonder how North Carolina & the Outer Banks is doing?
Another question I'll probably start a thread on is, I just WONDER how the beaches in CT & RI are doing now, after Irene?
Can you even go to the beach, to take a tan, or go wading in the ocean now, that Irene's hit?
OR , are all the beaches in CT & RI closed? I want to go to the shore soon...
For all of you without power, but have access to the internet (which would be everyone reading these posts), have you checked the CL&P website for news on restoration? They've been pretty good about keeping people informed.
If you consider that the workers are working 16 hour shifts (they're required by contract to have 8 hours between shifts, minimum), have probably already worked a full week prior to the hurricane, had to work Saturday and Sunday, and Monday, and Tuesday..not spending any time with their families..
AND if you consider that the bosses who tell them which project to do, and where they need to be, have been working longer shifts than that (since CL&P doesn't have the same contractual obligations to management and non-line-workers)...
then maybe you can appreciate that near around shift-change time (7 AM), there will be some flux. So an entire crew met at Wendy's to hang out waiting for orders. Did it occur to you that their boss might have told them NOT to meet at the garage, and to get their trucks out on the road and gather in the general vicinity of their work location, so that when they had the schedule (which obviously couldn't have been prepared the day before), they'd already be nearby?
They COULD have met at the garage, and stayed there, out of sight, until someone got them the schedule. Instead, they gave you sight of their presence. You had the comfort of knowing they were ready to start at a moment's notice. Not when they got their gear into their trucks (which would have happened if they started out at the garage) - but as soon as someone said GO - all they had to do was shift into gear and they were already out on the road and partway to their destination.
Did you think their bosses would have known the day before? Did you not think that maybe an assessment of the ENTIRE GRID was necessary to ensure, that once they flipped the switch, they wouldn't have missed one tiny little line down in a puddle somewhere, and waiting to blow up someone's house?
It's not so easy as just fixing one line down on the road, and turning the juice back on. They have to check the transformers FIRST. They have to make sure the power is OFF first. They can't turn the power on until EVERYONE on that grid is readyto roll. Otherwise, they'd have to turn it right back off again when they're working on dropped line #43, unless they don't mind putting up live wires.
If you think it's so simple to do, while doing it for 16 hours a day, 5 days in a row, then maybe you should apply for a job at CL&P.
I know it's frustrating and irritatating and mind-numbingly annoying to be without power. But you're safe, you are alive, you're not in the hospital, your home is obviously in a condition to live in or you wouldn't be griping about the refrigerator not running.
And let's not forget the neighbors down on the end of the block, whose house is massively flooded to the point where there's water in the walls and in the circuits. When they turn the juice back on in your neighborhood, will you care about that neighbor when his own home electrocutes itself? I'll bet your neighbor will care.
Not such a simple matter afterall. You should thank your CL&P workers for being out there, visible for you to cheer on. If he has to sit for an extra half hour, then he has to sit for an extra half hour. It's probably the only half hour break he'll get for most of the next 16 hours.
I think you are right, we need to get a sign up near that downed line...
Quote:
Originally Posted by mels
The people in my town took it upon themselves to close a major street because a large tree and power lines were down. Finally a resident made a sign saying that a tree and lines were down ahead and to turn around. When no one comes to help, you have to help yourselves.
I actually walked near that line my friend told me of today, and saw it was only a FOOT or TWO above our heads! Wow.. If they have a big truck or van, that's 10 feet tall, it's gonna hit that line, and who knows WHAT will happen!
I saw a lot of cop cars driving around today, but I don't see them doing anything to warn the public of specific dangers, which I find a bit troubling and odd!
we bought a bag of ice, we don't need, I'm going to bring it back
to the store.. I didn't open it, nothing, just threw it in the freezer as soon as we got home!
Yeah, that's nice your neighbors watch out for you.. Funny, we have lots of mean hateful neighbors, in our neighborhood, some folks are nice, but not one person seems to want to help anyone else out!
Some lady has got a really huge tree that fell in her yard, it is hanging across the road even, and not one person seems to want to try help this lady out!
I noticed today, though that she was outside, picking up some leaves, like the tree that fell down she didn't even notice!
It was so weird!
This has been the strangest experience we've ever had with a bad hurricane..
Yeah, robyn, we had to stay too at a motel when Fran hit our home, like 6-8 weeks! Things were THAT bad.. the insurance co, didn't even tell us how our home was doing either, so all that time I didn't know if we had a house to return to or NOT!
Quote:
Originally Posted by mels
Thanks, Robyn. People have been great in my neighborhood even though we hardly ever see each other because our houses are spaced so far apart. Most of my neighbors I know well enough just to wave and say "hi" to. However, on Sunday once the winds calmed down, everyone was out and about asking others if they needed help and we did the same.
FYI- Ice is in very short supply at stores. I went to 4 stores in East Hartford yesterday until I found some. If you have extra, definitely ask a neighbor if they could use it!
Dana, when it hit Connecticut, it wasn't a hurricane. It was a tropical storm. It was a big tropical storm. Big in physical size, not big in wind speed. Even the gusts weren't hurricane speed. But they were sharp and forceful, plus the ground was saturated with water from the rain. That combination is why the trees fell.
As for people outside after the storm picking up leaves - they want to feel useful in a rather helpless situation. They have a tree down - they can't do anything about that, they have to hire someone, or wait for the town to take care of it, if it's in the road. But the one thing they CAN do - is pick up branches and leaves.
We don't have a chain saw, so there was nothing We could do about the tree that fell on our property. So we picked up branches that were ripped from the tree, and twigs and leaves, and when the neighbor with a chainsaw came and offered to cut up the tree, we gratefully accepted his help. We even tried to pay him but he refused to take money - or even a bottle of beer!
But he was the only guy with a chainsaw around, and we were the only ones with a tree down on our block. We could've called a professional, but do you think he would've wanted to come to our neighborhood to cut up ONE tree, when he could go to an area where there are a dozen trees down instead? Do you really think that in all of this storm, we'd find someone available to do that? I didn't even want to think about it, I just assumed the tree would be there in a few days, and we could worry about it then, after people who REALLY needed help, got the help they needed.
But man if a crew DID come to help us out, we probably would've heard you whining that this one crew was working on our ONE tree while the block with a dozen trees down were still waiting, and how selfish are we for daring to hire our own crew.
Can't win for losing, but really - you have internet access. That's more than some people have right now. Fortunately, it WASN'T a hurricane. That would've been a lot worse.
Same ole, same old! You're always picking on someone on this forum anonChick.
WHY would I be "whining" about someone coming to cut down a tree on YOUR property??? Please, get over yourself Anon, & stop making false claims about ppl on this forum, FOR A CHANGE! this has been one of the worst storms to hit southern NE in decades!
Almost half the state is out of power... it doesn't MATTER that it wasn't a hurricane in SOME areas, in some areas, it WAS! Category 1, but 70-75 mph winds ARE considered a hurricane. Just cuz your neighborhood didn't have hurricane force winds, doesn't mean that other ppl didn't have them! WHY are all these trees down & towns out of power, otherwise, if the winds were SO mild???
I wouldn't be "whining" if I were you, you ought to consider yourself VERY lucky someone came to cut your tree down for free in the first place!
Most tree service people wud charge at least $1500 to take down a tree! That ain't cheap, and you got it done for free, so don't start your false claims about someone "whining", when they're just stating the facts of what's happening in our state! You are so full of yourself anonchick.
Great news! After only three days, and almost 900,000 customers without power to start with, CL&P has passed the half-way point. They've restored power to over 500,000 customers so far. They still have almost 400,000 to go, and most of those are in the hardest-hit areas. Many of those customers won't be able to get work started by CL&P until certain cleanup measures are taken (such as, flooding subsides, debris moved away, etc). And obviously some of those customers tragically don't have homes left for power to be restored on, unfortunately. But those are in the minority.
Considering that some areas will take weeks to be ready for power-on, I'd say the company is doing an amazing job. United Illuminating is also doing a bang-up job servicing the customers in their territory. They had almost 160,000 customers without power at its peak, and only have around 60,000 left to restore. But again, those are the hardest hit and will take the longest to bring back onto the grid.
For all of you without power, but have access to the internet (which would be everyone reading these posts), have you checked the CL&P website for news on restoration? They've been pretty good about keeping people informed.
If by "pretty good" you mean CL&P's website telling me "Damage in your area has not been assessed. No time frame for electricity restoration," then yes.
As of this morning there are still the two trees on my normal route swinging from the power lines. Running water and electricity aren't coming my way anytime soon!
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You are saying what I've been thinkin, TY!
