Daily Question

Question for Monday, November 12th, 2012: Previous Next

What do you think of FirstEnergy's handling ot the power outages in the Heights caused by Sandy?

They blew it if they sent people to the East Coast when they were needed here.
-
I don't think they handled it well. They should never have sent utility workers from NEO east when they knew our area was going to be affected.
-
Sending crews East was fine. The condition of our lines is not fine. We've had recent storms with the same amount of wind and not had the widespread outages. The underlying issue is our antiquated infrastructure, not where crews were. Solve the right problem...
-
I must begin with noting that I did not lose electricty in the Sandy storm, but I was little dismayed but the level of anger and judgement at the last city council meeting. The nomal procedure for the utilities companies is to go to the area that is closest and the area that is expected to experience the most damage. Surely there was damage in northeast Ohio and in Cleveland Heights with some people having to live in the cold for a few days and some lost food. But is that anything in comparison to what our fellow Americans experienced and continue to experience in New York and New Jersey. MANY lost their homes, all their earthly posessions amd some lost their lives. We are one people and we need to attend to those of us most hurting. Usual triage would have necessitated the greatest number of resources to go to those with the most need. I didn't sense any of that from our council.
-
what if Cleveland Heights suffered the extent of damage suffered by those on the East Coast? wouldn't we welcome help from wherever we could get it? What's a few days in comparison to the terrible suffering families in NYC and Jersey will be facing for months? Perhaps our Council should be thanking the the First Energy crews for the efforts they're making, and our residents should be saying prayers for their unlucky fellow Americans.
-
My power was out for most of the week. It was uncomfortable and inconvenient, but minor compared to what people are suffering on the east coast. I agree with the previous writer, but I also feel First Energy could have served us better.

Our electricity had been restored after about 36 hours, but went out a second time when a transformer up blew up, taking out power on the north side of Clarendon and the south side of East Scarborough. About 60 hours later, linemen from northern Indiana (NIPSCO) repaired the power lines running the length of our two streets. They then asked First Energy to send a supervisor to oversee re-connecting our area to the grid. They said that if it didn't work, a much larger area could go out. As it turned out, First Energy had nobody to send, because everyone with any knowledge had gone to New Jersey. (The NIPSCO guys finally took it upon themselves to finish the job, and fortunately everything was fine.)

I think the problems with First Energy are longstanding and ongoing. The NIPSCO guys told us that our wiring and equipment were 30 to 40 years old and lacked safety features that have become available more recently.

First Energy has been reducing staff -- in fact on November 1, with Hurricane Sandy roiling just off the east coast, they announced layoffs of 142 employees in Akron and Pennsylvania. (Stories in the Akron & Canton papers did not indicate whether the layoffs were effective that day or at a later date.)

First Energy's highest priority is its own profits, not service and safety to those of us who ensure those profits.

Remember, this is the company responsible for the major blackout that hit the entire northeastern U.S. a few years ago, and for allowing the reactor cap at the Davis-Besse nuclear power plant to corrode almost all the way through before it was caught by NRC inspectors.

At the Nov. 7 council meeting, Mayor Kelley suggested the city look into offering residents service through Cleveland Public Power. I hope they do.
-