Posted on 09/25/2008 11:54:10 AM PDT by MississippiMan
An attitude of optimism and relief filled a semi-rural neighborhood northwest of Houston yesterday. After losing power on September 12 when Ike rolled in and , the tree and power experts had finally arrived. When asked for an estimated time on a return of power to the neighborhood, the electrical workers were upbeat and gave an "in a little while" answer to the eager residents. Given the progress they were making, it was reasonable to expect that power would be restored within a couple of hours. People would be able to have their first hot shower in nearly two weeks. Those who work from home would be able to start earning a living and hopefully start to recoup the expenses of the last two weeks. Then the electrical workers shut down, packed up, and left, without explanation.
That explanation would be found on the local news last evening, when residents watched prideful media show off what they had accomplished. What was their victory? This: Through their guilt-slinging, finger-pointing accusations, they had caused CenterPoint, the company that owns and maintains the vast majority of the Houston-area power grid, to pull crews off the job all across the region and bring them to the "poor and neglected" Meyerland neighborhood, where--GASP!--they had been without power for nearly two weeks!
The above-described act of Vanishing Power Crews happened not only in the one neighborhood, but literally across the entire region, where the overwhelming majority of residents have had zero assistance provided by the government, by the Red Cross, and of course not by the media. No deliveries of water or ice to their neighborhoods, as was provided to the "poor and neglected" of Meyerland. No trumpeting of the fact that in rural areas, a loss of power is usually accompanied by a loss of water, unliked Meyerland. (The neighborhood described in the first paragraph was without water for eight days.) No shelters set up. Nothing. Zero. Zip. Nada. These Texans have been on their own since Ike, fighting the heat and mosquitoes and helping their neighbors as best they can.
Their can-do attitude today, however, is also flavored with a healthy dose of anger. Anger at the media, virtually all of whom have already had power restored to their own homes. Anger at CenterPoint for their reactionary, foolish cave to the powers of political correctness. Anger at the upside-down world of 2008, in which patience and perseverance is rewarded by abandonment. These people, spread across the vast Houston area, have worked hard to clean up the mess and go on. They have demanded no governmental handouts and pointed no fingers. These are the people about whom the Houston media could not care less, while they puff out their chests about their "accomplishment."
MM
Sorry for the typos. I always forget that the auto-preview functionality isn’t there when creating posts as it is when replying to posts.
MM
That would piss me off too! MSM = stuck on stupid!
I always find it just stupid that the government officials give press conferences every few hours ( to look busy ) and list where one can get all these services/help and what not while there targeted audience is without any electricity, gas, and no way to get batteries. So exactly how do they get the news?
there = their
One of the reporters probably lived in Meyerland, it is not a poor area in Houston.
Sorry for the continued troubles, MM. If you are in Houston, without power, I can imagine your frustration.
Have you forwarded your article to the local stations?
Wayne thought there was a conspiracy to hide all the dead bodies on Galveston's West Beach.
Then when he couldn't find dead bodies in the streets of West Galveston, he then hired a boat to take him over to the Bolivar Peninsula to resume his search.
Taxpayers Need Not Apply!
You were also slowed down because the remnants of Ike produced a freak windstorm in the Ohio area. Some of our crews were on the road to Texas and literally turned around in Arkansas to get back to Ohio to fix our wires. I think it there were around a couple million customers without power on September 14. Now they are down to about 3,000 in the Dayton, Ohio, area (almost 99% recovery) with the other major utilities in the state back to 100% power. Maybe you can have all the crews we took for the past week and a half now that we’re almost done with them.
While Meyerland does have some nice neighborhoods, the Meyerland/Bellaire region is what the media were targeting, and it is definitely not affluent.
MM (in TX)
We have had a tough time in Seabrook area but neighbors are helping neighbors. We haven't had time to complain that “The gooberment hadn't sent the FEMA cards yet!”
A black couple in our neighborhood are from New Orleans, evacuees from Katrina. They are amazed at the difference in our attitudes and self reliance.
ping
Does Meyerland have a fair share of Katrina “refugees”? It might explain a lot of this if this is the case.
I heard about that freak storm in Ohio. Hope you guys are okay.
Getting the power back on is done by a set strategy with the main focus, after hospitals and necessary public services, restoring as many customers as they can. Then it's done in a spider web or hub and spoke pattern branching out from the large restored areas which are the center. It goes from point A to point Bs, Cs, and so on.
Unfortunately one of the disadvantages to living in lesser populated areas is that the people who live there are usually last on the list as it takes a while for power crews to work their way to them.
These emotional calls from the press don't help.
Interesting, that here in the Columbus area, too, the very affluent were also the last to have power restored. Upper Arlington, Hilliard and Dublin brought up the rear.
I heard one local t.v. person tell people to go to their website for info. They even said “if you have power and your neighbor doesn’t you can tell your neighbor to go to the website”. So, the neighbors have no power but they have internet. That’s like the sign “No pets except seeing eye dogs”. Who’s supposed the read that?
Most services are restored except some Comcast TV & Internet west of Hwy 146. As of today, all the traffic lights are working on Hwy 146 through Seabrook & Kemah, finally.
The area east of 146 was the hardest hit and most of that area flooded real bad.
This morning I saw about 10 electric trucks staged in Seabrook, so I'm guessing they will be working that area east of 146 to the bay.
On the west side of 146, we got power back late last Wednesday.
Personally, no flooding though water got to within 10 foot of my house which is one block from Taylor Lake which connects to Clear Lake at Nasa Rd 1. A few missing shingles and all the fences blown down.
Good Luck & Best Wishes
Having been thru several hurricanes, I know exactly how you feel. Been weeks without power and no A/C of course. Hot days and hot nights, mosquitoes and cooking on the BBQ grill. Just remember, the power will be back on at some point, then you can gather your thoughts and blast the proper incompetent authorities and biased media outlets in the paper and on the internet ..... Point fingers, name names and let everyone know who is responsible....
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