Western Massachusetts Electric Company escapes from Greenfield hearing relatively unscathed

Although frustrated after going days without power, speakers at a public hearing arranged by the state Department of Public Utilities had mostly words of praise for Western Massachusetts Electric Company.

Greenfield joined a chorus of voices questioning the power companies, particularly Western Massachusetts electric companies, for their handling of the crisis. An estimated 2 million customers, including 672,000 in Massachusetts, lost power for some period of time following the storm. Some were without heat and electricity for more than a week.

"The attorney general's office wants answers as to why WMECO's restoration effort took as long as if did and why numerous local officials and emergency responders did not feel that they were able to communicate with WMECO," he said.

"The commonwealth has a sad history of these reviews," he said, adding that there are still open cases from past crises.

There were few words of criticism about Western Massachusetts Electric at the hearing, however.

Gary Longley, chairman of the Greenfield Public Safety Commission, said the company did the best it could under difficult circumstances.

"I've never seen an event that created such obstacles to response," Longely said, adding that Western Massachusetts Electric regularly came through on its promises within an hour of their its response to specific situations.

Robert S. Coates, Jr., the company's vice president of customer operations, said the storm created the worst damage he has ever seen. Workers replaced 200 utility poles, 100 transformers and "miles and miles" of wires, he said.

Several speakers had concerns about the preparedness of both the power company and the government, however. Stanley Gradwoski of Irving said the state should have culled dead trees and trimmed branches on public land before the disaster.

Western Massachusetts is being targeted by Gaea this year. She first sent a tornado ripping through Springfield and surrounding towns. Then she poured a deluge on the Berkshires in the wake of Hurricane Irene. she finished up the year by dumping two feet of snow in October. It sucks in western Massachusetts.

Western Massachusetts is being targeted by Gaea this year. She first sent a tornado ripping through Springfield and surrounding towns. Then she poured a deluge on the Berkshires in the wake of Hurricane Irene. she finished up the year by dumping two feet of snow in October. It sucks in western Massachusetts.

The video of that tornado was awesome. As it came off the W.Springfield riverbank you could see it drawing water up out of the river. People are still cleaning up the mess and rebuilding from that.

Route 2 is reopening in Charlemont tomorrow after 24/7 operations to rebuild the washed-out road. In the mean time the state is going after the town of Hawley and the construction company that repaired the damage from the river there because the Mass watermelons (green on the outside; pink on the inside) say they went to far.

As far as the WMECo/power outage issue goes, it is just the usual Mass suckfish-politicians making the usual noise. It is New England, darnit -- we EXPECT problems like this. Get a generator, fuel for it, extra food, and expect to (as we did) take in friends who need heat and shelter for a while. It is New England, darnit!

Oh, yeah, let me add: Life ain't fair. Get over it.

(Directed at the press and politicians, not you, Lone...)

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