Here comes the cavalry - BG$E to the rescue

I have written before in support of BG$E, but I really am amazed at the response I have witnessed here in our neighborhood. Yesterday, the fifth day of the Irene electrical disaster, BG$E  sent in the cavalry, consisting of (ready for this?) 17 vehicles with about 30 men. Ours was not a minor problem, but 17 vehicles!  I don't know where to begin.

The problem was not minor, but on Wednesday when two individuals were placed continually on-site to insure neighborhood safety, and despite numerous phone calls, you would have thought BGE had just realized the extent of the damage - Two trees down taking the high voltage feeder and dropping a transformer to the ground that leaked its potentially PCB contaminated oil on the ground and into a swimming pool.  That same feeder was reported to have been damaged in two other areas.

Back to the cavalry.  While I don't know when they arrived, they were assembled and "working" when I returned home at 4:15 pm.  When I took the above picture, about dozen tree men were working to remove the entangled trees, and everyone else was awaiting their turn to get to work, i.e watching.  About four hours later they were gone and while the trees were moved aside, little of consequence beyond taking contamination samples and securing communications cables and poles was done.  The out-of-town workers had to be transported back to BWI and from there to their night's lodging.

All I can say is that it is a good thing for BG$E that they function like a government with unlimited funds for no contractor I know could withstand the lack of planning that I witnessed.  I recognize that most of the people on site were from other utilities, sent to help deal with the carnage, but SOMEONE needs to be in control. Someone needs to know the scope of the problem(s) and the logical order in which things should be done, if only in a limited geographical area.

I am convinced that the field documentation of the system is wanting.  Why? Because I have too often watched the repair trucks circling the neighborhood trying to find connections, fuses, transformers, etc.  Oh, well.

The trucks just returned over the past hour and I guess by tonight the home generators will be turned off.  (Luckily, I have had power throughout this mess.)


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