[EAS] Rochester Station Offers to Charge Cell Phones

[Adrienne Abbott]

So soon people forget these events and don't want to remember them when it's
sunny and warm! Power companies tread a narrow line between state
regulators, stock holders and rate payers. It's tough to justify expenses to
harden lines and generating facilities when you're asking a regulatory panel
or shareholders six months after the event, which is usually how long it
takes before major utilities can get the paperwork together to apply for
permission to start a big project. It doesn't help when NOAA labels a
disaster a "500-year event". I've lived through several "500-year events"
and a "1000-year event" and I'm really not that old. It makes the public
think that they don't have to worry about another disaster like this ice
storm or wind storm or snow storm. 

Burying a power line is not always the answer. Power lines to one of our
main transmitter sites were buried a couple of years ago but that didn't
prevent a failure in one of the circuits last month. It took the power
company almost two weeks to find the problem, and then they had to dig
through 15 feet of snow just to get to ground level. Then they had to dig
through the dirt to repair the problem. Keep in mind, the crews are working
in a hole in the snow, the ground was frozen and all the dirt and rocks they
dug up had to go somewhere until they made the repairs and then the dirt and
rocks had to go back in the hole and the hole covered with snow--this was on
a USFS "Wilderness Area" surrounded by a ski resort. Talk about a liability
nightmare. It would have taken a lot less time and trouble if the line had
been above ground.

This summer, when the corporate pencil pushers are adding up the numbers
from the storm losses, they are going to compare those numbers against the
probability of another 500-year winter event. But with the sun shining all
around them, they probably won't think the odds favour buying and installing
new or improved generators and nothing will change. 

Adrienne Abbott
Nevada EAS Chair

-----Original Message-----
From: EAS [mailto:eas-bounces at radiolists.net] On Behalf Of Suzanne Goucher

There was much the same criticism of Central Maine Power after the Maine Ice
Storm of 1998 (we were without power for 8 days at home, many were without
for 14+ days, and a couple of broadcast towers collapsed).  The weather