A Job Well Done?? Are They On Drugs????

Showing our love for ConEdison from our balcony. [Picture taken 7/23/06]

Last July, my roommate and I went through one hellish experience-- we live in the section of Queens that got hit with The Blackout. You probably heard about The Blackout; it even made the national news, that the electric company serving the largest city in the U.S. couldn't restore power to a significant portion of its customers for a week.

Yes. We were without power for seven days. 

During a week where the temperatures hit triple digits on three consecutive days.

And we were fairly lucky, if you can call anything about this situation "lucky"-- at least we had running water all week. It was cool water (brrrr... quick showers!), but it was more than some people had.

Yesterday, New York's state Public Service Commission issued a report about the ConEdison blackout of Summer 2006, and they found ConEd's performance in the whole fiasco "unacceptable."

Back in October, when ConEd finished their own investigation, they actually praised their handling of the blackout! Of course, this is the company that severely underestimated the number of affected customers, too:

• On July 20th, they estimated the number of people without power at about 8,000 to 10,000. (Um... No. Not even close.)
  
• The very next day, their estimate jumped to 10 times that: over 100,000 people. (Getting warmer, ConEd. Oh, wait-- no, it's getting warmer because we have NO AIR CONDITIONING, OR EVEN A FAN!!)

In yesterday's report, the Public Service Commission put the final estimate at 174,000 people. Hmmm... which estimate would I be more likely to trust-- the one by the independent commission, or the one by the company responsible for the whole mess? Given that I was one of those affected by their screwup, I think it's safe to say I wouldn't trust ConEd further than I could throw them.

I'm not looking forward to this next summer. I'm half-expecting another blackout the way we did for the rest of the summer of 2006, waiting for the electrical system to fail again.

Oh, and to our bonehead mayor, Mr. Bloomberg: No, ConEd was not doing a good job. If you'd been in Queens since the first day, instead of waiting four days into the mess before you deigned to come visit us common folk, you'd know this. We wouldn't have had a problem in the first place, or had the blackout last so long, if ConEd had updated the power system in Queens. When 10 of 22 major feeder cables break down, it's quite evident that the area's electrical system is antiquated and needed replacing long ago.

And ConEd wants to push through two rate hikes over this next year. What the hell have they been doing with the money we pay them throughout the year?

To ConEd's credit, we did get a check from them to reimburse us for the perishable food we lost when the refrigerator stopped working, but I'm still ticked off that this "perfect storm" was even in the making at all.

For more on this topic, check out a timeline of the events in the ConEd Blackout of 2006. 

A letter from ConEdison CEO Kevin Burke about the blackout. Yes, Mr. Burke, I'm sure you were aware --no, deeply aware-- of the hardships we faced while you were sitting in your posh, air-conditioned office and went home at night to your posh, air-conditioned home.