More from my brother Chuck in Paducah regarding their situation is below. So many people in Lexington are still out of power and while they are coming steadily back on line, a number of my friends have been told it may be mid-week to next week before their power is restored. At least the weather is beautiful today. I'll be heading out to do some limb clean-up myself shortly!
Things are a little more calm here but as people do get some power on, the ones that don’t have power become very angry. For those who don’t know, all power companies work by restoring (our jargon for rebuilding and repairing) power to the main lines that come from the generation plants to each of many substations for each power distributor. These transmission lines often cut through rough terrain and typically do not run along roads. We have spent a lot of effort helping to locate problems with those lines (which are technically the responsibility of the generation and transmission company) by using 4-wheelers and other means. We were able to help secure a helicopter after the second day to help workers spot problems. Prior to that time all air travel had been suspended. It is interesting that a lot of transmission lines are repaired by people suspended from harnesses from the helicopters. Not something I would want to do sixteen hours a day even in GOOD weather conditions.
Our transmission lines are supposed to be largely restored today. Our next task (going on simultaneously) is to restore the many large distribution lines. These feed into smaller lines which are repaired next and so on down to the individual lines serving houses. We all do this in an effort to secure the maximum good for the maximum amount of people. Somewhere in the scheme we deviate to secure service first to critical needs. These critical needs can include hospitals, nursing homes, hotels (for guest workers) restaurants (to feed guest workers) and people with medical needs. What often happens is an area or subdivision is restored but there is a problem with a single service that prevents that restoration. Our crews (and every other utility crew) move on to the next “big” line rather than repair that single service. In some cases these methods mean that a neighbor may have power weeks before problems affecting a single service can be resolved. It is unfortunate, but it insures that the maximum people are restored. Nearly all our linemen (they are all men) are stopped several times a day to be told that “if you could only repair this one pole or replace this one fuse I could have service.” These stops add up to more than an hour a day for a typical line crew which prevents them from working on what they need to be working on.
Another problem is that it requires electricity to make electricity and as power plants have been down they are not able to ramp back up for hours and in some cases days. We understand that is a part of TVA’s problem, they are afraid that the jolt of restoring large lines will in laymen’s terms kill the system and cause wild power swings. It is prudent to leave your computers and other expensive electronics unplugged as the jolts run through the system in the next week.
Our personal situation: We live on a line that feeds the hospital in Mayfield and the only high school in the county. The high school was designated a shelter and power was restored last night. We were beneficiaries of that restoration and now had power, one of the very few who do in Mayfield. Angela was able to go to the high school yesterday and find her 80 year old aunt who has been there with 650 other people for several days. She is now occupying our guest bedroom until power is restored to her house and house repairs are made. She said after a couple of days they were all lined up and order to take communal showers from the stink….. Kind of sounds like a concentration camp to me. Having been at the office since Tuesday, I went home yesterday afternoon around 3:00 and was able to cut up parts of the many trees that have fallen. My back now aches and I’ve discovered that my baby chain saw (even though it is a Stihl) is no match for a three foot diameter tree trunk. I’m going to see if I can “borrow” a bigger one from work in a few weeks when this all slows down. I’m salaried so I get no compensation for these hours so I hope use of a chain saw might be a perk I might hope to secure…..we’ll see. I have eaten well. We have hot good food 24 hours a day to feed linemen who come in at all hours of the day to replenish supplies. We are buying cartons and cartons of Hostess products and candy bars. I’ve noticed that not a single worker wants anything remotely healthy, but they are almost all lean so I suppose it must get worked off in a sixteen hour day. Several people who gather these supplies have remarked that they feel diabetic from just transporting the food. Like I say, food is good, the other day we had pans and pans of Rafferty’s ribs and chicken fingers. Olive Garden was for lunch that day and much other good food. Some restaurants have been very nice and thrown in free food or at least delivered while others have maybe taken advantage of the situation. Of note to family members who work at Rafferty’s, they charged us mandatory gratuity for take out and then would not even help carry the food to our vans. We have managed to secure running tabs at the local Logan’s, Rafferty’s, O’Charley’s and Applebee’s and workers just have to show their badge to order what they want. All these are close to the hotels so they can get a nice meal and get their six hours of sleep. I have heard many comments from workers who worked Katrina and Gustav and they all talk about how great Midwest hospitality is compared to the a**holes in New Orleans. Paducah and the surrounding areas remain under curfew at night but it is lifted for people supplying emergency services or those providing services to the workers.
We expect to have the majority of our people on this week with some stragglers possibly taking two or three weeks. Other systems are still saying three to four weeks. Water service has been largely restored as those facilities received priority treatment or the Army provided generators. There have been a few cases of fatalities, mostly from carbon monoxide poisoning or failure of medical equipment. The National Guard is supposed to go door to door checking on people; I am afraid they will find a few more. Fortunately, we have had no deaths on our system and no injuries to our workers. This is a very dangerous time as people often will hook up generators incorrectly feeding current into the system and killing our line workers. We lost one in the late 80’s that everyone still remembers and there was one lost in last year’s wind storm in Louisville.
There is a need for trained medical workers in the many shelters. Many in the shelters have medical needs and there is a lack of medicine and personnel to treat them. All our hospitals have reached full census and are struggling to disgorge the less sick. Many of the regional hospitals are trying to transport their patients to the larger ones (Like Paducah’s) in the area as their power and water situation remain dicey. Banks have been reopened. Many of the larger chains have set up mobile offices with their own generators. Most businesses refuse to accept credit cards with phone lines down and cash is needed.
If people are interested, I will post more later. You are welcome to redistribute this or post it on your blog but I ask you to please edit any obvious grammar or spelling errors. I don’t have a lot of time to proof read.
Chuck Williamson, CPA
Vice President - Finance & Accounting
Jackson Purchase Energy Corporation
P.O. Box 4030
Paducah, KY 42002-4030
270.441.0825 Direct
270.442.5337 Fax
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