Monday, December 04, 2006
It happened again. For the third time this year, hundreds of thousands of homes in the St. Louis area lost power for more than three days (many are still out) as a another mediocre storm was again mistakenly classified as “one of the worst ever”. The only disaster was NOT the couple of inches of ice but the performance of Ameren, as they proved again incapable of handling the electricity needs of a large metropolitan area. If this utility cannot get customers back on the grid within 24 hours of a small storm, then the state of Missouri should find a utility than can.
This past July an average thunderstorm transformed St. Louis into a Stone Age town, last Thursday it was a small ice storm. What would happen if a real nasty storm hit St. Louis? I am talking about tornadoes or a blizzard with a few feet of snow, not some measly ice or a typical thunderstorm. What would happen is the St. Louis area would be without power for weeks and possibly months. How come none of the St. Louis politicians are calling Ameren out on this issue?
To further complicate the matter, Governor Matt Blunt calls a state of emergency. I can understand in Jefferson City where they received up to 16 inches of snow but why in St. Louis were all we got was a couple of inches of ice. The only thing I can think of is because Ameren could not restore the power within an adequate length of time so he had no choice but to get help for the people who could have frozen to death in their igloos. If he called for the state of emergency because of a corporate screw up, then he should state that but he is too much a corporate guy to ever call Ameren out in public.
Ameren claims to have 1500 electrical crews available to hang lines after a storm. What they fail to tell us is this 1500 covers a large area in Missouri and Illinois and not just the St. Louis area and they count the tree cutting crews as part of this 1500. How many tree cutters are included in this 1500? It is hard to say but it could be up to 50%.
At one time Ameren had almost 500 electrical crews working in the St. Louis area alone but fired them when they bought out Union Electric as a cost cutting action. So now when any precipitation falls in the St. Louis area we are all at risk to loosing power for days just so Ameren executives can take home a fatter bonus.
To compensate for the loss of those employees Ameren hires crews from neighboring power companies on a project by project basis. These mercenaries can take up to two days to arrive or longer if the roads are blocked due to snow or other hazards. My family freezing to death in my home is seen as just a “project” by Ameren, nothing more. If the amount of Ameren crews is not brought back up to acceptable levels then they should be forced to bring in the mercenaries BEFORE the storm so they are in ST. Louis and ready to go at a moment’s notice.
This is why Matt Blunt, who is in bed with big business, keeps up the charade by calling for a state of emergency after a thunderstorm and a mild freezing rain storm. What should be done is an investigation into the business practices of Ameren and discovering why they cannot respond faster to outages. City Governor Francis Slay is just as guilty by doing nothing. This is yet another example of our politicians not looking out for us by siding with big business over the people.
We were without power for three of the coldest nights of the year. What was even more frustrating was calling into the Ameren (no)customer service lines. First of all, the number was busy for the first 36 hours. Then when I finally did get through I was not even given a date when my power would be restored. Ameren had over a week lead time before this storm hit so there is no excuse for them not being prepared with CSR’s to answer the phones or crews available to fix the downed lines. At the very least they should have had the mercenary crews already in town and ready to go.
While on the phone with them I totally freaked out and had a "Clark Griswold" moment. The echoes of “f bombs” and GD’s are still resonating within the walls of my house. I almost smashed the phone when I slammed down the receiver. I was so bad I later apologized to my wife and son for my idiotic behavior. If there would have been an Ameren truck anywhere close to me at that moment I could have picked it up and threw it because I was so pissed off.
My particular case was different from the average downed power lines because the tree limbs pulled the weather box and meter from my house. Those are the responsibility of the home owner so I had to get an electrician to fix my stuff before Ameren could even reconnect my lines. Well, I had that finished the same day just in case but I was still out three days.
I’ve had enough of this crap; we are looking for a natural gas powered generator to keep our entire house powered in the event of another outage. When we moved into this house we were hoping not to need such a thing because we live in a large metropolitan area but our asshole power company can never restore our power within a reasonable time frame so now we have to get one. Maybe I’ll send Ameren the bill.
This past July an average thunderstorm transformed St. Louis into a Stone Age town, last Thursday it was a small ice storm. What would happen if a real nasty storm hit St. Louis? I am talking about tornadoes or a blizzard with a few feet of snow, not some measly ice or a typical thunderstorm. What would happen is the St. Louis area would be without power for weeks and possibly months. How come none of the St. Louis politicians are calling Ameren out on this issue?
To further complicate the matter, Governor Matt Blunt calls a state of emergency. I can understand in Jefferson City where they received up to 16 inches of snow but why in St. Louis were all we got was a couple of inches of ice. The only thing I can think of is because Ameren could not restore the power within an adequate length of time so he had no choice but to get help for the people who could have frozen to death in their igloos. If he called for the state of emergency because of a corporate screw up, then he should state that but he is too much a corporate guy to ever call Ameren out in public.
Ameren claims to have 1500 electrical crews available to hang lines after a storm. What they fail to tell us is this 1500 covers a large area in Missouri and Illinois and not just the St. Louis area and they count the tree cutting crews as part of this 1500. How many tree cutters are included in this 1500? It is hard to say but it could be up to 50%.
At one time Ameren had almost 500 electrical crews working in the St. Louis area alone but fired them when they bought out Union Electric as a cost cutting action. So now when any precipitation falls in the St. Louis area we are all at risk to loosing power for days just so Ameren executives can take home a fatter bonus.
To compensate for the loss of those employees Ameren hires crews from neighboring power companies on a project by project basis. These mercenaries can take up to two days to arrive or longer if the roads are blocked due to snow or other hazards. My family freezing to death in my home is seen as just a “project” by Ameren, nothing more. If the amount of Ameren crews is not brought back up to acceptable levels then they should be forced to bring in the mercenaries BEFORE the storm so they are in ST. Louis and ready to go at a moment’s notice.
This is why Matt Blunt, who is in bed with big business, keeps up the charade by calling for a state of emergency after a thunderstorm and a mild freezing rain storm. What should be done is an investigation into the business practices of Ameren and discovering why they cannot respond faster to outages. City Governor Francis Slay is just as guilty by doing nothing. This is yet another example of our politicians not looking out for us by siding with big business over the people.
We were without power for three of the coldest nights of the year. What was even more frustrating was calling into the Ameren (no)customer service lines. First of all, the number was busy for the first 36 hours. Then when I finally did get through I was not even given a date when my power would be restored. Ameren had over a week lead time before this storm hit so there is no excuse for them not being prepared with CSR’s to answer the phones or crews available to fix the downed lines. At the very least they should have had the mercenary crews already in town and ready to go.
While on the phone with them I totally freaked out and had a "Clark Griswold" moment. The echoes of “f bombs” and GD’s are still resonating within the walls of my house. I almost smashed the phone when I slammed down the receiver. I was so bad I later apologized to my wife and son for my idiotic behavior. If there would have been an Ameren truck anywhere close to me at that moment I could have picked it up and threw it because I was so pissed off.
My particular case was different from the average downed power lines because the tree limbs pulled the weather box and meter from my house. Those are the responsibility of the home owner so I had to get an electrician to fix my stuff before Ameren could even reconnect my lines. Well, I had that finished the same day just in case but I was still out three days.
I’ve had enough of this crap; we are looking for a natural gas powered generator to keep our entire house powered in the event of another outage. When we moved into this house we were hoping not to need such a thing because we live in a large metropolitan area but our asshole power company can never restore our power within a reasonable time frame so now we have to get one. Maybe I’ll send Ameren the bill.
posted by DarthImmortal at 8:45 AM
8 Comments:
We had a blizzard, but still had power! Glad I'm in MKE and not St. Louis!
MG,
Behavior like this from multi-billion dollar companies annoys the piss out of me. They are basically risking the lives of an entire city to earn more profits and the government allows them to do this.
This storm was not even on the radar compared with anything you might have up north. Looking at the pictures you can see there is hardly any snow on the ground at all; even my assessment of two inches of ice is pushing it. It was a very minor storm which caught Ameren (again) asleep at the wheel. Not a state disaster by any stretch of the imagination.
oh my friend those pictures are very scary. power lines dead or not are BAD.
i do hope you get that gas generator. that just sucks. i be furious too. it's a shame how much lack of contability these big, rich companies have.
sorry.
We were lucky enough to keep our power. We kept it in the summer, too. The fact that we have a large private school just around the corner may have something to do with it. One thing is for sure, we're not moving! Not until we leave this city for good.
Barbarian,
We have Mehlville HS right behind us but we are on different grids, so they often have power when we do not. You are lucky because you might be on the same grid as the school near you.
They usually separate residential from commercial service but you might have gootten lucky in the draw and they kept you on the same grid. I am glad to see somebody is getting a break.
We always lose your power in the summertime when it's stink hot. So far not in the winter. I am prepared with plenty of logs and a fireplace on the third floor. Sorry you had to deal with this crap. xxx
When we lived in Savannah, GA, a light breeze would cause the lights to go out. Everytime a raindrop fell hubby and I would grab candles. St. Louis isn't that bad...yet.
My husband thinks power lines should be buried underground. That way a storm or freeze wouldn't really effect them. I don't want to think about the cost of doing such a thing in a city the size of St. Louis. However, it has to be more cost effective than paying hundreds of manhours in overtime everytime a storm comes through.
Barbarian,
I wanted to pay to have my lines run underground the last time they were knocked down but because of the way the system works it still would not guarantee my home would remain powered. If anyone’s line goes down the transformer shorts out killing power to everybody on it. So unless everybody gets their lines run underground it would not work. However, I do think they should change the system and bury them all.
Give St. Louis a little more time and they will rival Savannah; I am very confident of this.
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