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Storm politics

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Illinois

If the storm had hit a few weeks ago, there might have been more votes on the rate freeze bill.

Four days after snow and ice shut down much of Decatur, many residents remained in the cold Monday as Mayor Paul Osborne raised the heat on the power company.

“We need to know the true story,” he said, lashing out at Ameren Corp., which reported 243,000 customers in Illinois and Missouri, including 40,000 in Decatur, without electricity Monday evening.

“You can issue a news release saying you are working on it, but there needs to be a more visible sign,” Osborne said. “I understand there are hundreds of crews working, but people don’t see them.”

Ameren spokesman Leigh Morris called the mayor’s statements “erroneous.” The company has enlisted about 7,000 workers, including 300 in Decatur, to restore power in the 300-mile area hit by the storm, but completing the job could still take several days in some areas, Morris said.

Ameren claims that continuing the decade-old rate freeze could hurt its ability to offer services, but there are a lot of unhappy downstate legislators right now, so they need to get a move on.

Do you have any good ice-storm stories to share?

posted by Rich Miller
Tuesday, Dec 5, 06 @ 10:59 am

Comments

The State’s inability to plow snow Friday on State Routes in Lake County. The Township plows, County plows and municipal plows were out in full force and managed to keep up and catch up.

The State plows (Rt. 41, Rt. 22, Rt. 60, Rt. 176, Rt. 120, I-94) were no where in sight. Rt. 60 and Rt. 41 were pathetic and were untouched as late as 10:00 a.m. Local radio claimed the State was down to 12 trucks in Lake County “due to budget cuts.”
Traffic was at a complete standstill. I was on my way to a dental appointment and called the dentist when I was a mile away (Rt. 60/St. Mary’s Road intersection) to tell him I would be a half-hour late. I showed up two and a half hours later. My call was at 7:45 a.m. He was thrilled. Everyone else had cancelled.

Four more years of this kind of service from the State of Illinois?

Yes, there is a solution! Ban smoking!

Comment by Louis G. Atsaves Tuesday, Dec 5, 06 @ 11:37 am
If that’s the case, then the state must be in charge of clearing Springfield’s streets. Makes me wish the storm had hit two days earlier when the legislature was here. Maybe someone would have cleared the ice better.

Idea to pay for the snow removal. The Executive Mansion’s front lawn slopes. Maybe we could charge to let kids do some sledding. Not like the house is being lived in.

Comment by bomber91 Tuesday, Dec 5, 06 @ 12:20 pm
So, what is the technical explanation for why Ameren still has so much more work to do restoring power downstate than say, CWLP in Springfield? There’s still thousands without power in the outlying towns and villiages after five days. Was the infrastructure all shot before the storm? Still ragged since the spring tornadoes? Harder to cover and reach the more rural areas? Insufficient staff and no help from outside? What is the story?

Comment by Baby its cold outside Tuesday, Dec 5, 06 @ 12:45 pm
I wrote a couple posts today on the topic of ice in Decatur and the lack of power. My family just went to Decatur yesterday and while there drove around looking at the huge amount of damage. Our old house had a power line dangling in the sidewalk.

Comment by Rayne of Terror Tuesday, Dec 5, 06 @ 1:20 pm
If Ameren can’t get the job done, while keeping the rate freeze in place, then perhaps it’s time for the State to step in and takeover the utility.

Comment by Squideshi Tuesday, Dec 5, 06 @ 2:56 pm
I called both my state reps and they say they are both for the rate freeze to continue. I really want it to continue after what I have dealt with Comed with.

First my sympathy to all those who currently are without power/having problems, it’s a bad time of year for it.

Second, I my neighborhood lost power for 3 days during the storm back at the beginning of October. Many people within a few blocks of our neighborhood had it restored in a day or so. We lost all the perishable stuff in our refridgerator. Sent in claim form to Comed, of course, denied. Called and talked to them. After the conversation got heated, she said, if you are just going to argue and yell, we can end this converasation. I switched gears and talked, not yelled for the rest of the time. Eventually she said, with a snippy attitude, “If you like, I can turn this over to our review board/panel” I told her yes I would like that

Went like this:

Comed - they say 1st, it’s a natural disaster type of thing not to do with them. Not their fault. Over thousands of lightning strikes during the storm.

Me - Ok, why did folks by me get power back so soon, and not us?

Comed - Then, it’s that lightning struck a switching station, yeah that’s what the problem was.

Me - Oh, so it wasn’t just the natural disaster angle, its also that you didn’t get the equipment repaired fast enough for our neighborhood? Not just branches falling on lines?

Comed - Well, there were other problems, I’ll have to get back to you about those.

Me - I’ll expect a call back by the end of the week (still waiting for that call after over a week)

Also told her about one work crew, not Comed guys, that was seen doing nothing a few blocks from us, after it was pointed out to a supervisor looking type, he went over and ripped them new …….. and told them to get working, within a few hours that area had power restored.

Also another situation, a neighbor saw a Comed guy he knew sitting in his truck, with 2 other trucks there also, no work going on. He saw his friend and said what’s up, friend replied, they were waiting for their orders. neighbor says, there are lines down, things sparking, poles down, what orders. Comed guy says, we have to wait until we are told what to start working on.

It’s a crock that Comed gets to review the claims against them for situations like this. They should go to an independent agency. Also, between that storm and this current one, are we going to find out that yet again, the utilities (or there parent companies) are putting little to zero money back into the infrastructure?

Comment by Concerned Voter Tuesday, Dec 5, 06 @ 3:36 pm
Why hasn’t a winter storm disaster been declared in central IL. Some think it is because we didn’t vote for him.

Comment by Left out in the cold Tuesday, Dec 5, 06 @ 5:54 pm
Here in Springfield, the mayor’s opponents are whining about the “slow” response - perhaps they should move to Decatur … .

Comment by Smitty Irving Tuesday, Dec 5, 06 @ 6:45 pm
We were without power for over 3 days in Normal…and I never did see a crew doing any work. Hard to justify increasing rates when you are rude and unresponsive to customers…

By the way…did anyone else track the map on Ameren’s site for repairs. Odd how the repair work started in teh north and slowly worked towards the southern part of the state.

Comment by the wonderboy Tuesday, Dec 5, 06 @ 8:24 pm
One small benefit of the ice storm is that all those commercials from the power companies telling us how sorry they are to make us pay higher bills have vanished from the radio.

Comment by David P. Graf Tuesday, Dec 5, 06 @ 8:24 pm
So where is Gov. God Blagojevich during this natural disaster? Why isn’t he wandering around sprinkling and promising a million $ here and a million $ there to help the citizens, children, elderly of the devastated areas? Oh yeah. The election was last month.

Comment by Buck Flagojevich Tuesday, Dec 5, 06 @ 8:48 pm
Aged, should-have-been-taken-out-of-service IDOT fleet trucks, lack of qualified operators & snow plow drivers and oh, the appointed “managers” running the show. It’s going to be a long winter folks.

Comment by IDOT PRO Tuesday, Dec 5, 06 @ 9:03 pm
Things you can do with three fully charged UPS computer backup units:

- Make coffee
- Plug in a lamp
- Charge cell phone
- Keep home telephone working
- Keep computer running eight hours
- Charge laptop battery
- plug in radio
-Operate TV (occaisionally)

Only limited by size of unit.

Comment by Larry McKeon Tuesday, Dec 5, 06 @ 9:51 pm
Hey IDOT PRO, I heard that in some places up north, they didn’t call guys back out until late thursday evening of the rain/snowstorm and by then some of them got hung up in the traffic messes like on 80, and couldn’t get back to the yards right away. Also heard there were breakdowns of equipment and, as you stated, old equipment being pushed back into service to try and catch up. Also heard that some yards hadn’t been given the okay to hire back the snowbirds/temp winter plow drivers yet. Oh, and how long will it take CMS to fix all the broke down equipment?

Comment by Concerned Voter Wednesday, Dec 6, 06 @ 9:19 pm