Power to the People

I came across Rantingprofs earlier today, and the blog has some interesting points, some of which I've made in my hurricane coverage.

You know, here's the thing: how much time it's reasonable for the power companies to take pretty much depends on how many customers lost power in the event, don't you think? When my building loses power, I pretty much want the lights back on in thirty minutes, chop chop, people. When there's an accident that cuts this half of Chapel Hill out, I understand that may take a few hours.

But when a hurricane (or, more often, this far inland, an ice storm) takes out several hundred thousand customers, that's just going to take a few days. It's always miserable if you're the last of those customers, and patience is going to fray at the end of that week, but it's a bit unreasonable to expect them to have things back to normal after two days. Or three. And in Florida five million lost power.

(And as CBS noted, but I'm not sure the other two did, there's more than enough gasoline in the area. The problem is having the juice to run the pumps. So even that problem is directly related to electricity.)

The question is this: how can the media simultaneously amaze us with the size, the ferocity, the destructiveness, of these events.

And then turn around and within 24, 36, 48 hours, start right in on stories about the lack of responsiveness when things aren't back to normal?

This particular posting discusses the difficulties in restoring power. Florida was hit by Wilma two days ago, and some people were complaining about the lack of food and water. These are people who were told to stockpile at least three days worth of food and water. Gasoline can't be distributed from gas stations unless they've had power restored or generators to power the pumps. We're talking about six million people without power at the moment in Florida.

And that's not counting the hundreds of thousands who remain without power in Louisiana, Mississippi, or Alabama as a result of Rita and Katrina.

Here's the thing. Restoring power is all about logistics (hey, what is it with those fancy facts and stuff). You have to restore power generation systems, high voltage transmission lines, substations, and then the local grid. If the transmission lines are out, no power can be restored even if your local area was unaffected. It's really that simple. But one that the media isn't willing to tackle.

The power companies have been working nonstop throughout the Southeast since the end of August, and it's been a losing battle since every few weeks another hurricane comes to take out power once again. Crews from around the country are providing mutual assistance, but even with the extra help, it takes time.

Meanwhile, the president of the levee board in New Orleans resigned. Something about a scandal (or two). Go figure. And Whiplash Nagin's latest town hall meeting saw more anger directed his way. Again. Go figure. And it gets better:

The session was supposed to start at 2 p.m., but it was past 2:30 before Nagin, clad in a New Orleans Saints sweatshirt, walked in to a chorus of catcalls about the delay. "You were late for Katrina, too," one man shouted.

Responding with a smile, Nagin told the crowd, "We are going to rebuild this city. We are going to do it together."

Elsewhere, Mississippi's Gaming Commission has approved the first land-based casino. All of Mississippi's casinos were badly damaged by Katrina, many had their barges tossed on land and thoroughly destroyed. The railway CSX is going to be spending $250 million to repair and replace tracks throughout the Gulf Coast. Getting that piece of infrastructure repaired will speed the recovery process.

CSX Transportation officials said the reconstruction is expected to be completed in March or April.

Until then, rail traffic will use CSX's western gateways including East St. Louis, Ill., Memphis, and Montgomery. CSX also is accommodating businesses that use rail service by trucking their materials to accessible rail locations when possible.

It will cost $250 million to make repairs on the 100-mile route between New Orleans and Pascagoula, which includes six major bridges and about 40 miles of track that was completely removed from the road bed, said CSX spokesman Gary Sease.

Technorati: flood aid; hurricane katrina; katrina aid; hurricane rita; slidell; biloxi; gulfport; pascagoula; nagin; blanco; barbour; hurricane rita; hurricane wilma.