Jason Sandford
Jason Sandford is a reporter, writer, blogger and photographer interested in all things Asheville.
The big thaw starts in earnest today after this weekend’s snow storm, which paralyzed parts of Western North Carolina. But as the sun beams do their work, I’m still waiting for someone to shine some light on the performance of Progress Energy.
The big question: why wasn’t Progress Energy better prepared to handle this storm?
Electrical service started going down Friday evening. As of Monday morning, some 20,000 power customers remain without electricity. That’s two and a half to three days without electricity for some residents. That’s a potentially life-threatening situation for any number of reasons. Older people with medical conditions can be especially at risk.
On Thursday — a full 24 hours before snow started to fall in Asheville — weather forecasters were calling for six to nine inches of wet, heavy snow and sounding alarms about the potential for that snow to pull down trees and tree limbs, which in turn can take down power lines.
Saturday morning, as power outages continued and we began to see the full extent of the storm damage, Progress Energy was making excuses. The extra crews it had called in were stuck in gridlocked interstate traffic. It couldn’t tell customers when their power would be restored. And Progress Energy was on Twitter, telling people essentially: “We can’t read your mind. Call us if your power goes out.”
Progress Energy should have had the call out to extra power company crews Thursday, when the forecast became clear. It’s true that not much can be done when trees close roads, or when an interstate is closed down due to a jack-knifed 18-wheeler.
But we’re talking about a potential life-or-death situation. Leaving people without electrical power for three or four days — especially the infirm and elderly — is simply uncalled for. Progress Energy should have acted with more speed and authority to be ready for what people are calling the storm of the decade.
Did Progress Energy fail its customers? What do you think?
I’m focusing on Progress Energy because it services Buncombe County, but folks also need to assess the performance of Duke Energy, French Broad Electric and Haywood Electric.
If you notice in the past 5 years or so, Progress Energy has stopped clearing trees. I guess they think it’s just cheaper to fix it when it fails. And the CEO’s make more money. The consumer is the last thought. They don’t care if you don’t have power for 5 or 10 days.
They don’t care if spikes burn out ceiling fans and outdoor light fixtures. They are letting their systems fall apart and waiting for the government to fund the Smart Grid and give them money to make their systems all shiny and new and they won’t have to spend a damn dime.
But until then (If then ever happens) expect to lose power much more often, have many more surges, lights flickering, and outages that last for days at a time. America is falling apart and the power grid is in the worst shape of many of the systems we depend on to not fall back to 1890 all over again.
Just watch The History channels special on The Crumbling of America.
http://www.history.com/shows.do?episodeId=452430&action=detail
Happy New Year
I recall several years ago (probably 10-12 or so) when then "CP&L" contracted with tree-trimming companies to cut trees back from the lines. If I remember correctly, people all over Asheville raised unholy hell about "how ugly it was", and how "CP&L didn’t ask them", and so on.
You are correct, Ash, when you said that the storm was predicted in advance. How many times in the last few years have they predicted similar storms that didn’t happen? It seems to me that Progress Energy placed the extra crews on some sort of "standby" status on Thursday, and then called them out Friday afternoon. By that time, the interstates were all parking lots from the tractor trailer drivers who also didn’t pay attention to the forecast.
Could Progress have had extra crews here waiting? They have done so in th past. Keep in mind, though, this also was not predicted to be an Asheville-isolated event. Snow was predicted all the way to the Raleigh area. Can you imagine having to prepare for outages in an area potentially that big?
My point is, I think that we either need to lay "the blame" in several areas, i.e., drivers blocking roadways, etc., or we can just say that events like this happen only every few years, and they’re tough. Those crews from Progress worked their asses off all weekend. I don’t think anyone can say that they saw a Progress crew "just sitting around doing nothing".
I think Progress Energy did a reasonably good job inthis big snow storm. They cannot be expected to know exactly how severe the storm will be and to what extenet the outages will be. They are only human, and I’m confident that they have worked very hard to restore service. Stop ragging on them…..likesomeone said before…this is Mother Nature.
I live in the north end of the county and I am underwhelmed by Progress Energy’s response to this snow. It is fine to talk about being self-reliant, taking personal responsibility, and preparing for events. I do have a secondary heat source and I collected water (no city water out in the country – no power – no water) to take care of 6 adults and a couple of horses for 3 days. After three days, water is a real concern. There are only so many containers and so much storage space! We were very lucky that with this snow the temperatures remained very mild.
My power went out on Friday afternoon and was restored Monday afternoon. This snow as not a major disaster. In fact, it was fairly routine winter weather although WNC no longer sees such a deep snow on a regular basis as it did in the 1950’s, 1960’s, and even through the early 1970’s. Progress Energy had a great committee meeting on how to set up a phone line. The thought and effort might have been better invested in equipment and people who actually DO something. I do not fault the people who restore the power. I do, however, have a dim view of Progress Energy’s corporate competence.
Take a moment to imagine a genuinely significant event covering two or three southeastern states, extrapolate that situation and guess how long it will be before your power is restored. God forbid the entire east coast should be hit by severe weather as happened in 1993. CP&L had power restored to my community on day 7 of the 1993 blizzard. Much better service – in my opinion.
i found the progress automated response to be helpful & efficient. from my stint in the northeast i’d have to agree with those who’ve commented on the trees growing next to the lines–if the city can’t make them bury power lines it should at least require a certain amount of regular maintenance and tree-trimming while the sun shines and the wind isn’t too stiff.
There are two other factors I will note here. First, this storm was very late in developing. Most professional forecasters downplayed its evolution and severity until very late in the week, on Thursday in most cases. This was different than the 1993 blizzard, when most forecasters predicted that storm’s ferocity several days in advance.
The second factor is that I don’t think Progress Energy’s spokespeople helped the initial situation very much, either. There was a noticeable lack of information early on and very little about which to feel reassured.
Otherwise, I think under the circumstances they will be getting most customers’ power back on as best as can be expected.
WestVegas said something about the trimming of the tree limbs and this is really the issue. I think the response was fine, the preventative measures aren’t in place. In areas where large snow storms are common they go around and trim the trees around the lines every few years and I don’t think the power companies do that around here much.
It probably boils down to economics, it is probably cheaper to not trim the trees and hope for the best with the weather.
Progress Energy does a great job. Ever lived anywhere else and tried to call the power company?
If you want to blame anybody – try Al Gore for not predicting this global warming roll back and the tree huggers for not allowing trees to be trimmed from power lines.
yes, beaverlake! take those ugly power lines underground, for goodness sakes.
i still don’t understand why we have soo many above ground power lines . . . most power companies walk all over small town city councils, we need a back bone and place an ordinance that a certain % of our lines are moved below ground with a date and fines there after if date is missed.
Thanks, BL.
Just Saying, yikes!
done, please let people know.
Ash,
I was out doing some last minue Christmas shopping at the Target on Airport Road yesterday. Much to my dismay, I saw lots of blue liquid in the snow. It looks like someone had poured antifreeze on the snow to help it melt. If it is antifreeze people need to be aware so their dogs don’t drink the water.
There is a mega box pet store in that shopping center so people need to be cautious.
I did not lose power this time, but have in the past. Progress gets it back on pretty quick in most cases. It is the fallen trees that make a mess. A lot of people like to blame mother nature when a tree falls on a power line. But is that really it. I am sure the homeowner knew the tree was either dead of needing to come down because of previous damage. Did the homeowner do it, NO! The homeowner was just waiting for someone else to foot the bill. I think the homeowner should be responsible for some of the cost. Dead trees need to come down before they kill someone or knock power out to thousands of homeowners…
we were without power for 54 hours over in Candler. Luckily we had a fireplace (which we rarely use) and our neighbors had lots of dry wood.
We’ve got no problem with Progress’ reaction to the storm and the outages. Storms like this are rare, our trees aren’t used to the load and have lots of deadwood. Paying Asplundh or someone to clear limbs in the summer (as is done in other parts of the country, and to a limited extent, here) would help, but may not be financially feasible as these type of storms are rare.
We had a big storm, by any standards. Candler looked like a war zone. Places where this happens regularly have the resources to provide safe access for utility trucks: as soon as the snow flies, dozens of trucks hit the roads and go all night. Private landscaping companies all have plows for their trucks and contracts with every business in town to plow the parking lots. This kind of snow removal equipment does not make financial sense here and so we will have to deal with the occasional inconvenience.
Be prepared and check on your neighbors and try to enjoy the quiet.
I was very fortunate, I did not lose power but my brother and family are on French Broad and have not had power since Friday night, nor do they have a source to call. I was totally unprepared with no other heat source if my power did go out nor can I drive in the mess. I will buy another heat source when I can get out but maybe I won’t ever have to use it.
Janet, fair point. But I do think Progress Energy could have mobilized much earlier, and had more people staged and standing by.
I think Progress Energy did about as well as any firm could be expected to do during such a storm. It’s Mother Nature, and at the end of the day, there is only so much that can be done.
firelady, great idea on creating some sort of resource.
newbie, thanks for your thoughts. good points all around.
Perhaps our expectations are out of whack? When weather takes out the power, the utility company inevitably gets a lot blame but little recognition for the difficult and dangerous work they do to get our heat, stoves, medical equipment, ice makers, and hair dryers back online. How long is too long and how much are we willing to invest to achieve the desired level of turn around?
Power companies, however well resourced, are subject to limitations. It might be better if we all prepare to sustain ourselves during occasional outages. At least for a few days. We could be much more resilient as a society with a small reinvestment in our own self sufficiency.
I am new to the area but Progress Energy seemed reasonably efficient under the circumstances. The automated phone system for reporting outages and getting estimates for power restoration was useful and well designed. My home was back on the grid within 36 hours.
I think there is plenty of blame to go around to all, including Progress Energy. System overload, system failure. Progress Energy must have had a difficult time getting to the places where the roads weren’t clear(er).
My daughter (raised in Maine) saw the AVL city snow plows and said, "They are so cuuuute. Those kind of plows are used to clear driveways in places that get more snow."
I was very concerned about people who 1) weren’t prepared to deal with power losses for days, 2) infirmed/elderly and 3) anyone else with no experience driving/living in this much snow.
My kids and I did house checks within our neighborhood. We asked if they had a secondary heat source (one house had a gas fireplace, but the chimney was blocked with snow. We had a CO monitor, and sure enough, the levels were too high. They didn’t know a thing about these concerns.) We asked about food, batteries, medications. We shoveled walkways, walked pets. (There are many, many older people living alone who were terrified. One lady just cried when we checked on her! We brought her soup and bread- the only thing she had to eat!)
Does Asheville have a resource for citizens on how to deal with these situations? (You know, a little booklet that would get filed away and lost so no one could find it when they needed it again until the next big storm in say 2021?)
Although my household was without electricity Friday afternoon through Saturday morning, I appreciated being able to call Progress Energy’s Outage Line and get regularl updates. At one point, the recording said 60,000 people were without power and 350 crews were working to get it restored, crews had been brought in from South Carolina and other places. To get 40,000 households back up in such a short time seems an accomplishment. How could Progress Energy have anticipated which trees were going to fall on which power lines? I always felt the recorded message was giving me factual and candid information, not making excuses. Bravo to the crews and the company that employed them.