11 November 2011

Planned travels to conduct sales meetings for new and existing snow plow dealers in western and central Connecticut this last week was like nothing I have ever before witnessed first hand.  The damage, destruction, dislocation, and loss of utilities caused by the massive “nor’easter”’ snow storm were very evident.  Although the vast majority of the snow had already melted away, the activities and efforts to repair the destructive effects of the recent massive snow storm were still in full swing.  There were thousands of out-of-state utility repair trucks and crews every where.

Public places – malls, restaurants – were continually jammed with crowds of virtually (temporarily) ‘homeless’ people seeking electric power for their computers and cell phones, food, and just a warm, heated place to sit for a respite.  I heard many, some to the point of frustration and tears, talking to others saying they still did not have heat or power in their homes after one week.  Many children accompanied these same people because most schools were still closed. 

Our planned sales calls were shortened or cancelled due to dealers being out of power or just closed up for the entire week.   We were asked to give restaurant priority to utility repair crews and even my hotel registration was expropriated in favor of emergency utility repair crews. Thank goodness the rep I was traveling with had an extra bedroom for me to stay in -  although it was a bit strange with his live-in girlfriend there as well...

Even at this point, November 8, almost one million homes in Connecticut alone were still without electric power.  Winter’s opening salvo was too much and too soon for too many.

This is a link to the Connecticut Light & Power Real Time Outage Map: http://www.cl-p.com/outage/OutageMap.aspx

This video is from November 9th and what I witnessed on the 11th ascertain's that the situation did not get much better...