Frustration builds over power outages

To say people are frustrated about going nearly a week without power is an understatement. While their houses stay cold, tempers are flaring hot as residents struggle to understand why it’s taking hydro companies so long to restore their power.

“I know you guys are packed and it’s a hard job but maybe you waited too long to ask for help from somebody else?”

“Look we didn’t wait for the storm, we put extra people on staff, we called our contractors, we called the utilities.”

Burlington Hydro’s chief operating officer Dan Guatto was in the hot seat at the Kilbride information station in north Burlington. Residents fired questions about when their hydro will be restored, and why it’s taking so long. “(It) takes so long because of the extensive tree trimming that’s occurred. Some individuals have two days of tree work to get that individual service on so you can imagine main lines, especially in heavily treed areas.”

Sue Franklin says she feels let down by her providers and elected officials. “As a person who pays taxes in Burlington I feel quite offended I feel the lack of foresight is so apparent that we don’t have enough trained crews that can handle the situation.”

It costs Sue about $180 dollars a month to heat her house, but since Saturday she’s spent about $100 dollars on gas to run this generator to heat her house for just five days.

The same goes for Sue’s neighbour, Greg Beale. “You’re told 11pm that night; that night comes around, you’re told 11 o’clock the next night. We’re in day five, day six, still no power”

Mary Battaglia, Burlington’s roads and parks maintenance manager says people are choosing to weather the black out inside their homes. “A number of them have issues that need to be addressed, like running a generator to keep sump pumps going, trying to keep water running, some have livestock to feed so for a number of reasons it’s making them want to stay in their homes.”

The problems continue. “There is power but our line just came down to the house.”

Given how frustrated people are, hydro workers on the job like James Dunham are getting a warm reception. “Happy! As soon as we show up it’s ‘the hydro’s here’, time to move on, we’re not usually here to just show up and leave without putting people on so people are happy to see us.”

James, by the way, worked through Christmas Day to restore power to people.

In north Burlington, local hydro workers will be getting a helping hand from crews in Kitchener-Waterloo and Oakville to restore power to customers. They expect everyone to have power by the beginning of next week.