Water, water everywhere and not a drop to drink is a well-known idiom.

In Chestertown, northern Warren County, there's plenty of water---excess water---as a result of one of the worst spring snowstorms of the last decade.

What's lacking is electricity and the problem is National Grid.

Every time there's a power outage, it seems it takes long and longer for National Grid, aka Niagara Mohawk, to restore power. Perhaps the problem is management, perhaps it's because of antiquated equipment, maybe because they aren't putting their wiring underground or doing routine tree trimming that would keep limbs off the wires.

As the people in northern Warren County were well into their fourth day without heat, power, hot water to take showers or pump to even flush their toilets, National Grid had the audacity to add insult to injury and send out power bills. And as people sit without power, utility trucks from National Grid sit in the diners across the street from the area without power, essentially snubbing their noses at the people. They can have a hot lunch and coffee but their customers can't.

As the outage entered its fourth day with National Grid constantly moving ahead the estimated time of restoration, one might expect that customers living in outlying areas on back roads would be the ones to last have their power restored and that residents living within the village of Chestertown would have been among the first.

Residents and business owners on along Foster Flats Road, which runs parallel to the main thoroughfare through the village, is still without power as of 2 p.m. Wednesday. When a call was placed at 12:30 p.m. after their latest estimate time of restoration of time of noon had not been met, the caller was told that there was no outage reported for that area. The 18 households affected had been calling repeatedly since Sunday. Other responses were "we have no record of Foster Flats Road", and "do you have a generator", to laughter and wishes of "you have a good night".

On Little Tannery Road which runs perpendicular to Foster Flats Road, still considered the hamlet area of the Chestertown, the most populated area, power lines were still down across the road, blocking traffic, forcing the school bus to go up the road in reverse in order to make their pickups.

The residents of Foster Flats Road and Little Tannery Road lost their power like everyone else Sunday night at 9 p.m. and could sit in their living rooms in the dark and look across the street to other people's lights. People a short distance away from them could cook, shower and be warm while those 18 households on Foster Flats Road sat in the dark, having to call fire department at regular intervals for pump outs as the water floods their basement, endangering furnaces and appliances. Individuals with medical problems have been unable to utilize oxygen machines and respirators because they require power.

Power to the village of Chestertown had been restored about 3:30 p.m. Monday afternoon, including to Foster Flats Road, but was short lived because they hadn't cleaned the fallen branches off the lines and as soon as the line was energized, branches caught fire and boom, the transformer blew. Residents were placed on the bottom of the list. The National Grid crews were at the substation, a short distance away but refused to address the problem and for four days, rode up and down past it, not even taking the time to remove the downed lines from Little Tannery Road.

And then the lies and stories began by National Grid. Foster Flats Road customers were told first it would be midnight Monday for restoration, then midnight Tuesday, then 7 a.m. Wednesday, then 10, then noon, then 4 p.m. and meantime 12 to 20 line trucks sat in the diners within a half mile of the damaged transformer and then drove away.

By Tuesday morning, their excuse why power had not been restored to the whole area of Foster Flats Road was that "there's only 18 households affected, you're at the bottom of the list. When we get everyone else, we'll get you". Not only did the women handling outage calls state that, but even a supervisor had the audacity to so state that Tuesday after 48 hours of no heat, no lights, no nothing but stories from National Grid.

Wonder how National Grid would accept the practice of people adopting the same policy as them---we'll take care of the biggest bills first and if we have any money left at the end of the month, we'll consider paying National Grid. Bet it wouldn't be too long before they'd shut off your lights----well, Foster Flats wouldn't have anything to worry about, they don't have power anyway---and National Grid has just given them their bill.

People are angry, frustrated and exasperated. They wanted to take a hot shower, wash their hair and stop having to eat out. They've carted hundreds of pounds of ruined food to the dump and the expenses go on---appliances, furnaces are being ruined.

There needs to be an investigation of National Grid, they need to be held accountable for their response times and in particular, their handling of calls, policies and practices. With each storm, it gets worse.

Each time one calls to get their latest propaganda on when they claim service will be restored, they tells us we must be asked to complete a survey. So far, they haven't offered the survey. Guess they already know the overwhelming answer will be "Very Dissatisfied". 4-18-07

© 2007 North Country Gazette