Washblog

Summer is winding down and the mid latitude storms will soon be cycling through Seattle.

Are we any more prepared this year than we were last year for a big blow?

My answer is an emphatic NO.

The same bozos that fumbled the ball last year are still sitting in the captain's chair. The same loyalty to share holders vs. customers is keeping the trees around the power lines ungroomed; a disaster waiting to happen.

I grew up in Chicago where the weather is much more severe and lived in San Francisco where I experienced 100 mph winds and no loss of power.

I lived in SE Utah at an elevation of 7000 feet where were subject to capricious mountain weather. I was cozy when 4 feet of snow dumped on us. It only took them a day to open the roads.

The performance of the Seattle Area power grid is by orders of magnitude the worst I've seen in any of the places I've lived. Repair trucks were as scarce as hens teeth. No one seemed to know what was going on in the field. Outsourcing tree removal slowed everything down.

The State agencies were just as bad. There were no shelters to speak of. They didn't declare an emergency for nearly a week. They should have been able to provide generators for vital services such as fuel and food supplies.

Governor Gregoire has admitted that Washington State is ill equipped to handle a severe emergency. The deployment of many of the National Guard to Iraq has left us vulnerable.

Is this the best we can do?

Shouldn't we have had some accountability for the fiasco last winter?

Shouldn't we have a new game plan?

If we don't, history WILL repeat itself.

Davey