A big hardwood tree had fallen on the line:
Addendum:
For years all of Lindsey Loop (to Shades Creek - about 1 mile) has periodically experienced power outages due to faulty, old, or worn out wiring somewhere on the Alabama Power (a Southern Company) circuit that delivers electricity to our homes. During just one day in the summer of '08 we lost power 4 different times. Sometimes it won't happen for weeks. There's no predicting when it'll happen, but we all know it's the same old problem when it does.
In years past AL Power would send a man out in a pickup truck. The man usually went to the same transformer/breaker/whatever, just north of where the star is, bring out a long pole, and appear to 'flip' something on the power line. Voila! We has power again. The man knew the community and was familiar with our power glitch.
In recent years, however, AL Power's been sending a man out (in a big cherry picker truck) who had no idea where to even start looking for the problem. The man will drive back and forth, up and down the road several times, and it'll be hours before our electricity is restored. That's because our problem isn't a 'normal' one. They don't train the new men to look for our particular glitch. (My opinion anyway.)
One night, in the pouring rain, I drove to where the truck/man was and tried to tell the guy where he might start looking - explaining, "...this has been happening for years." I felt sorry for that guy. He was so frustrated.... I took him a can of Coke just to hopefully lift his spirits a little.
In the situation yesterday, we lost power for about 40 minutes; it came back on for about 45 minutes; and then it was off for more than 15 hours. When I went to talk to the guy, he was in the right place, but something different was happening this time. He asked if the power came back on for a while. I said yes. Then he put a telescoping pole up to ... a breaker? near a transformer, and said, "I had this hot a while ago...." Obviously it wasn't 'hot' now. I told the guy "Good luck" and came back home.
It's always been frustrating that we could see lights over on Harper's Dairy Loop, and the people on Paradise Lane never lost theirs. But this time, the northern 1/2 of Lindsey Loop got their power back but we (about 20 houses) didn't! What the heck was going on???? We waited and waited. Finally I surmised the guy figured he had it fixed and was gone.
After nightfall Mother called Al Power and kept punching buttons until she finally talked to a real person. I think Abbie called too. But it was Disabro's call that made the difference. He informed them that there was an elderly person here who's oxygen machine wouldn't work without electricity, and that he required a CPAP to sleep. He demanded that a supervisor be sent out here.
I guess AL Power kinda panicked when they realized they had medical issues on their hands. There were 5 cherry pickers and 2 pickup trucks out here within 20 minutes of Disabro's call. Still we waited as the hours ticked by. Finally I went to find the trucks. They were at the first house on Paradise Lane. They said a big tree had fallen on a line, and they were waiting for the line to be grounded. I came home. Shortly after that, we could hear a chainsaw from the porch. They sawed on that tree for more than an hour. Then more hours ticked by.
Disabro was awake when the power was finally restored at 5:34AM this morning - he can't sleep without his CPAP machine.
After daylight, Buddy and I walked down to where the trucks had been. I wanted to see why it'd taken AL Power so long to get the problem fixed, and I took the above pictures. Granted, the pasture just before the tree line was just short of being a swamp and it was pitch dark, but does it look like fixing this one line would take more than 15 hours? I don't think so.
But what can we do - short of installing our own private generators at these 20 houses? I'd like to see Alabama Power take an interest in solving the basic problem and upgrade whatever it is that needs to be upgraded out here.
