# Anyone still not have power?



## Edd (Oct 31, 2011)

I don't.  Half the town is down here and many of the folks with power don't have cable.  We crashed at a friend's last night because our heat doesn't work without power. 

I'm in the town coffee shop right now and I bet it's busier than it's ever been.  I brought a netbook, tablet, and smartphone and I'm charging and surfing like a madman.  Thinking of trying to grab a hotel tonight.  Several of the hotels nearby were booked solid last night due to outages.


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## hammer (Oct 31, 2011)

No power at home but I have power at work.  Brought stuff down to get recharged.

Fortunately I have a gas fireplace, gas HW, and a gas stove so we don't have to worry about getting a hotel room.

The DW said that the neighborhood sounds like a truck stop with all of the generators going.


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## awf170 (Oct 31, 2011)

No power still at my place in Lowell. Supposedly we won't have power back for another few days.


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## gmcunni (Oct 31, 2011)

no power in Monroe CT @ home. i'm working from the library today, despite having a generator (borrowed) at home.


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## Edd (Oct 31, 2011)

awf170 said:


> No power still at my place in Lowell. Supposedly we won't have power back for another few days.



Bummer buddy.  I may be in the same boat for all I know.  Our power company is keeping us guessing here.



gmcunni said:


> no power in Monroe CT @ home. i'm working from the library today, despite having a generator (borrowed) at home.



A guy sitting next to me is doing the same thing.  He's on like his 18th phone call apologizing to customers.


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## gmcunni (Oct 31, 2011)

Edd said:


> A guy sitting next to me is doing the same thing.  He's on like his 18th phone call apologizing to customers.



rude to make calls in the library, it is a quiet zone!


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## WoodCore (Oct 31, 2011)

I'll be without power for a few days in Waterbury, CT. Tree came down in the front yard and ripped the service line off the house. :smash:


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## WJenness (Oct 31, 2011)

awf170 said:


> No power still at my place in Lowell. Supposedly we won't have power back for another few days.



I went out yesterday evening to put gas in the car and get some food...

I was amazed at the widespread power outages in Lowell & Chelmsford...

Downtown Lowell has spotty outages (the building that Blue Taleh is in is out, as is some of Market St., namely, Centro, the post office, and Wings), but luckily, I still have power... Having a hydroelectric plant in the same building I live is a good thing....

But a lot of the Highlands and Drum Hill areas are without power... Driving around the Drum Hill rotary in the dark with no stop lights was a bit of an adventure last night...

-w


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## jrmagic (Oct 31, 2011)

WoodCore said:


> I'll be without power for a few days in Waterbury, CT. Tree came down in the front yard and ripped the service line off the house. :smash:



Same here in Tuckahoe, NY. No Power, heat or hot water. They need to fix all the main lines in the surrounding area before they will do anything for me.  I had to go to the gym to take a shower beofre work today.


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## powhunter (Oct 31, 2011)

WoodCore said:


> I'll be without power for a few days in Waterbury, CT. Tree came down in the front yard and ripped the service line off the house. :smash:




Good to see you and Rueler yesterday!!  Wish the restaurant wasnt so slammed otherwise I would have had a few pints with ya!  Hope they get to your house quick man!

Steveo


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## billski (Oct 31, 2011)

I just got my internet/phone/able service back.  I saved our power line with at 2x4x10, pushing the big branches off it.  Don't try this at home  

Our town is under a local state of emergency, the majority of 30,000 residents have no power.  We have two shelters in town with lots of people in them.  Our yard looks like a wood lot, with branches as big as a foot snapped.  One big mutha tree is in the road.  The lineman says it's the worst he's seen.

We need a carnage thread.  I'll get some photos in a bit.


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## WakeboardMom (Oct 31, 2011)

Nashua is crazy with outages.  Downtown seems like it's in good shape.  Hudson is in much better shape than it was yesterday.

Pelham is better, but right near my house there are two telephone poles down and a transformer out. It might be a while before we get it back.  : (   

In August, we loaned our generator to a friend who lost power during Irene and didn't take it back.  He's now been using it in Dracut since Sunday; we were out of town and didn't need it.  It feels awkward to ask for it back.

Drove down from Moultonborough this a.m., will probably drive back.


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## Bostonian (Oct 31, 2011)

In Acton we're still without power.  Saturday night we stayed in the house, last night we stayed at the W (right across the street from work) and tonight we will be in the Hilton Garden Inn.  NStar has be worse than useless, they kept telling us power would be back by 7am, 4pm, 11pm (that was just yesterday), and today we were told 12pm and then 4pm... and now... undetermined.  I am concerned about our pipes freezing over and etc.  Should be a fun next 24 hours!


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## billski (Oct 31, 2011)

In Lexington I just got an automated call (after we had telco restored) from Emergency management.  They said the majority of town is without power.  They declared a local state of emergency, setup shelters in public buildings.  Police are discouraging trick or treating tonight due to the dangerous streets, wires, trees.

During the night we heard transformers blowing like popcorn.


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## drjeff (Oct 31, 2011)

Don't know if they're headed to Eastern/Central Mass or to NH, but in the 50 mile round trip I just made along I-395 in CT I saw multiple convoys of line trucks (probably 30 trucks that I saw) from Lee Energy out of North Carolina heading North!


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## HD333 (Oct 31, 2011)

Just got ours back 30 minutes ago in central mass. Was headed home to pack a bag and saw the porch lights on what a good feeling. Temps look high enough so pipes shouldn't be freezing overnight without heat.
Hang in there everyone.


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## billski (Oct 31, 2011)

We could use those trucks.  50% of our town is still without power.  Transformers were blowing like popcorn last night. The town has declared a local state of emergency.  Halloween has been canceled!  We  get automated updates from the police every 12 hours.  Schools remain closed indefinitely due to power outages and their use as shelters.


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## riverc0il (Oct 31, 2011)

billski said:


> We could use those trucks.  50% of our town is still without power.  Transformers were blowing like popcorn last night. The town has declared a local state of emergency.  Halloween has been canceled!  We  get automated updates from the police every 12 hours.  Schools remain closed indefinitely due to power outages and their use as shelters.


Uh oh, billski... you know what this means? This is one of the rare times a pre-storm grocery trip was probably a really good idea. This is going to reinforce the need to do a pre-storm grocery trip for every storm going forward.... just in case. 

:lol:


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## billski (Oct 31, 2011)

riverc0il said:


> Uh oh, billski... you know what this means? This is one of the rare times a pre-storm grocery trip was probably a really good idea. This is going to reinforce the need to do a pre-storm grocery trip for every storm going forward.... just in case.
> 
> :lol:



Hee! Hee!  I snuck out to the grocery to get essentials like reeb and spihc.  The entire bread isle only had a couple of loafs of crushed bread on the shelf.  


The only thing that was a real sacrifice was the loss of internet service!


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## riverc0il (Oct 31, 2011)

billski said:


> The only thing that was a real sacrifice was the loss of internet service!


The internets have been pretty darn dull and boring these past few days.


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## wa-loaf (Oct 31, 2011)

Mine came back sometime this afternoon. School here has been canceled again for tomorrow and trick or treating in town will be on Friday night. Most of the town still has no power. I took the day off from work because school got canceled and the woman who watches my kids (before and after school) had no power either. Went to my GF in Natick who had power and grabbed a shower then took the kids to the movies. I'm back to to work tomorrow.


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## billski (Oct 31, 2011)

riverc0il said:


> The internets have been pretty darn dull and boring these past few days.



Hey, you've got me back!  Hmm, I guess things will still be dull and boring though :smash:

Well, the only thing that has distracted me from skiing is one of our trees across the road and bountiful carnage across the rest of the property.


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## o3jeff (Nov 1, 2011)

Still none at my house, but it looks like quite few areas in town got it back overnight.


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## Nick (Nov 1, 2011)

I'm surprised I never lost power, again. this storm and Irene.  (knock on wood). My office in Marlboro was without street power (they have some heavy duty generators though) for about 24 hours.


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## MR. evil (Nov 1, 2011)

Still no power


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## gmcunni (Nov 1, 2011)

power back last night just before midnight. no cable/internet tho.


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## hammer (Nov 1, 2011)

Still out...and the inside of the house is now getting colder.  A lot of the meat in the freezer is still solid but another few days of this and it will have to be cooked or tossed.


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## drjeff (Nov 1, 2011)

3 of my 11 employees are without power still.  The towns around my office that were affected (we were right on the dividing line between where the snow piled up and caused widespread damage and where it stayed a mix for a prolonged period of time and never really piled up and caused power problems) received an estimate from CL&P today of SUNDAY before power is restored and the town that my 3 employees affected live in, which was very hard hit, has yet to receive and estmate of when the power will be back on as they're still trying to get a full assesment through all the snow/downed trees and rural roads.

As much as we on AZ all love snow,  I think that we can agree that to ease the work of the line crews, some melting would be a good thing so that they "only" have to deal with the downed trees and wires and not what is on many roads a deep snowpack around those downed trees and wires


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## Black Phantom (Nov 1, 2011)

hammer said:


> Still out...and the inside of the house is now getting colder.  A lot of the meat in the freezer is still solid but another few days of this and it will have to be cooked or tossed.



Why don't you put your food in a cooler and leave it outside?


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## 2knees (Nov 1, 2011)

no power in my town, 96% out.  no restoration estimates from cl and p.  house is down to 43 degrees.  going to pick up a generator in groton tonight that I pre-paid for.

however, I have managed to sample many new and exciting kinds of beer the last few days and a few of us got a babysitter and sent them over to a house with power (generator hooked into circuit breaker) so we could watch the steelers destroy the patriots.

what is amazing is watching the gas lines in rocky hill and hartford.  people are freaking animals.  so much for staying calm and helping each other out.


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## Madroch (Nov 1, 2011)

No power- no time table.  We were at 100% out in town until this am when they got some to commercial routes-- gas stations and stores.  Still at 91%-- and from looking around, it may take a while.  Our street was never plowed due to down trees and lines, good thing it is melting.

46 degrees in house this a.m.-- chilly but not scary or uncomfortably cold-- had some friends who had no water move in and they brought their generator-- no heat, but having lights helps.


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## 2knees (Nov 1, 2011)

Madroch said:


> No power- no time table.  We were at 100% out in town until this am when they got some to commercial routes-- gas stations and stores.  Still at 91%-- and from looking around, it may take a while.  Our street was never plowed due to down trees and lines, good thing it is melting.
> 
> 46 degrees in house this a.m.-- chilly but not scary or uncomfortably cold-- had some friends who had no water move in and they brought their generator-- no heat, but having lights helps.




What town are you in?  I want to bring an unruly mob to one of your gas stations.

have pitchforks, will travel.


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## 2knees (Nov 1, 2011)

actually, that will have to wait until tomorrow.  I think looting is on the schedule for tonight.

gonna git me some new TEEE VEEE's....


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## o3jeff (Nov 1, 2011)

You better start stocking up on gas and a good chain and lock Mr knees! I got my generator yesterday, hooked my furnace and well up to it, living large!


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## 2knees (Nov 1, 2011)

Gas and chains????  Try busch and a shotgun.


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## WWF-VT (Nov 1, 2011)

Still waiting on NStar....only 8% of the customers in my town west of Boston are without power


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## jrmagic (Nov 1, 2011)

Some parts of my town are back online. The rest is supposed to be back by tomorrow and then hopefully my place will be back on line by Thursday.


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## Madroch (Nov 1, 2011)

2knees said:


> What town are you in?  I want to bring an unruly mob to one of your gas stations.
> 
> have pitchforks, will travel.



Plenty of hooligans already in line this a.m. at 8:00.  All are welcome.



2knees said:


> actually, that will have to wait until tomorrow.  I think looting is on the schedule for tonight.
> 
> gonna git me some new TEEE VEEE's....



Two vicious guard dogs on duty...a 6 month old lab (ours) and a 2 year old labradoodle (neighbors staying with us).  They will lick your hand right off while you exit with the tee vees.


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## bvibert (Nov 1, 2011)

I'm hopeful that I have power when I return home from work in a few minutes.  At the very least my in-law's got theirs back today, and that's where we've been staying.  I desperately need a shower!


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## billski (Nov 1, 2011)

o3jeff said:


> YI got my generator yesterday, hooked my furnace and well up to it, living large!



How did you do the hookup?  Isn't the boiler hard wired?


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## andrec10 (Nov 1, 2011)

You should all look into a Generlink. Mounts behind the power meter and has a  AUTO safety shutoff. Mine works great! In fact, it works so well, I have only used it for 5 hours since it was installed 2.5 years ago! Before that, I lost power all the time..works for me!


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## o3jeff (Nov 1, 2011)

billski said:


> How did you do the hookup?  Isn't the boiler hard wired?



Yes, just buy a good plug end, a piece of romex and a couple wire nuts. Hook the plug end to one side of the romex then shut the fuse off, go into the junction box unhook the wires and hard wire it to the tail you just made. Plug it into a 12 or 14 gage extension cord and then plug it into to generator. Your basically only running the circulator pump which isn't that big of a draw.

Was going to do the same thing with my well pump but that is 220 and need I twist lock style plug which are nearly impossible to find the right one right now.

And what ever you do, please DO NOT back feed your house for everyone's safety.


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## mondeo (Nov 1, 2011)

Still 94% out here. I'm hoping that I have power back when I get home from kton on Sunday, not really expecting it before I leave Friday.


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## Glenn (Nov 2, 2011)

andrec10 said:


> You should all look into a Generlink. Mounts behind the power meter and has a  AUTO safety shutoff. Mine works great! In fact, it works so well, I have only used it for 5 hours since it was installed 2.5 years ago! Before that, I lost power all the time..works for me!



That's a great idea. However, they're pricey! I bet you could get a manual transfer switch and installation for about the same price.


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## 2knees (Nov 2, 2011)

o3jeff said:


> Yes, just buy a good plug end, a piece of romex and a couple wire nuts. Hook the plug end to one side of the romex then shut the fuse off, go into the junction box unhook the wires and hard wire it to the tail you just made. Plug it into a 12 or 14 gage extension cord and then plug it into to generator. Your basically only running the circulator pump which isn't that big of a draw.
> 
> Was going to do the same thing with my well pump but that is 220 and need I twist lock style plug which are nearly impossible to find the right one right now.
> 
> And what ever you do, please DO NOT back feed your house for everyone's safety.



people do some crazy stuff to stay warm.  I'm sure the cl and p guys would share your sentiment on the back feeding.

I'm not gonna hook up my furnace, dont feel comfortable doing it but at least we had 2 space heaters last night.  this effin blows.


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## 4aprice (Nov 2, 2011)

WoodCore said:


> I'll be without power for a few days in Waterbury, CT. Tree came down in the front yard and ripped the service line off the house. :smash:



Oh man Woodcore.  I hope you fair better then we did with Irene.  We had a tree uproot and take out the line to the house.  8 days without power because we were "low priority".  Lost it for <48 hours this time. 

One little rant (and I want to tread lightly here).  NJ was prepared for Irene and had summoned help from out of state utilities.  During our ordeal with Irene, we had these contractors come to out to our house but THEY WERE NOT ALLOWED to work on the lines (and they told us they could have fixed it) due to NJ union rules.  Not to sound anti -union but for god sakes can you suspend those rules for an emergency like Irene or this past storm?  End rant.

Alex

Lake Hopatcong, NJ


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## gmcunni (Nov 2, 2011)

schools closed until Monday now.


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## o3jeff (Nov 2, 2011)

2knees said:


> people do some crazy stuff to stay warm.  I'm sure the cl and p guys would share your sentiment on the back feeding.
> 
> I'm not gonna hook up my furnace, dont feel comfortable doing it but at least we had 2 space heaters last night.  this effin blows.


Just make sure your using good extension cords, ever feel how hot those heater cords get.

Actually it really didn't look that hard, but then again I watched my friend who worked for Kinsley generator hook up my furnace!


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## 2knees (Nov 2, 2011)

o3jeff said:


> Just make sure your using good extension cords, ever feel how hot those heater cords get.
> 
> Actually it really didn't look that hard, but then again I watched my friend who worked for Kinsley generator hook up my furnace!



yeah, i was paranoid about the cords but all is well for me now.  Wife just called and the power is back on.

finally.


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## Puck it (Nov 2, 2011)

My son at UCONN (off campus) is still without power.  Apartment complex is on well water too!


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## hammer (Nov 2, 2011)

Puck it said:


> My son at UCONN (off campus) is still without power.  Apartment complex is on well water too!


My son at UMASS Amherst wasn't without power for too long but his Internet access was spotty for a few days...which would not be a big deal except that there are a lot of assignments/quizzes that are done online now.  They ended up opening up the student center as a shelter for off-campus students.

Still no power at home, and according to National Grid all of the outages are supposed to be fixed by tomorrow night.  Right...


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## bvibert (Nov 2, 2011)

bvibert said:


> I'm hopeful that I have power when I return home from work in a few minutes.  At the very least my in-law's got theirs back today, and that's where we've been staying.  I desperately need a shower!



Didn't have power again yesterday, so it was back to the in-laws for the night.  At least I was able to get a shower.  I hope it's back up when I go home tonight!  Most of the streets around me had power last night...


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## o3jeff (Nov 2, 2011)

Mine came back on today.


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## bvibert (Nov 2, 2011)

Power is back on here.  So so STOKED to sleep in a bed tonight, even better that it's my own bed!  I wish we didn't have to throw out the contents of my fridge and freezer though.


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## billski (Nov 2, 2011)

My office is loaded with folks, primarily from So. NH. who usually work from home, but are still without power.  They don't have a clear date when power will return.  One woman said she had to ditch the contents of her fridge and freezer.


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## drjeff (Nov 2, 2011)

I had an "enjoyable" afternoon/early evening filled with 3 meetings over 8 consecutive hours in Southington, CT not too far down the road from ESPN - as I was leaving about 8:30, it looked like the massive power company restoration assault was about too happen! There were 4 convoys with 4-5 line trucks each heading North on 227 towards Bristol!


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## MR. evil (Nov 3, 2011)

Still no power in my neighborhood. They had an army of workers cleaning up the fallen trees yesterday so the line workers can come do their thing. Hoping to have power back on when I get home from work tonight.


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## hammer (Nov 3, 2011)

Still no power in my neighborhood.  We have buried cable but unfortunately we are tied into other towns that have been hit hard.


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## o3jeff (Nov 3, 2011)

Had to go to my office in Manchester, CT to grab some things, still no power and the neighborhood looked like it did Tuesday when I was there with trees, branches and wires down. A crisp 43 inside the building!


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## Nick (Nov 3, 2011)

o3jeff said:


> Had to go to my office in Manchester, CT to grab some things, still no power and the neighborhood looked like it did Tuesday when I was there with trees, branches and wires down. A crisp 43 inside the building!



Where is your office? I grew up in manchester


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## o3jeff (Nov 3, 2011)

Nick said:


> Where is your office? I grew up in manchester



On the 384 side of town. Grandview St, off of Porter.


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## Nick (Nov 3, 2011)

I grew up on the opposite side of town next to Vernon


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## Madroch (Nov 3, 2011)

Still no power... seems like those of us in the Farmington Valley (Avon, Simsbury, Farmington) and north central ct are last in line.  All towns stil have over 85% without power-- and it seems only commercial districts and the few lucky folks surrounding them have power.  My neighborhood is still a mess- no signs of clean up yet.  While nights have not been as cold, and days warmer, house is getting a couple of degrees colder each day.  44 or so this am.


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## MR. evil (Nov 3, 2011)

Just got power back


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## hammer (Nov 3, 2011)

Got power back earlier this afternoon.


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## Glenn (Nov 4, 2011)

My sister inlaw and family are still without power in South Windsor. They say it'll be on by the weekend.


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## mondeo (Nov 4, 2011)

Still no power. Lack of heat was messing with the quality of my sleep, so I'm working from VT today.

There'll be a long lunch.


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## Madroch (Nov 4, 2011)

Heard they were sending the Guard into the Farmington Valley here in CT.  Still haven't seen a single CL&P crew, or the Guard.  Took a little tour of the neighborhood yesterday and amazed at how it still looks like a war zone almost a week later--- many local roads still impassable, trees and wires, etc.  On the positive-- commercial seems good-- gas stations, grocery stores and package stores-- the necessecities are covered.


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## Warp Daddy (Nov 4, 2011)

Boy that is a difficult situation to be out that long , i feel badly for all afffected . Sure hope all get the juice back on today or tomorrow.

. 

My grandkids and daughter ( a teacher) have been out of school all week . Kids are getting antsy but at least they have power and wre only out overnitght the first nite but the rest of their surrounding area ( 495 NW of Boston)  is still hurting .


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## skijay (Nov 4, 2011)

No power yet at the office in Windsor, CT.  Still working from home.  I have electricity only because of a senior housing complex / assisted living that the line I'm connected to serves.  I got power back on Monday night.  The street that starts about 500 feet from my house is still untouched with trees and lines down.  

I do not have cable for internet - line dropped from pole to house.  Do you believe when I called to report it they actually did not comprehend this?  They wanted me to clean my cookies on my laptop to see if it resolves the problem.  I love outsourcing to a foreign country that English is a language somewhere down on the list.


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## drjeff (Nov 4, 2011)

Madroch said:


> Heard they were sending the Guard into the Farmington Valley here in CT.  Still haven't seen a single CL&P crew, or the Guard.  Took a little tour of the neighborhood yesterday and amazed at how it still looks like a war zone almost a week later--- many local roads still impassable, trees and wires, etc.  On the positive-- commercial seems good-- gas stations, grocery stores and package stores-- the necessecities are covered.



The really scary thing is in the area roughly North of I-84 and about 10 miles either side of I-91 is that how your street looks is more the norm than the anomoly!   I was just constantly in amazement at the tree damage in that area when I left my relatively unscathed world of Eastern CT and went over to Southington for some meetings.  It almost reminded me of what the swath of Massachusetts that the tornado tore through back in June looked like, the only difference was that the direction that the trees fell with this storm wasn't in as consistant a direction as you see with tornado damage


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## bvibert (Nov 4, 2011)

There's a LOT of damage.  It's not surprise for me to hear that some locations haven't been touched yet.

IMHO people are being too hard on CL&P, it's a monumental task that they're facing.  On one section of route 6 that I travel to go to work there was at least one branch down on the lines spanning between each set of poles.  And that was just on one mile long section of road.  It's a pretty major route and it took them several days to make it passable in more than one lane.


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## WJenness (Nov 4, 2011)

bvibert said:


> There's a LOT of damage.  It's not surprise for me to hear that some locations haven't been touched yet.
> 
> IMHO people are being too hard on CL&P, it's a monumental task that they're facing.  On one section of route 6 that I travel to go to work there was at least one branch down on the lines spanning between each set of poles.  And that was just on one mile long section of road.  It's a pretty major route and it took them several days to make it passable in more than one lane.



I agree.

During times like this, it seems like the worst of some people comes out where all they say is 'No one is helping ME." without realizing that there are hundreds of thousands of people in the same (if not worse) situation, and OF COURSE the utilities want to get you back up and running as quickly as possible... There's just a LOT to do out there.

-w


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## drjeff (Nov 4, 2011)

bvibert said:


> There's a LOT of damage.  It's not surprise for me to hear that some locations haven't been touched yet.
> 
> IMHO people are being too hard on CL&P, it's a monumental task that they're facing.  On one section of route 6 that I travel to go to work there was at least one branch down on the lines spanning between each set of poles.  And that was just on one mile long section of road.  It's a pretty major route and it took them several days to make it passable in more than one lane.



Agreed!  I realize that there's a certain amount of frustration going on.  But to consider that this storm caused close to 1 million people between all the power companies in CT alone to loose power, and the vast majority of the cause of the power loss is directly attributable to trees coming down on the power lines and poles.  Just the tree clearing effort alone in massive, and as someone who has used a chainsaw just for a few small/medium trees every now and then in my own yard,  clearing away a tree isn't a quick process most of the time, and unless you also have some type of heavy equipment to help lift (sometimes even before you finish the chainsaw work) and clear the tree debris, it's not easy work.  And in many cases all that has to be done BEFORE the line crews can get in, asses if the line can be restring from the poles or if new line needs to be run.

I think the perfect example of how much more difficult this task has been, especially compared to Irene is what has happened in CT to the "other" main power company, UI.  On Sunday they were saying that the expected that all their customers would have power restored by Monday evening.  Most were.  However, the last of their customers finally had their power restored yesterday (Thursday).

Just like many ski area owners have realized over these last few years,  if you cut down selective trees in certain areas, customers are happy and love the results!!  (I had to try and get some type of ski reference into this thread, even if it was a weak attempt!  :lol: )  Maybe the power companies and the State should see the same light!


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## o3jeff (Nov 4, 2011)

Have power back at work, putting in my 4 hours for the week.


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## hammer (Nov 4, 2011)

WJenness said:


> I agree.
> 
> During times like this, it seems like the worst of some people comes out where all they say is 'No one is helping ME." without realizing that there are hundreds of thousands of people in the same (if not worse) situation, and OF COURSE the utilities want to get you back up and running as quickly as possible... There's just a LOT to do out there.
> 
> -w



On a town message board I did ask about power status for my street...but I hated doing it because I didn't want it to sound like all I cared about was my situation.

I don't know about the specifics of how the crews have worked, but from what I have seen the damage in the Lowell area was extensive, and I do believe that the crews worked as quickly as they could to get our power back on.

When the snow settles and the tree debris is cleared, however, I do think that there are questions that need to be answered/addressed regarding the fragile state of our power distribution system.  We need to have towns seriously look into burying lines and trees near lines need to be trimmed on a more frequent basis...regardless of whether the property owners want it done or not...


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## bvibert (Nov 4, 2011)

I'm not trying to minimize people's frustrations.  It's a tough situation all around.  I just think it's unfair to try to place all the blame on CL&P.

I understand that some of the transmission lines were damaged in the storm.  Maybe some of the crews have been busy repairing the backbone that serves the communities that haven't seen much attention?  It doesn't make much sense to fix the lines going to the houses if there's nothing to feed them anyway.


----------



## WJenness (Nov 4, 2011)

hammer said:


> When the snow settles and the tree debris is cleared, however, I do think that there are questions that need to be answered/addressed regarding the fragile state of our power distribution system.  We need to have towns seriously look into burying lines and trees near lines need to be trimmed on a more frequent basis...regardless of whether the property owners want it done or not...



Agreed.

With the 'economy' being in the state it has been in the past few years, a lot of that low to medium level maintenance on trees / lines has gotten deferred, and when you don't have big storms come through, it's not a big deal... but then when something like this happens... well, this is the result...

Also, my reaction to people complaining about their situation is mainly a result to some folks I've seen on the news / posting online calling for everyone who works for the power companies to be fired, etc... Not you... :beer:

-w


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## 2knees (Nov 4, 2011)

bvibert said:


> I'm not trying to minimize people's frustrations.  It's a tough situation all around.  I just think it's unfair to try to place all the blame on CL&P.



sorry but i couldnt disagree more with this statement.  A few days, yes, people need to get a grip but having entire towns untouched 7 days after this started is downright criminal.  Why is it taking so long?  Because CL and P basically eliminated their preventive maintenance routines, did not pay the outside contractors for Irene's work, which is why Mass has 1400 out of state workers 3 days ago and we had something like 8 crews.  Also, they have cut their overall staff in the last 10 years down to a skeleton crew all the while charging CT users the highest electricity rates outside of Hawaii.  

Yeah, but don't blame them, they're the good guys.

sorry brian, but this mentality touches a nerve with me.  What the F^&* are we paying for?????


----------



## Greg (Nov 4, 2011)

2knees said:


> sorry but i couldnt disagree more with this statement.  A few days, yes, people need to get a grip but having entire towns untouched 7 days after this started is downright criminal.  Why is it taking so long?  Because CL and P basically eliminated their preventive maintenance routines, did not pay the outside contractors for Irene's work, which is why Mass has 1400 out of state workers 3 days ago and we had something like 8 crews.  Also, they have cut their overall staff in the last 10 years down to a skeleton crew all the while charging CT users the highest electricity rates outside of Hawaii.
> 
> Yeah, but don't blame them, they're the good guys.
> 
> sorry brian, but this mentality touches a nerve with me.  What the F^&* are we paying for?????



I got power back yesterday morning. The first thing I did Sunday morning was put food from my fridge outside in a cooler to preserve what I had. I luckily found a semi-open grocery store and stocked up on canned goods and water. We eventually found a gas station Sunday afternoon with a manageable line so I filled up both cars as well as a 5 gallon can. Then I spent the rest of the day calling several places in southern CT (which wasn't hit as hard) looking for a generator.

Got a tip early Monday morning of a delivery of 70 to the Bridgeport Home Depot. Went down there and within an hour was walking out with one. A quick trip to an electrical supply store, and I had the thing hooked up by 2 pm Monday. BTW, 30 amp twist-lock plugged into the generator, wired with 10-4 wire to a typical 3-pole drier plug. Flip the main breaker off, flip the drier circuit on, and you get 30 amp service to your panel. Safe? Probably, if you manage your power consumption carefully. Legal? No way, but you do what you gotta do. We had heat and running hot water. What was a pretty uncomfortable situation became just a minor inconvenience. Also, the insurance company is issuing a $500 check, chalked up to "emergency living expense". It's covering roughly half of the generator investment.

The lesson I learned was the only person you can rely on during a situation like this is yourself and to be proactive about things. Sitting around waiting to be "rescued", and then complaining about it when it takes too long is foolish. There's often a lot of comments about media hype when storms like this are coming. This time it came to pass, so you just never know. I know personally, I was much more prepared for Irene, which was nothing, than this storm. When I woke up to 19" of heavy snow on Sunday, I knew it was time to act quickly.

Lots of chatter about CL&P's short-comings here, placing the blame on management (always the easy target), etc. They lose money when your house is dark so they want power restored to your home as quickly as you do. The fact is operationally they are probably still reeling from Irene which was only two months ago. Maybe some bad upper level decision making? Probably, but I'm sure they've been moving as quickly as possible. The bottom line is during something like this, you have to take matters into your own hands and don't waste time and energy assigning blame.


----------



## 2knees (Nov 4, 2011)

Greg said:


> The lesson I learned was the only person you can rely on during a situation like this is yourself and to be proactive about things. Sitting around waiting to be "rescued", and then complaining about it when it takes too long is foolish. There's often a lot of comments about media hype when storms like this are coming. This time it came to pass, so you just never know. I know personally, I was much more prepared for Irene, which was nothing, than this storm. When I woke up to 19" of heavy snow on Sunday, I knew it was time to act quickly.



I hope your not directing that at me.  I havent complained at all.  I disagree with the sentiment that CL and P shouldnt be held 100% accountable.  Big ass difference there chief.

btw, you and i can afford generators and take out and such.  What about the scores of people who cant yet still pay the same outrageous rates?  Seems to me we should be getting exceptional service and restoration, not 3rd rate.


----------



## Greg (Nov 4, 2011)

2knees said:


> I hope your not directing that at me.  I havent complained at all.  I disagree with the sentiment that CL and P shouldnt be held 100% accountable.  Big ass difference there chief.
> 
> btw, you and i can afford generators and take out and such.  What about the scores of people who cant yet still pay the same outrageous rates?  Seems to me we should be getting exceptional service and restoration, not 3rd rate.



Not directed at you. I've just seen so much whining about CL&P, mostly on Facebook. Take a look at CL&P's FB page. Listen, I'm sure they could manage this disaster better, but the reality is none of us exactly know what their disaster recovery plan is, and whether or not they are executing it as best they could.

And yeah, I'm sure there are many people out there that can't afford a generator. I would be shocked if any of them are posting about how bad CL&P sucks on the Internet from their iPhones...

This really is an unprecedented event. And I'm sure 20" of snow made recovery a lot more challenging at least early in the week.


----------



## drjeff (Nov 4, 2011)

hammer said:


> On a town message board I did ask about power status for my street...but I hated doing it because I didn't want it to sound like all I cared about was my situation.
> 
> I don't know about the specifics of how the crews have worked, but from what I have seen the damage in the Lowell area was extensive, and I do believe that the crews worked as quickly as they could to get our power back on.
> 
> When the snow settles and the tree debris is cleared, however, I do think that there are questions that need to be answered/addressed regarding the fragile state of our power distribution system.  We need to have towns seriously look into burying lines and trees near lines need to be trimmed on a more frequent basis...regardless of whether the property owners want it done or not...




The burrying lines issue.  Matt Noyes, yup that well respected around here meterologist from NECN, put up a tweet early this week pertaining to Massachusetts and what it would cost and how long it would take to bury the rest of the lines around the state - remember that much of the urban areas already have underground utilities.

To bury the lines for the rest of Massachusetts, it would cost and estimated 1 BILLION dollars and take about 40 years.  And BTW, the estimated lifespan of those burried cables is 50 years.  It was a very eye opening, thought provoking tweet that Matt put up!  That begs the follow up question of just how much of an increase in utility rates is one willing to pay for something that is overkill 99%+ of the time??


----------



## bigbog (Nov 4, 2011)

Just a quick $.01, I think lots of homeowners...*along the line route*_.._.have had their hands tied by local regulations limiting just what levels of responsibiliity homeowners can use.....  In some instances people haven't  been allowed to take necessary precautions = branch clearing.... via local governmental regs for years.....because those trees/branches weren't on/over homeowner's property...etc..


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## 2knees (Nov 4, 2011)

Greg said:


> Not directed at you. I've just seen so much whining about CL&P, mostly on Facebook. Take a look at CL&P's FB page. Listen, I'm sure they could manage this disaster better, but the reality is none of us exactly know what their disaster recovery plan is, and whether or not they are executing it as best they could.
> 
> And yeah, I'm sure there are many people out there that can't afford a generator. I would be shocked if any of them are posting about how bad CL&P sucks on the Internet from their iPhones...
> 
> This really is an unprecedented event. And I'm sure 20" of snow made recovery a lot more challenging at least early in the week.



I probably should've worded my first sentence better.  Having no power doesnt bother me that much.  I kinda like the unplugged life at times.  What bothers me is the backlash some people have to others who question CL & P's readiness, execution, planning etc.  I think we should be upset.  Where the hell is all our money going?  Oh, I know.  Straight to the shareholders.  Not to preventative maintenance, disaster preparedness, outside contractors.....you know, providing a quality service.

I have power, have had it since wednesday.  I guess I could just take the stance that it aint my problem anymore but to see the utter lack of response in vernon, farmington, avon, simsbury etc is just ridiculous, in my opinion.


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## drjeff (Nov 4, 2011)

Greg said:


> Not directed at you. I've just seen so much whining about CL&P, mostly on Facebook. Take a look at CL&P's FB page. Listen, I'm sure they could manage this disaster better, but the reality is none of us exactly know what their disaster recovery plan is, and whether or not they are executing it as best they could.
> 
> And yeah, I'm sure there are many people out there that can't afford a generator. I would be shocked if any of them are posting about how bad CL&P sucks on the Internet from their iPhones...
> 
> This really is an unprecedented event. And I'm sure 20" of snow made recovery a lot more challenging at least early in the week.



Well put Greg!

I think the key word there is DISASTER.  Not a planned disaster, but a disaster.  And as much as one likes to think that they are prepared for a disaster, very often there tends to be a few variables added into the disaster equation that even the best of planners didn't consider.

Heck, in one sense, I think that if you told people that on 2 seperate, completely unrelated weather events of a completely different nature that happend roughly 2 months apart that CL&P were able to restore 700K+ customers one time and almost 850K customers the 2nd time both within about a week, especially considering that they never had outtages of that size EVER before, and hadn't had an outtage much over 100k customers in DECADES, that's pretty impressive.  But if you're that last customer to get restored, it sucks!


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## Greg (Nov 4, 2011)

2knees said:


> I probably should've worded my first sentence better.  Having no power doesnt bother me that much.  I kinda like the unplugged life at times.  What bothers me is the backlash some people have to others who question CL & P's readiness, execution, planning etc.  I think we should be upset.  Where the hell is all our money going?  Oh, I know.  Straight to the shareholders.  Not to preventative maintenance, disaster preparedness, outside contractors.....you know, providing a quality service.
> 
> I have power, have had it since wednesday.  I guess I could just take the stance that it aint my problem anymore but to see the utter lack of response in vernon, farmington, avon, simsbury etc is just ridiculous, in my opinion.



Damn 1%-ers. :smash: Sorry. Not going there... :lol:

I guess the question is do people think CL&P is intentionally neglecting the Farmington Valley? I don't think any of us have any business questioning the execution of their recovery plan without even having any knowledge of their recovery plan. DrJeff said it well: there's always going to be someone to get restored last. All in all, this is a monumental recovery. Not sure where they are in the process, but we're still within a week. If they can get close to 100% by midnight Monday as they project, I would say they did pretty well.


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## 2knees (Nov 4, 2011)

Greg said:


> Damn 1%-ers. :smash: Sorry. Not going there... :lol:
> 
> *I walked into that one....*:dunce:
> 
> I guess the question is do people think CL&P is intentionally neglecting the Farmington Valley? I don't think any of us have any business questioning the execution of their recovery plan without even having any knowledge of their recovery plan. DrJeff said it well: there's always going to be someone to get restored last. All in all, this is a monumental recovery. Not sure where they are in the process, but we're still within a week. If they can get close to 100% by midnight Monday as they project, I would say they did pretty well.




I'm sure they aren't intentionally neglecting anyone and yes, someone will always be last.  I'm not going to repeat what i've already stated but I dont think we are looking at this from the same perspective.  Which is fine.  I have my opinion on it and you and Jeff have another.


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## hammer (Nov 4, 2011)

drjeff said:


> The burrying lines issue.  Matt Noyes, yup that well respected around here meterologist from NECN, put up a tweet early this week pertaining to Massachusetts and what it would cost and how long it would take to bury the rest of the lines around the state - remember that much of the urban areas already have underground utilities.
> 
> To bury the lines for the rest of Massachusetts, it would cost and estimated 1 BILLION dollars and take about 40 years.  And BTW, the estimated lifespan of those burried cables is 50 years.  It was a very eye opening, thought provoking tweet that Matt put up!  That begs the follow up question of just how much of an increase in utility rates is one willing to pay for something that is overkill 99%+ of the time??


Like any project, I'm sure that there is a partial solution that will still be expensive but will be of significant benefit.  We may not have to bury all power and utility lines, just those in the most vulnerable areas.

My 16-18 YO neighborhood (like several others in my town) has all underground utilities, but we are at the mercy of the overhead lines nearby which are very vulnerable to storms like the one last weekend.


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## wa-loaf (Nov 4, 2011)

Except for a few outlying folks in MA I think power is on in most places and they're already talking about investigations here. It seems if whole towns in CT are still without power something is really wrong with CLP

Things can change pretty quickly with a utility. In the ice storm 2 years ago a smallish utility that serves Fitchburg and surrounding areas, Unitel, really dropped the ball. Towns were without power for weeks. They rightfully got reamed over it. This time around they were the first to have all their customers hooked back up, despite being in an area that got hit pretty hard.


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## hammer (Nov 4, 2011)

wa-loaf said:


> Except for a few outlying folks in MA I think power is on in most places and they're already talking about investigations here. It seems if whole towns in CT are still without power something is really wrong with CLP
> 
> Things can change pretty quickly with a utility. In the ice storm 2 years ago a smallish utility that serves Fitchburg and surrounding areas, Unitel, really dropped the ball. Towns were without power for weeks. They rightfully got reamed over it. This time around they were the first to have all their customers hooked back up, despite being in an area that got hit pretty hard.


The only thing that bothers me about the "investigations" is that they will likely result in a lot of political "finger-pointing" at how the repairs were done and in the end nothing will happen to mitigate the problems when another storm like this happens again.

It has been interesting to hear very little about Unitil after this storm...maybe there's something to be learned there.


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## 2knees (Nov 4, 2011)

wa-loaf said:


> Except for a few outlying folks in MA I think power is on in most places and they're already talking about investigations here. It seems if whole towns in CT are still without power something is really wrong with CLP



Bloomfield,  82% out right now.
Avon, 73% out
East Windsor, 62% out
Ellington 76% out.
Farmington 89% out
New Fairfield 68% out
Simsbury 83% out
South Windsor 65% out
Stafford 97% out
Tolland 63% out
West Hartford 75% out
Windsor Locks 63% out.

I'm not talking about tiny little hill towns here.  And there are plenty of those to list also.  Except for possibly Stafford, all of these are reasonably to heavily populated areas.


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## wa-loaf (Nov 4, 2011)

hammer said:


> The only thing that bothers me about the "investigations" is that they will likely result in a lot of political "finger-pointing" at how the repairs were done and in the end nothing will happen to mitigate the problems when another storm like this happens again.
> 
> It has been interesting to hear very little about Unitil after this storm...maybe there's something to be learned there.



I think a good post mortem investigation is a good thing. Hopefully politics will stay out of it. In the case of Unitel it definitely worked. They overhauled their disaster plans and were really prepared this time.


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## gmcunni (Nov 4, 2011)

http://www.hasclpfixedmyfuckingpower.com/


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## o3jeff (Nov 4, 2011)

gmcunni said:


> http://www.hasclpfixedmyfuckingpower.com/



Lol


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## Black Phantom (Nov 4, 2011)

2knees said:


> Bloomfield,  82% out right now.
> Avon, 73% out
> East Windsor, 62% out
> Ellington 76% out.
> ...



Wow. That is unreal. Sorry to hear this.


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## bvibert (Nov 4, 2011)

2knees said:


> Bloomfield,  82% out right now.
> Avon, 73% out
> East Windsor, 62% out
> Ellington 76% out.
> ...



Do you realize just how many people were without power?  We're down to below 300,000, which sure is a lot, but it's one hell of a lot better than, what, 850,000 6 days ago?

Looking down through the list I'm seeing a lot less 97-100% out than I was a few days ago.  You're making it sound like they're sitting around drinking tea or something.  They're working, they just can't be everywhere at once.

Believe me, I'm with you corporate greed and all that, and I believe that there should have been more preventative trimming and other maintenance, but the scope of this disaster is huge and unprecedented.  Do they deserve some blame?  Yes, absolutely.  I don't believe the amount of bashing they're getting is warranted though.


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## 2knees (Nov 4, 2011)

bvibert said:


> Do you realize just how many people were without power?  We're down to below 300,000, which sure is a lot, but it's one hell of a lot better than, what, 850,000 6 days ago?
> 
> Looking down through the list I'm seeing a lot less 97-100% out than I was a few days ago.  You're making it sound like they're sitting around drinking tea or something.  They're working, they just can't be everywhere at once.
> 
> Believe me, I'm with you corporate greed and all that, and I believe that there should have been more preventative trimming and other maintenance, but the scope of this disaster is huge and unprecedented.  Do they deserve some blame?  Yes, absolutely.  I don't believe the amount of bashing they're getting is warranted though.



You're making my point for me.  It's been a week.  I sure as hell would hope they could make progress in a week with no wind or rain.

And why cant they be everywhere at once?  Because in times like this, any power company relies on outside contractors and other state's utilities to help.  Why did mass and nh get 4x the crews while we had 3x the outages?  Cause they paid them for Irene work and in large part, CL and P has not.  Would you go do a job if somebody still hadnt paid you for one you did a month ago?  I wouldnt.  And why did they lobby to get their staffing levels cut in 2008?  to save money.  did our rates go down?  mine sure didnt.  I'm not blaming the lineworkers, I'm squarely placing the blame on the corporation.  And did you know that NU, the holder of CL and P, has already made it known that they fully intend to pass on the cost of both of these events to the consumer and not the company.


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## 2knees (Nov 4, 2011)

why am i so fired up?  I just read this whole thread again.

time for funday friday......


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## billski (Nov 4, 2011)

Congrats to all who have their power back.  For those that do not, I'd go shopping for lodging vouchers.  Serious.


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## bvibert (Nov 4, 2011)

2knees said:


> You're making my point for me.  It's been a week.  I sure as hell would hope they could make progress in a week with no wind or rain.



I don't see how I'm making your point for you?  It's been 6 days and they have made a lot of progress.  Since I posted that 1.5 hours ago they got almost 10,000 additional customers online.

Unless you have some sort of inside info I'd take everything you hear on the news with a grain of salt.  Just because they claim that CL&P didn't pay most of the crews from Irene does not mean it's true.  I'd need to see some proof before I believe that argument.


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## bvibert (Nov 4, 2011)

2knees said:


> why am i so fired up?



Beats me?  Did you inhale too many fumes from your generator?


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## Madroch (Nov 5, 2011)

Still no power in my hood in Avon, and yet to see a utility truck despite at least 8 poles and 2 transformers on the ground in the immediate vicinity.  Guard came by yesterday and at least made the roads passable.  Too tired to chime in on the clp debate... Maybe when I have power in about a week.


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## billski (Nov 5, 2011)

Madroch said:


> Still no power in my hood in Avon, and yet to see a utility truck despite at least 8 poles and 2 transformers on the ground in the immediate vicinity.  Guard came by yesterday and at least made the roads passable.  Too tired to chime in on the clp debate... Maybe when I have power in about a week.



Bummer Madroch.  Too bad there isn't a lot of snowpack.  You can rent a condo at the slopes for dirt cheap this time of year.  

You either must be at the end of the line, or you're late on your payment :angry:


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## mondeo (Nov 5, 2011)

According to the website I got power back sometime tonight. Can't tell, I'm in VT.

As far as people bitching about cl-p, have you seen how many trees are down? Of course they're going to get to the hardest hit places last. If you have to go house to house like a lot of places I've seen, you do that after the less hard hit towns which you can get 100 people back at a time. There were 5 times as many trees down for this as there were for Irene. There's no precedent for this. The fact that an entire town has a high percentage left doesn't mean anything, clp has to look at the quickest way to get the most people back. In this case it meant ignoring Farmington for a little while.

As far as clp not paying other people goes, were the bills from Irene past due? Its business to business, I'd assume they weren't. So what's the problem?

Personally, I'll take the lower electric bills if it means going without power for a week every fifty years.


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## Madroch (Nov 5, 2011)

From what i can tell and have been told-One line ends at the house next door (simsbury- no power). Other line ends at my house ( Avon- no power either)   Much more damage near me in the simsbury line.  The Avon line is only out for a mile or so near my house- maybe not enough homes to warrant attention.

Cold tonight.... I'll be shocked if clp makes the midnight Sunday deadline-  lot of work to be done in my area-- new transformers, new poles, substation issues( or so the rumor mill suggests). I know nothing about power except that I don't have it.


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## Madroch (Nov 6, 2011)

Okay, So now they say wed by midnight for us.  Unreal.


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## deadheadskier (Nov 6, 2011)

god damn

that's ridiculous.  My folks lived in Burlington, CT for a number of years.  I'm sure there old home up on Johnny Cake is going through the same issues.

Local hotels must be gouging people big time


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## hammer (Nov 6, 2011)

deadheadskier said:


> god damn
> 
> that's ridiculous.  My folks lived in Burlington, CT for a number of years.  I'm sure there old home up on Johnny Cake is going through the same issues.
> 
> Local hotels must be gouging people big time


I would hope that hotels couldn't charge higher rates...we didn't need a room but I know someone who did and the hotel rates were not increased.


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## gmcunni (Nov 6, 2011)

Madroch said:


> Okay, So now they say wed by midnight for us.  Unreal.



WTF? that sucks!  Hopefully it doesn't take that long.


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## gmcunni (Nov 6, 2011)

Madroch said:


> Okay, So now they say wed by midnight for us.  Unreal.



fwiw, home depot down this way has generators in stock.


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## Madroch (Nov 6, 2011)

To add insult to injury.. my chainsaw died today mid clear...on top of the pull cord on my snow blower snapping last Sunday, the only time I didn't (couldn't) use the electric start. What next? 

Still no power.


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## billski (Nov 6, 2011)

suck es vou!

Our freecycle mail list has temporarily extended its listing to cover "borrowing" equipment for recovery/repair.


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## bvibert (Nov 7, 2011)

deadheadskier said:


> My folks lived in Burlington, CT for a number of years. I'm sure there old home up on Johnny Cake is going through the same issues.



That's quite possible.  I saw several damaged lines in that area on my way through yesterday evening.


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## soposkier (Nov 7, 2011)

deadheadskier said:


> god damn
> 
> that's ridiculous.  My folks lived in Burlington, CT for a number of years.  I'm sure there old home up on Johnny Cake is going through the same issues.
> 
> Local hotels must be gouging people big time



Wouldn't that be illegal for hotels to price gouge?  (not that that would necessarily stop some from doing it)


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## deadheadskier (Nov 7, 2011)

soposkier said:


> Wouldn't that be illegal for hotels to price gouge?  (not that that would necessarily stop some from doing it)



Depends

I used to work at a hotel in Portland, ME.  Busiest weekend of the year was Camper's weekend in the summer time.  This is the middle weekend of summer camps when parents come up and spend a weekend with their kids away from camp. Rooms that weekend were sold at $300 per night.

There was a couple of bad storms during my time there that caused many in the local area to lose power for a few days.  Now, the GM of the hotel could have set the rate at $300, perhaps even higher as the demand was there.  Would selling the rooms at $300 be considered gouging under the eyes of the law?  Probably not.  Charging more than $300 might draw attention.  The GM of the hotel always did the 'right' thing during those times and rented the rooms for $99 figuring the good will he was building in the community would be worth more in the long run than getting as much money as he possible could out of people during a time of need.


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## Geoff (Nov 7, 2011)

deadheadskier said:


> Depends
> 
> I used to work at a hotel in Portland, ME.  Busiest weekend of the year was Camper's weekend in the summer time.  This is the middle weekend of summer camps when parents come up and spend a weekend with their kids away from camp. Rooms that weekend were sold at $300 per night.
> 
> There was a couple of bad storms during my time there that caused many in the local area to lose power for a few days.  Now, the GM of the hotel could have set the rate at $300, perhaps even higher as the demand was there.  Would selling the rooms at $300 be considered gouging under the eyes of the law?  Probably not.  Charging more than $300 might draw attention.  The GM of the hotel always did the 'right' thing during those times and rented the rooms for $99 figuring the good will he was building in the community would be worth more in the long run than getting as much money as he possible could out of people during a time of need.



The B&B across the street from the Long Trail Brewery in Bridgewater, VT was charging $200 the day of the Hurricane Irene flood to out-of-staters stranded on Route 4 with all the roads closed.   That's for a room the size of a closet with no electricity and no running water.


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## soposkier (Nov 7, 2011)

deadheadskier said:


> Depends
> 
> I used to work at a hotel in Portland, ME.  Busiest weekend of the year was Camper's weekend in the summer time.  This is the middle weekend of summer camps when parents come up and spend a weekend with their kids away from camp. Rooms that weekend were sold at $300 per night.
> 
> There was a couple of bad storms during my time there that caused many in the local area to lose power for a few days.  Now, the GM of the hotel could have set the rate at $300, perhaps even higher as the demand was there.  Would selling the rooms at $300 be considered gouging under the eyes of the law?  Probably not.  Charging more than $300 might draw attention.  The GM of the hotel always did the 'right' thing during those times and rented the rooms for $99 figuring the good will he was building in the community would be worth more in the long run than getting as much money as he possible could out of people during a time of need.




I guess hotel rates would be hard to gauge in the eyes of the law, as they flucuate so much anyways as compared to common items such as milk, bread and water which you hear about the AG going after during shortages.


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## drjeff (Nov 7, 2011)

soposkier said:


> I guess hotel rates would be hard to gauge in the eyes of the law, as they flucuate so much anyways as compared to common items such as milk, bread and water which you hear about the AG going after during shortages.



Hotels do that all the time -look at the Renaissance Hotel at Patribot Place - most nights of the year its in the $99-$139 a night range, but if its there's a Patriots game that weekend or a big concert at Gillette then that same room will be going for the full rack rate listed on the back of the door of $499 a night range  Same thing at the casino's except the usual "excuse" for full rack rate is often just that its Friday or Saturday night, reguardless of the time of year or the entertainment, and if they weren't getting folks paying those rates, they wouldn't charge them. Right? I guess that's all in the eye of the consumer paying for it


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## Madroch (Nov 7, 2011)

Umh... Hearing rumuors of another full week for parts of the valley.. still poles, transformers and wires everywhere in my hood.  See tons of crews at the local DD and gas stations but none on the streets.


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## Greg (Nov 7, 2011)

Madroch said:


> Umh... Hearing rumuors of another full week for parts of the valley.. still poles, transformers and wires everywhere in my hood.  See tons of crews at the local DD and gas stations but none on the streets.



You have a generator yet? It made the 5 days we were out quite tolerable. Actually nice being a bit disconnected actually. I caught up on sleep in a major way.


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## deadheadskier (Nov 7, 2011)

Greg said:


> I caught up on sleep in a major way.



I lost sleep in a major way due to one of my neighbors. :lol: Guy with the generator was two streets over, probably 100 yards away and I could hear that thing running all night long.  Easy to let go and deal when I knew I had heat and he probably didn't.


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## Madroch (Nov 7, 2011)

We have a generator- borrowed from folks who got power back last week.   But not wired into the heat. While it is not intolerable, it has grown quite old.   I was fine through sat. Sun okay until they cancelled more school.. Today I am  just pissed.   We have been scrambling to find child care or taking time off from work, shuttling the kids to friends for sleepovers eating out way too much.   It is hectic, expensive and far from restful.


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## Madroch (Nov 7, 2011)

Seeing zero progress day after day is infuriating.  It's like groundhog day every day when I return from work.  No removal of wires, poles etc. Let alone any sign of repair activity.  Seriously, the second week feels insulting.


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## deadheadskier (Nov 7, 2011)

(((vibes))) madroch

I'd be SO pissed to be in your situation. The disaster sounds to be unprecedented, but the unprepared response even worse.  

The thing that blows my mind is Avon is one of the wealthiest towns in the Hartford region with I can only assume massive tax rates.  You would think the town DPW would be working 24-7 to clear debris in support of CL&P.  It doesn't sound like that's happening.


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## deadheadskier (Nov 7, 2011)

(((vibes))) madroch

I'd be SO pissed to be in your situation. The disaster sounds to be unprecedented, but the unprepared response even worse.  

The thing that blows my mind is Avon is one of the wealthiest towns in the Hartford region with I can only assume massive tax rates.  You would think the town DPW would be working 24-7 to clear debris in support of CL&P.  It doesn't sound like that's happening.


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## 2knees (Nov 8, 2011)

deadheadskier said:


> (((vibes))) madroch
> 
> I'd be SO pissed to be in your situation. The disaster sounds to be unprecedented, but the unprepared response even worse.
> 
> The thing that blows my mind is Avon is one of the wealthiest towns in the Hartford region with I can only assume massive tax rates.  You would think the town DPW would be working 24-7 to clear debris in support of CL&P.  It doesn't sound like that's happening.



town dpw crews can't clear trees that have even dead lines in them.  they have to wait for a line crew to clear the wires.  that was one of the biggest frustrations towns all over the state had.  they couldnt even begin cleanup and to make it worse, cl&p would tell towns that a line crew would be coming at X time and then never show up.  Towns would send their crews to the spot and then sit and wait.  doing nothing.


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## ctenidae (Nov 8, 2011)

I got a call from CL&P yesterday, automated message asking me to call if I was still out of power. Must mean they're about wrapped up adn want to make sure they didn't miss anyone.

Of course, we never lost power, but it's good they do that, and that they seem to be about done restoring power.


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## Madroch (Nov 8, 2011)

Power.  Serious manpower in the hood.  10-13 trucks replacing poles, stringing lines.  Still going through the night.  Impressive once they got here.


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## Edd (Nov 8, 2011)

Nice!  That must feel awesome after such a long wait.


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## drjeff (Nov 9, 2011)

Madroch said:


> Power.  Serious manpower in the hood.  10-13 trucks replacing poles, stringing lines.  Still going through the night.  Impressive once they got here.



My strong hunch is that this is what the committess/commissions being set up to investigate the response and restoration effort will eventually find.  And that is that given the magnitude of destruction over such a large area, that ultimately the most efficient way to restore power to all customers was to keep the crews in large groups that are capable of handling large distances with multiple downed poles, etc more efficiently than to split that crew of say 10-13 trucks up into 2 or 3 crews of 3-4 trucks each.  Would these smaller crew sizes have presented a more visible presence over a wider area, likely,  but would that really have expedited the restoration project??


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## mondeo (Nov 9, 2011)

drjeff said:


> My strong hunch is that this is what the committess/commissions being set up to investigate the response and restoration effort will eventually find. And that is that given the magnitude of destruction over such a large area, that ultimately the most efficient way to restore power to all customers was to keep the crews in large groups that are capable of handling large distances with multiple downed poles, etc more efficiently than to split that crew of say 10-13 trucks up into 2 or 3 crews of 3-4 trucks each. Would these smaller crew sizes have presented a more visible presence over a wider area, likely, but would that really have expedited the restoration project??


My hunch is that the commitees/commissions being set up will be pure witch hunts with no benefit coming out of them.


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## Madroch (Nov 9, 2011)

Methinkest Mondeo is correct.


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## Glenn (Nov 10, 2011)

mondeo said:


> My hunch is that the commitees/commissions being set up will be pure witch hunts with no benefit coming out of them.



This. 

They'll get rid of the CEO or a few of the top brass, everyone will feel better...and in reality, nothing with change. Except tax payer dollars will be wasted on a few studies and commitee reviews. 

As the kids would say: "whateves"


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## drjeff (Nov 10, 2011)

mondeo said:


> My hunch is that the commitees/commissions being set up will be pure witch hunts with no benefit coming out of them.



Totally agree with this!

I think that the state of CT has far more pressing issues to deal with now than this.  And maybe if they spent as much time dealing with actual problems instead of just trying to makes excuses we wouldn't have as many problems as we currently do!


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## bigbog (Nov 10, 2011)

HAVE to have a committee, how else would a couple meeting/lunches be explainable..


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## Glenn (Nov 10, 2011)

drjeff said:


> I think that the state of CT has far more pressing issues to deal with now than this.



Like that multi BILLION dollar busline project that won't ease any traffic. Let's get on that! :lol:


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## Geoff (Nov 10, 2011)

drjeff said:


> Totally agree with this!
> 
> I think that the state of CT has far more pressing issues to deal with now than this.  And maybe if they spent as much time dealing with actual problems instead of just trying to makes excuses we wouldn't have as many problems as we currently do!



There are only three states with a state & local tax burden of more than 11%.   New Jersey (11.8%), New York (11.7%), and Connecticut (11.1%).   Connecticut is #1 for per-capita state & local tax burden ($7,256).   #1 in property tax rates.   #3 in personal income tax rates.

That part of the country is going to tax themselves into the 3rd world.


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## drjeff (Nov 10, 2011)

Geoff said:


> There are only three states with a state & local tax burden of more than 11%.   New Jersey (11.8%), New York (11.7%), and Connecticut (11.1%).   Connecticut is #1 for per-capita state & local tax burden ($7,256).   #1 in property tax rates.   #3 in personal income tax rates.
> 
> That part of the country is going to tax themselves into the 3rd world.



Sooner or later, *maybe* my state will realize that is this modern era of telecommunications and more and more GLOBAL telecommunting that folks making mega bucks on Wall Street DON'T have to live within say 50 miles of Wall Street if they don't want to, but yet still make their Wall Street Mega $$.  Since with some of the incomes your talking about, a percent or 2 less tax wise IS a significant number, and many of the folks making the big $$'s got their the old fashioned way (as the old Smith Barney commercials used to say  ) they "Earrrnnnnnnnnedddd IT!" and as such like to keep it

The funny thing though property tax wise, is that my house in CT (which has an assesed value comfortably greater than my place in VT) actually has a lower property tax bill than my place in VT!  But then the entire VT property tax issue  would be at least a 50 page rant thread of its own


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## soposkier (Nov 10, 2011)

Geoff said:


> There are only three states with a state & local tax burden of more than 11%.   New Jersey (11.8%), New York (11.7%), and Connecticut (11.1%).   Connecticut is #1 for per-capita state & local tax burden ($7,256).   #1 in property tax rates.   #3 in personal income tax rates.
> 
> That part of the country is going to tax themselves into the 3rd world.



No sales tax though!!


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## mondeo (Nov 10, 2011)

soposkier said:


> No sales tax though!!


Huh? The 8.5% tax in NY, or the 6.33% tax in CT?


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## soposkier (Nov 10, 2011)

i thought CT had no sales tax, I guess I am wrong though.

Edit:  After researching I was thinking of the no sales tax on clothing, which looks like was reapealed this past summer.


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## drjeff (Nov 10, 2011)

soposkier said:


> i thought CT had no sales tax, I guess I am wrong though.
> 
> Edit:  After researching I was thinking of the no sales tax on clothing, which looks like was reapealed this past summer.



The no sales tax on clothing was a once a year, 1 week only "back to school shopping" thing that CT did on any clothing or footwear item $250 and under.  It was usually in mid/late August


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## o3jeff (Nov 10, 2011)

drjeff said:


> The no sales tax on clothing was a once a year, 1 week only "back to school shopping" thing that CT did on any clothing or footwear item $250 and under.  It was usually in mid/late August



Wasn't there no sales tax on clothing $50 and under every day until recently?


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## o3jeff (Nov 17, 2011)

That was quick, the ceo of CL & P resigned already.


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## MommaBear (Nov 17, 2011)

o3jeff said:


> Wasn't there no sales tax on clothing $50 and under every day until recently?



Yes there was.  That was repealed 7/1/11, making all clothing purchases now taxable.  Much to the dismay of my goodwill type clothing store client.


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